Ongoing 2021 Spring

ALUMNI IMPACT

OFFERING HOLISTIC SUPPORT THE JOURNEY OF ALUMNI BOARD OF GOVERNORS PRESIDENT MIRIAM CONNOLLY, MSW ’04

“I

wanted something different for my life than what was prescribed for me,” says Miriam Connolly.

Connolly grew up in Flint with her mother and siblings. “Our family had a lot of love and very little money. When I turned 18, the expectation was that I’d apply for welfare benefits and maybe start working.”

But Connolly knew she wanted something different for her life. So she defied her mother’s wishes and enlisted in the Marine Corps. “It was my way to go to college, to change the narrative prescribed for me.”

She remembers that the Corps “was a huge change. I’d never been out of Michigan. Flint had been pretty segregated. I knew very few people from other cultures. In the Corps, I met people from all over the world. I was a field radio operator and learned about communication. But I also experienced a deep camaraderie and came to understand what it means to take care of one another on a team.”

Connolly soon married a fellow Marine.

The Corps would not station the couple together (they also wanted children) so Connolly spent most of her eight years in the Marines in the reserves.

ONGOING · Spring 2021 · 15