Terry Smith was a Mercer athlete playing soccer for the Vikings. In 1975, he quit the team and took up the habit of drinking. Smith, who is now a Mercer alumni and Peer Recovery Support Specialist, dropped out of Mercer in the 70s as his addiction to alcohol progressed.
Smith says, “At first, I blamed the coach, but in reality it was me. I had a bad attitude coming here and had some anger issues.”
After Smith left the team, he said he felt lost without the structure soccer provided. He says, “I was always used to playing soccer all the time. I didn’t have that anymore so I started getting a little bit more into alcohol abuse.”
After he left Mercer, Smith tried to maintain jobs but says his addiction continued to progress and by the time he reached his 30s things were at their worst.
Smith says, “I was basically homeless and in and out of incarceration institutions, crisis centers, detox facilities, rehabs, places like that.”
He says, “I tried to stop. I just didn’t understand why I couldn’t. When I was here, I’d walk down the halls and I’d be like, I knew I had a problem, but…it was always tomorrow. I’ll quit tomorrow, but tomorrow never came, you know. Twenty years I spent with alcoholism and drug addictions.”
While Smith was struggling to beat his addiction, he met his wife and together they raised their son. Realizing his alcohol and drug dependence was affecting his health and taking time away from his family, Smith tried rehab again.
Smith says, “I knew that I had to. This was no longer a choice. Basically, I was dying. I went to a detox facility at a hospital in Camden then went to rehab in Williamstown, NJ.”
Smith continues, “My son was 14 and he was going to be a freshman in Hammond High West. I didn’t think it was fair that he wouldn’t have a father. I thought he should deserve to have somebody better than I was. So I got sober, basically for him.”
Finally, after years of treatment and support from his family, Smith was able to stay sober. Smith says, “I got sober when I was 38 years old. September 8th, 1994 was the last drink I had.”
His next step was to get a job so he decided to work for a trucking company. Smith says, “I started local stuff with truck driving, and I knew if I did that I wouldn’t drink.”
But 21 years later Smith was laid off.
He says, “Losing that job, I thought was probably the most devastating thing that could’ve happened to me.”
He continues, “[But it] was the best thing that happened because it opened the door and provided me an opportunity to come back to college.”
During the spring of 2016, Smith went back to Mercer to complete his criminal justice studies. Smith says he had to adapt to the technological evolution of the classroom, especially when he enrolled in Computer Concepts & Applications.
Smith says that his classmates were very supportive and made the transition a little easier. He says, “[the] amazing thing was not only did they help, [but] they didn’t make me feel ashamed. They didn’t laugh at me and make fun of my situation. They accepted me and they helped me. I’ll never forget that.”
Smith also enrolled himself in Sociology of Drug Use and Behavior, taught by Michael Prohaska, Professor of Sociology. Professor Prohaska and Smith got to know each other during the class and realized they had very similar pasts, as they were both 70s teens who went through very similar experiences.
Professor Prohaska says he noticed Smith’s interest in learning and that things seemed to click. Prohaska continues, “He told me flat out that this kind of filled in some gaps for him, you know, talking about what addiction is and what causes addiction.”
Prohaska says that when students need help, “They’re not going to accept that what they’re being told is worth anything because they don’t care. They don’t care about somebody’s PhD or they don’t care if somebody has a license. Terry was the same way and understands that.”
As Smith continued coming to Mercer, more students started to talk to him about their lives and struggles. Smith says, “When I was here almost 50 years before, there was nobody to talk about [challenges] for me either. So I wanted to be the guy that I needed when I was like that.”
Nichol Killian, Assistant to the Dean of Health Sciences, was Smith’s Success Coach in 2016 and says she saw Smith mentoring other students. Killian says, “We really thought it would be great to build this out more. He was doing a little bit of peer support, but we thought it would be wonderful to have this be more institutionalized.”
Smith and Killian formed the outreach table and One Day At a Time (O.D.A.T.), a recovery/support group for anyone struggling with addiction. A year later, New Jersey was pushing for better access to support systems and groups.
Killian says, “We already had this great idea and it’s been very successful ever since.”
After Smith graduated, he was officially granted the title “Peer Recovery Support Specialist.” Now, he is running the outreach table and O.D.A.T. in both the West Windsor and James Kerney Campuses. He continues to talk to students and give them advice.
One student that Smith has impacted is Gabrielle Zsenak, a first-year Business Entrepreneurship major. Zsenak says, “If I’m struggling, he is really encouraging. He motivates me to graduate Mercer.”
Sophia Gomes, a first-year Nursing major finds comfort from Smith’s support. She says, “He introduced me to a lot of people and definitely made this space more like a safe space.”
Smith has been sober for almost 30 years and working at Mercer for 8 years. He says, “Being around students is tremendous for my recovery, for my sobriety, because if I help a student, seeing them succeed makes me feel as if I can contribute to something in some way. That gives me a reason to believe maybe I didn’t waste my life.”
