In the early 1990s, Devin Scott was a 15-year-old father with an unclear future. In 2023, he returned to his alma mater as the Human Resources Manager for Employee and Labor Relations at Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan.
Scott graduated from Ferris in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in applied speech communication. Scott was one of the student leaders in the movement to establish what is now known as the Office of Multicultural Student Services. On Nov. 15, OMSS invited him back to tell his Bulldog story.
He had a friend who went to Ferris and suggested that the two of them room together. Scott believed that this friend of his was placed in his life so that he would end up going to school here.
“God places people in your life, which has been happening to me all my life,” Scott said. “And if you look back, you will see that there were people who you met in your life that gave you your life.”
During his presentation, Scott described that he felt “on top of the world” when he was a student at Ferris. During his freshman year, he felt that school was an escape for him. Along with this, he felt his friend’s determination rubbed off on him and got him to work harder.
He usually felt “intimidated in the classroom,” but there was one class that he felt changed his life because it helped him understand himself and what he was good at. Throughout his college years, Scott was involved in OMSS, he was the president of Entertainment Unlimited and he often practiced advocacy. According to Scott, these extracurriculars helped “kids like him stay in school.”
“There were a lot of white fraternities and sororities that were going to boycott Earth Day and I had to come up with a solution to bring us all together,” Scott said.
According to Scott, former Director of Student Leadership Activities Michelle Burke played a large part in his growth. When he was a student, she opened her home and cooked meals for him. He believes she taught helped him “be able to do things for others.”
Michelle Burke, former director of Student Leadership Activities opened her home and cooked meals for students such as Devin. She taught him to do things for others and to be a light for others. She was so important to Devin and his college journey that he made a point to search for her to make sure she was at this event.
Michelle Burke described what it was like for her when the sit-in happened.
“This was my first professional job after getting my master’s degree and [Scott] challenged me in a lot of ways,” Burke said.
Communications professor Dr. Sandy Alspach is a close friend of Scott.
“We have remained close for the last twenty years,” Alspach said.
According to the Ferris Event Calendar, Scott’s story is known to be a “classic Ferris story of ‘opportunity and industry’.” Along with this, he was eager to share his story with the campus.
Culture editor Giuliana Denicolo contributed to the reporting of this article.