Justin Arnold

PROFILE: Justin Arnold is the textbook example of a “non-traditional” student. While attending college, he has held down full-time jobs in the manufacturing and publishing/media fields, is married, and has four small children. Justin is an assembly manager at a company that builds water meters; he owns his own multi-media enterprise and self-published six books that he authored as well as music CDs and a comic book. Justin is also an ordained minister who for most of the past decade worked at his church in downtown Grand Haven mentoring youth, counseling families in need, and helping wherever and whenever there was a need. Justin doesn’t have a lot free time, but on the rare occasion that he does, you’ll find him spending time with his wife and children, or back at the college where he is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management.

INSPIRATION: Justin admits he has been lucky at Muskegon Communtiy College where many of his teachers have made a positive impact on him. “My teachers have shown me that it is important to be passionate and knowledgable about my area of study while caring about the people around me. They have shown me how to value the opinions of others. They have encouraged me to keep working hard for my dreams while pushing me to continue to grow as a person.”

ASPIRATION: After serving his church for several years, Justin came to the realization that “passion alone would only get me so far as a community leader.” He resigned from the church in order to attend college so that he could position himself for a career in management. Justin also desires to teach organizational development and motivate at-risk youth and young adults to become responsible citizens. 

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Justin started his own multi-media business with nothing but an idea and the ability to work hard, and he turned his dream into a reality. “After massive amounts of research, I had a company name and mission, a trademark, several books that I wrote with covers that I designed, a comic book I created, a website I designed, e-commerce capabilities that I developed, brochures and business cards that I printed, relationships with several suppliers, and an ad placed in a national magazine.” Then a nonprofit bought 100 copies of his comic book to distribute to at-risk kids and “I felt like I had really accomplished something great.”

ACCOLADES: Justin was named to the 2010 All-Michigan Community College Academic Team and earned nomination as a Leadership Fellow to the Hauenstein Center’s Peter Cook Leadership Academy.

INTERESTING FACT: Justin isn’t just one in a million, he’s more like one in 15 million. Those are the odds of being an identical quadruplet, which Justin is.