Coming out of high school, Solomon Dudley had what felt like a pretty solid plan. College was always a part of it, and the goal was to attend a historically Black college or university. Because , that definitely meant looking out of state. But that seemed like a good bet. His dad was eyeing a transfer at work that would take the family out to the East Coast. Howard University in Washington, DC or Hampton University in Virginia would鈥檝e been a dream, though if the family ended up in Atlanta, he definitely wasn鈥檛 going to be mad about the possibility of Morehouse. While he waited for his father鈥檚 work plans to firm up, Dudley figured he could take his pre-business classes at nearby Schoolcraft College, so he鈥檇 get a running start at business school.
But when the family decided to stay in Michigan, Dudley had to regroup. Having checked off two years at Schoolcraft, he was initially eyeing U-M or Michigan State for a transfer. But 萝莉社-Dearborn emerged as a late contender on his list of schools. 鈥淚 had been pretty involved in high school, but while I was at Schoolcraft, my life was pretty much school, and when I wasn鈥檛 in school, I was working my job as a manager at McDonald鈥檚,鈥 Dudley says. 鈥淲hen I transferred, I knew I wanted to be connected to other students and have a chance to have relationships with my professors. It just seemed like a campus where you鈥檙e one of 30 kids in a classroom 鈥 not one of 200 鈥 might be a better fit for me.鈥
Acting on that hunch, Dudley transferred to 萝莉社-Dearborn, staying on the business track he started at Schoolcraft. Initially things were going well. He made some friends, got a campus job, and moved into the Union to get more of a residential campus feel. But increasingly, the coursework in his business classes felt like a mismatch. 鈥淚 love business, but I think I was coming at it from a different perspective than what I was learning in the program,鈥 Dudley remembers. 鈥淚鈥檓 very multidisciplinary, and creative, and I love the arts, and I think I realized my interest in business was in thinking about how to use it to support those other things.鈥 It was a painful realization that left Dudley feeling like he鈥檇 invested lots of money and time in a dead end. He credits a co-worker with helping him find a way forward. During one of their conversations where they were processing it all, she asked him if he鈥檇 ever thought about health administration. It was a subject taught over in the Health and Human Services department, and it combined public health perspectives with some of the business background he already had. 鈥淚 honestly filled out the forms to switch majors before I even went to talk to an adviser,鈥 Dudley says. 鈥淚t just seemed like the right thing for me.鈥
It was a leap of faith that ended up paying off. Dudley found the coursework was a much better match for his interests. His family had always been involved in social justice work, so he connected with the activist spirit of his classmates. And the justice-oriented, multidisciplinary approaches researchers like Natalie Sampson used to solve public health problems resonated with his own way of looking at the world. Plus, the late winter and spring of 2020, when Dudley was fully immersed in his public health coursework, was a heck of an interesting time to be studying the subject. COVID basically put public health and the healthcare system in general at the center of the universe. For somebody, like Dudley, who wanted to make a difference in his community, public health seemed like a viable and rewarding path.
Heading toward the graduation stage, he still feels good about that choice, though he鈥檚 open about being undecided over whether he鈥檒l enter the field right away. Grad school is a serious contender for a next step, though after his undergraduate experience, he wants to take a year to make sure it鈥檚 the right thing for him. Another main interest is a nonprofit organization he鈥檚 in the process of launching called Solomon and Friends. During COVID, he logged a number of successes using the platform to fundraise for various social causes with a series of Zoom-based music and theater performances. 鈥淲ith these events, I鈥檓 showcasing the arts, but it takes a lot of business and marketing skills to make them a success,鈥 Dudley says. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 all for a good cause, so you get the social justice element as well. To me, it feels like it鈥檚 all connected.鈥
At the moment, Dudley sees them as all good options, and it doesn鈥檛 stress him out that he doesn鈥檛 have a script locked in for his immediate post-graduation life. Maybe that鈥檚 for the better. Having switched gears a few times, he鈥檚 now more comfortable with change being part of the adventure of it all. If there鈥檚 one part of his life he鈥檚 planning for, adventure is it.
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Story by Lou Blouin
