“Usually that means I have to work harder.”

Crook said he finds it difficult to connect with people when graduate students normally meet in places like bars.

“I really don’t know how to function well in an environment where the only place students tend to socialize is in a bar,” Crook said. “What kind of doors does that close? I am hoping this organization will raise the profile of people who also want to be social on another level.”

Crook said the CRP saves students from being persecuted for having a substance abuse problem. With the CRP, he hopes it'll be less taboo to talk about recovery and addiction.

“We aren’t talking about AA here. We are talking about human capital. I agree with this idea of reducing the stigma,” Crook said. “It’s something that is perceived as a weakness, but it’s not. It’s a disease.”

Crook said he sympathizes for students who are just entering school and are new at recovery.

“There’s a lot of pressure in the U of M environment to drink, and young people who are just beginning to think for themselves are not prepared to go against the grain here.”

The program, he said, has helped him give back to those who need community support as they recover from addiction. Crook believes that through his participation in the CRP, he can help other students stay sober. And he feels the CRP community is paramount to his recovery.

“I wouldn’t leave my community to go to school somewhere else,” Crook said. “That’s just how important recovery is.”

Amber Smith, a fourth-year graduate student pursuing her Ph.D. in biochemistry and CRP member, has been sober for 10 months.

“What was really important to my recovery was finding people who were in the same situation as I am,” Smith said. “On my own, I wasn’t able to find people who were like me, so being a part of this program allowed me to meet students that were in recovery too.”

Smith learned about the CRP through her weekly AA meetings and found the University to be more than helpful with accommodating her situation, especially after a struggle with addiction that included hospitalization and a DUI.

“Michigan is amazing when it comes to things like this,” Smith said. “They were so helpful and understanding about the whole situation, and it just made it so much easier. I was so happy that the start of my recovery happened here."

Smith added that she now can’t imagine a life without sobriety.

“It’s powerful to think that I have such a better life now, without drugs and alcohol than what I did,” she said.

Smith said she never had reservations about seeking help while attending the University and wants to make her peers aware that students are actually dealing with addiction on a daily basis.

“I feel like there is such a stigma put on recovery, and if me talking about my experience helps someone else, then it’s worth it for me,” Smith said.

She mentioned that because of the college atmosphere, some people make excuses for alcohol and drug abuse.

“It’s so easy to hide substance abuse issues in college,” Smith said. “Being young, it’s in your face everywhere, and if more people realize how many people have substance abuse issues, drinking won’t be such a big deal or won’t be offered at everything.”

Rebirth and the new CRP

With the help of Dr. Kitty Harris at Texas Tech, the home of a 25-year-old Collegiate Recovery Program, Desprez and Cervi were able to form a program that could meet the needs of the University’s diverse student population.

Harris has headed the center for 10 years of its 25-year existence. The program she runs has a 94-percent success rate, which means the students have remained sober. Eighty students are currently participating in the recovery program.

According to Harris, the program at Texas Tech has four important facets to recovery: health, community support, academic aid and civility.

The federal dissemination grant awarded to her program in Jan.