When Stan Shingles made his journey to Central Michigan University in 1989, he never imagined he would be a prominent figure on campus more than 25 years later.

Shingles, assistant vice president of Recreation Events and Conferences, organizes and manages conferences and events involving university recreation services. In April he will be named president of the Association for Leaders in College Recreation.

Shingles grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood in Chicago with his parents and two older brothers.

His mother, a schoolteacher, and his father, a factory worker, instilled the belief in Shingles that he could accomplish whatever he wanted to. They ran a structured household, where Shingles and his siblings were expected to be in the house by the time the streetlights turned on.

“When you have three boys growing up in the city, there are a lot of challenges,” Shingles said. “There were street gangs just like there are today, and you can get into a lot of stuff. Many people I grew up with are incarcerated or dead.”

Distractions were plentiful for Shingles and his siblings, but so were two local youth centers. He used these outlets to stay focused as a student, and grow as a person.

“There were lots of afterschool activities, youth leagues and summer camps,” Shingles said. “The experiences I had in those centers developed my interest in terms of going into sports and recreation, because there was always something to do to keep us out of trouble.”

The youth centers also taught Shingles lessons that he finds valuable even today.

“One of the things that you learn there is discipline,” Shingles said. “It was highly structured. It was a privilege to be there and not a right. That privilege was taken away if you didn’t conduct yourself in the right way.”

He followed his interest by attending Illinois State University, where he majored in recreation. Shingles entered college years after the Civil Rights movement, and describes race relations as less hostile than years past. Still, he had to make an adjustment being an African American kid from an urban city, while attending college in a rural town that was not racially diverse.

“Chicago was one of the most segregated cities in America. It still is to this day,” Shingles said. “A lot of my classmates at ISU were coming from small rural farming communities and we didn’t culturally understand each other.”

After graduation he for a social service agency in hopes of making a difference in the lives of children.

“Most of these kids were one step away from going to the Department of Corrections,” Shingles said. “I was able to use sports and recreation as a way to give something to people who felt like they had nothing to lose.”

Shingles was able to use the same principle of discipline that he learned in his Chicago youth center to teach others.

“I was able to tell them that if they couldn’t take care of school, or if they are disrupting the group home, they wouldn’t be able to participate in their sport or event,” Shingles said. “I had to help to create an environment where they earned privileges.”

Flint senior Allen Seales has had many experiences with Shingles, including working with him in the SAC as an intern.

“Mr. Shingles has been a valuable resource both academically and professionally. He has given me a lot of advice that could help me if I was ever stuck in a situation,” Seales said.

Lansing senior Vincent Parker is one of many students that have been impacted by Shingles’ work at CMU.

“Mr. Shingles has helped me grow and mature a lot just by sharing wisdom and experiences,” Parker said. “Now I’m in charge of a mentoring program and he’s one of our mentors. All of his mentees really look up to him.”

After finishing graduate school at ISU, Shingles was recruited to work as the Assistant Director for Intramural Sports at CMU. This was around the same time the Student Activity Center was built.

Shingles had his hand in many different endeavors at CMU. He worked as a play-by-play broadcaster for CMU sports from 1993-2009. Now, he enjoys a much bigger responsibility in the recreation department.

Shingles said he has seen the city of Mount Pleasant and the university go through many changes, especially regarding diversity.

“When I came here we had a handful of African American staff members, and nobody stayed because it wasn’t an environment that supported you staying,” Shingles said. “I’ve always been different. I said that I wasn’t going to be like the other people and leave.”

Shingles describes Mount Pleasant when he arrived as a closed society. Something as simple as trying to diversify television channels was a task decades ago.

“One of the biggest things in entertainment for African-American people then was BET (Black Entertainment Television). We wanted it added to the local cable stations,” Shingles said. “We went and spoke with the general manager of the cable company, and he told us that there was no market for (BET).”

With the help of Shingles, CMU students were able to gather 1,500 signatures from students requesting the station be added. After the local cable company still refused to cooperate, the CMU on-campus cable network added BET to the channels it offers.

A man who places purpose over task, Shingles prides himself by living in accordance to the golden rule: Treat people how you would want to be treated.

“We’re all the product of the subtotal of our experiences,” Shingles said. “Our total body of work is going to be judged one day. I hope mine is judged on what I try to do to make lives better.”