April 27, 2005
Frusti scholastic success story
From homeless teen, high school dropout to All-USA Academic First Team selection
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
The embodiment of determination and strength, Nicholeen Frusti has come a long way.
From homeless teen, high school dropout, drug addict and single mother, Frusti made the All-USA Community and Junior College Academic First Team this month.
Recognized as one of 20 outstanding students nationwide, with her picture running in USA Today, Frusti also serves as president of Northwestern Michigan College's Student Government Association. In addition, under her leadership for the past three years, the local chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society was recognized this month as one of the top 20 chapters nationwide. The Alpha Rho Pi chapter also received third place in the Service Hallmark Award, competing against 500 chapters nationwide.
If that's not enough to take you breath away, Frusti is also a wife, mother of three daughters and business partner with her husband of eight years, Ryan. Plus she works part time at NMC's White Pine Press.
"I'm 30 and I look at the last five years and say, 'Oh, my gosh, did I just do all that,'" said Frusti, who will graduate this May from NMC after eight years pursuing her degree part time.
"The most important thing is that none of this would have been possible without the teams of people who were there with me: my family and friends, people at the White Pine Press and in the Alpha Rho," she noted. "Everyone lent their support to my dreams."
A California native, Frusti grew up in a highly abusive and dysfunctional home. She dropped out of school at 15, and later lived on the streets for a year and a half. During that stint, she returned to school and completed an independent study to graduate by 17 - two and a half years compressed into six months.
"School is your only piece of sanity, they're your family and friends, your home where you continue to feel safe," she said of her homeless period. "That's where you feel safe so that's why you continue to stay in school, it's not for the grades or anything else."
Waittressing supported Frusti and an infant daughter after completing high school. She also had a methamphetamine habit, what she terms now a heavy addiction. At her core, she still dreamed of going to college, having a normal life. But she never believed she was capable.
In the mid 1990s, Frusti met her husband, a Traverse City native in Lake Tahoe to snowboard, and things began to come together in her life.
"We were just friends and I remember I cooked him an omelet and I fell in love with him because he told me about his life," she recalled. "He came from a Christian family and went to a Christian school and had really strong beliefs, values and morals. And he was cute, too."
They started dating, married eight months later and moved to Traverse City. Now, after eight years of marriage, she terms them best friends and each other's number one fan. Together, they run the Builder's Alliance, a residential building company.
Determined to move beyond waittressing, she knew her only way out was an education. She enrolled at NMC despite her terrors that she could not do it. In typical Frusti fashion, she tackled her hardest subject first, in part setting herself up to fail. At the end of the semester, she had a 3.5 in algebra and a 4.0 in a management class.
"I did make a promise to myself that I would always go to class and always do my homework," said Frusti, admitting that her intermittent education meant she never learned her times tables.
While taking a few classes a semester, with two "absolutely nuts" semesters of a full-time course load, Frusti also immersed herself in the local Phi Beta Kappa chapter and student government.
"It's been the greatest adventure of my life," she said of her NMC years. "I just didn't go to school, I got involved, I got active. I got involved in my community and it opened more doors than anything."
With a goal of a business or political career, Frusti will attend Davenport College next fall and study toward a bachelor's degree in management with an emphasis in finance and human resources. With an attitude of "the sky's the limit" replacing her former conversation of self-doubt, Frusti is thrilled at her accomplishments, the recent recognition (including $4,500 in scholarships) and the chance to be a role model for her three daughters.
"My oldest one understands the most, she cried and they all took USA Today to school with them," Frusti said. "The rest of the girls are proud and happy."
"I feel like a little kid in a candy store, I look through the Davenport catalogue and it's like, 'Pick a major?'" Frusti noted about her college education. "A whole new world has opened up for me."