A trip to Detroit when he was ten sparked Courtney McGarity’s interest in architecture. “I saw buildings I’d never seen before and had an eye-opening, lightbulb kind of moment. That’s when I decided to do architecture,” Courtney said.
A decade or so later he still has the spark as a senior in LTU’s undergraduate architecture program. But while his interests always leaned toward art and design, he was also drawn to the military. After mulling over an invitation to join the Army National Guard of Michigan, he decided to enlist a couple of years ago.
“The discipline gave me a strong framework to build on,” said Courtney. And for someone who hadn’t ventured far from home, traveling to places he’d never been “was a really big opportunity to build character, which is something I saw value in.”
He also figured out the value of basic training, learning “what you’re really capable of, how far you can go, and how much stress you handle,” while meeting recruits from around the world. The experience gave him a “more worldwide vision as opposed to the suburban vision I had growing up in Clinton Township.”
Courtney wasn’t expecting to join the military – he originally attended LTU on a football scholarship. After returning from boot camp though, he figured he’d do both. But then he got an internship that turned into a year-round position and it was hard to balance all three activities on top of his academics. Plus – he’d always been a “post-college mindset-oriented” kind of guy, who placed a high priority on his financial future.
So even though he enjoyed football, he chose the year-round job and the military, leaving the gridiron behind.
“That was the better move,” he said. “Not only was I in a position to build a money stockpile for when I graduate, I was also getting experience in the professional work environment while I was still going to school.”
The internship evolved into his current position as a design manager at Walbridge, a general contracting firm in Detroit. He loves it. “They’ve treated me like an actual asset to the team,” said Courtney, who works 30 hours a week while attending LTU as a full-time student.
He credits LTU’s theory and practice education for his workforce-readiness along with the University’s curriculum, and classes where he thrives on personalized attention from professors. He’s also the beneficiary of “good, strong role models” in his parents, public school teachers and coaches, including staff from LTU’s football team – particularly his-then coach Avante Mitchell and defensive coordinator Terrance Wilson. “They were huge in being not just good coaches, but good people, good leaders and good role models.”
Courtney will graduate with a degree in architecture in the spring. After that, he will continue his education as a grad student in LTU’s Master of Architecture program. And he has big plans for the future.
“I’d like to own my own small-scale firm where I can combine real estate development with elements of new construction and design buildings that I own. But that’s a far-off goal,” he said.
For the time being, he’s “really open-minded in seeing what comes my way.” But that will likely include pursuing his passion for architecture at Walbridge that a trip to Detroit inspired long ago.
Author: Pam Houghton
