Michigan Reconnect Helps Valley Student Turn Career Setback Into Opportunity

Whitchurch (left) poses at Valley’s Dec. 2025
commencement program.

After two earlier attempts at college, Kalamazoo Valley Community College graduate Conor Whitchurch has finally found the right path and financial support to pursue not one but two degrees.

Whitchurch enrolled at Kalamazoo Valley in the summer of 2022 after earlier attempts didn’t stick. Whitchurch had hit a career wall. Years of self-taught skills and repeated promotions had left him in positions he couldn’t replicate elsewhere without a degree.

Encouraged by a connection to Kalamazoo Valley’s Sustainable Brewing Program, Whitchurch enrolled and soon learned about Michigan Reconnect, a state program providing tuition support for adults returning to college.

Whitchurch recently graduated with two associate degrees in business administration and sustainable horticulture. He also works as a flex tech at the college’s ValleyHub and as an applied research technician at the Food Innovation Center, which is also run by Valley. Michigan Reconnect has been essential to his success.

“I absolutely could not have afforded the time to complete one degree, much less two,” said Whitchurch. “Every bit of what I’ve accomplished here would have been impossible without it.”