Meet English social media student assistant Lyric Petty

Hi, my name is Lyric Petty.  I am currently a first-year student at Wayne State University, in the Mike Ilitch School of Business. I am pursuing my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing Management along with a minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. I currently work in the English Department as a student social media assistant. I am also the Co-Founder of an entrepreneurship-based group called “The Creators Collective” to help and support aspiring college entrepreneurs.
 
I love Wayne State because of the drive and passion all the students have. It was an easy transition from high school for me because I have been independent since I was a child. I was born and raised in Detroit, and my parents Leon and Veronica Petty ialways taught me to shoot for the biggest stars because I am such a creative person, and that has been my motivation since. I chose Wayne State because of the number of benefits it has for me as an alumnus of Detroit Public Schools.  I learned about these benefits when Wayne State admissions counselor, John Young, visited my high school Cass Tech during my senior year. The benefits that appealed to me included the 3+3 LawStart program and the Detroit Promise (a full tuition scholarship for Detroit Public Schools students). 
 
Most of all, I was excited about the amazing opportunities Mike Ilitch School of Business had to offer. I found out about the business school while working for Ilitch Charities in my junior year at Cass Technical High school. During this internship, I planned numerous fundraising events such as golfing events at Oakland Hills and Celebrity Galas at the Fox Theater. Many of my supervisors recommended the Ilitch School of Business after seeing the amount of passion I had for business and philanthropy. To get a better feel of the school I did Dual Enrollment in high school, twice a week I would go to Mike Ilitch School of Business to take classes and study. I truly enjoyed the material I was being taught and the professor's strong passion for business as well. 
 
In the future I would like to attend Wayne State’s Law School to eventually become an IP attorney in order to help small businesses establish their companies and protect their ideas. Being able to help a small business that may not be able to afford a more expensive IP attorney is my goal because of the entrepreneurship drive that I have personally. This became my passion while interning at the U.S Patent and Trademark Office, during my senior year at Cass Tech. I learned about how so many people have such great ideas and missions but need the help of a lawyer to protect those ideas. Before working at the Patent and Trademark office, I had developed a passion for everything about criminal justice and wanted to do prison reform in urban areas of Detroit. This desire came from seeing many people I know, and love going to jail because of stereotypes or unfair circumstances. Therefore, this was a huge deal to me, and I do plan to still pursue working in prison reform through a nonprofit organization later into my career as an attorney.