Tyrone Pettygrue smiling for a picture with his “WCC wolfpack” shirt on with the ocean view in the background. Courtesy of Pettygrue.
by R.J. HUNT
Editor
The purpose of “Where are they now” is to find WCC alumni to learn about their time at the school and how WCC helped them navigate their career paths.
Tyrone Pettygrue was not supposed to end up at WCC. Pettygrue spent 12 years of his life playing football. While playing for his high school, the Belleville Tigers, Pettygrue received a scholarship to Concordia University. After playing for Concordia for a season, he realized the school was not a good fit for him. Even though he had a scholarship, the school still cost more than what his budget would allow.
Pettygrue was searching for a new direction to go in. He ended up contacting an advisor from WCC and she helped him navigate a plan that would help him transfer to the University of Michigan. After talking to the advisor, Pettygrue knew WCC was for him, so he enrolled at WCC. With WCC not having a football team and Pettygrue not wanting to play the game anymore, his football career came to an end.
Pettygrue came to WCC looking to get his associates degree as a Liberal Arts Transfer, so he could go on to study history. He has very fond memories of learning history at WCC, especially his American history class. He enjoyed this class so much because of the interesting class discussions and having a great professor in John Gibson, who Pettygrue described as” laid-back.”
Not only did Pettygrue receive a good vibe from his professor, but he felt that vibe all over WCC. Pettygrue loved the diversity of the people around campus. “Washtenaw has a lot of different backgrounds, which I liked,” said Pettygrue. “You have a lot of non-traditional students because you have some coming back to school and taking gap years. I felt like it was more (non-traditional) at WCC than other schools.” At WCC, Pettygrue enjoyed getting to know his peers and teachers compared to other schools where he might only know the professor’s name if anything.
After his first semester at WCC, Pettygrue wanted to become more involved with student activities around the school. He noticed different job openings related to student activities. He applied for the student life office, and got the position. His roles included hosting events and networking with other groups and clubs around the school. It even had its entertainment perks, such as going on trips to places like Cedar Point and Mackinac Island.
Pettygrue striking a pose in front of the Student Center. Courtesy of Pettygrue.
Pettygrue also held a position in conference services. He helped senior citizens and residents of Washtenaw County register for classes and hosted events for community enrichment. Pettygrue held this position while he was attending the University of Michigan. The conference services position was one of three jobs Pettygrue held at once.
While working in conference services for WCC, Pettygrue also worked at U of M’s history museum to help him gain experience in the history field. Pettygrue also had a fellowship through optiMize, a program through U of M that helps students network and build their entrepreneur skills. Pettygrue’s role with this program was to help transfer students get acclimated to their new university. He continued working for all three until the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to take a step back.
After graduating WCC with his Associates Degree, Pettygrue graduated from UofM with a Bachelor’s of Arts in History. This was a big milestone for Pettygrue because of how much he always liked history. “I was always one of those history kids with fun facts,” said Pettygrue. “History was always my favorite subject. Even in elementary school, I would come home and watch the History Channel.”
Pettygrue had a change of heart about what he wanted to do in life. While working at U of M’s history museum, he would sit in on meetings and he could just feel something was off. “I found that it wasn’t what it cracked out to be,” said Pettygrue. Pettygrue thought about going into the museum field, but realized he would need more school so decided against it.
Being a federal agent was even considered for Pettygrue’s future, but he then settled on something he always had a liking for, fashion. “I kind of knew I wanted to get into fashion and style after college,” said Pettygrue. “Then I started sticking with fashion because I’m interested in luxury fashion…I set my sights on fashion.”
Pettygrue with his Amazon shirt on, doing work on his laptop as he is currently a Product Manager for the company. Courtesy of Pettygrue.
Currently, Pettygrue works at Amazon. Since his time at Amazon began, Pettygrue has moved up the ranks from different positions. Recently, Pettygrue was promoted to product manager within Amazon’s fashion team. He handles daily support with vendor managers such as Hanes, Uggs, and Tommy Hilfiger. Due to the pandemic, Pettygrue is working from home, but in the near future he will be moving to California due to his Amazon office being located in L.A.
Pettygrue still has his love for history but that passion for fashion is strong too. He’s invested in how people style their clothes, specifically traditional men’s wear and suiting. “I geek out on the ways fashion has evolved historically.” Even though he’s not directly using his degree in history, Pettygrue is still finding ways to incorporate his love for history into his career today.
For his future, Pettygrue wants to see more leadership roles come his way, including becoming a senior product manager and having his own team. “Eventually, I wouldn’t mind leading a luxury brand or luxury department within Amazon,” said Pettygrue. “The next goal for me is landing on the luxury side of fashion.”
Pettygrue knows life can be challenging, but he offered words of encouragement to those in need. “For anyone out there, never doubt yourself,” said Pettygrue. “Coming out of high school I had a 2.3 GPA and a 17 ACT, but here I am now working for one of the biggest companies in the world. I never thought I’d be in this position five years ago. It takes hard work and you gotta keep grinding. Just keep pereserving because you’ll land where you wanna be.”
Pettygrue had the odds stacked against him. He didn’t have the amazing grades and test scores, he had to let his football scholarship go, and reconsider his career path a few times; but at the end of the day, Tyrone Pettygrue got it done. He made something of himself and WCC was a part of that journey.
