Nick Mercer

Talk to Nick Mercer for five minutes, and you will be convinced he is going to have a huge impact in his profession. And you will not be the only one to react that way. As one of his professors wrote, “In my 9 years at TU, Nick is the student that stands out from the crowd the most. I know that he will be a trailblazer in the human services field and make a positive difference in the lives he touches.”

However, when Nick first arrived at Towson University, a career in human services was the furthest thing from his mind. But while pursuing his studies as a computer science major, he had a major realization of a simple truth. “Deep down, I knew what I really wanted to do was to give back and help people,” he recalls.

Before he made the decision to switch majors, Mercer reviewed the coursework for the Department of Family Studies and Community Development. Right away, he saw that “the department really set you up for success. So I took a leap of faith and took the first round of intro classes. I knew quickly that this was the program for me.”

Mercer points to the number of departmental opportunities outside the classroom, including fieldwork and internships, which he believes provide an added advantage to his academic experience.

“Through these opportunities, you learn the skills you need to be successful when you graduate,” he notes. “The internships themselves are very flexible, so you can be very deliberate and strategic in what you do with them to support your professional goals.”

But what was his favorite aspect of the department? “Every professor I’ve had genuinely cares about their students,” he says. “They always go above and beyond.”