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Each year, University of Detroit Mercy’s Marketing & Communications department profiles members of the graduating class. Students chosen were nominated by staff and faculty for their contributions to the life of the University. Visit our Commencement webpage for more information about 2026 commencement exercises.  

Like most college students, Finley Booth has tried to make the most of her undergraduate experience. She has gotten involved in student organizations, played intramural sports and gained a close group of friends through her academic program. 

But Booth isn’t like most students — she travels two hours and crosses an international border each day to attend classes at two universities. 

She's part of the Visual Arts and Built Environment (VABE) program, a dual degree collaboration between University of Detroit Mercy’s School of Architecture & Community Development and University of Windsor. 

Through VABE, Booth will graduate with a Bachelor of Architecture from Detroit Mercy while also earning a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts from Windsor. Students in the program can also earn their Master of Architecture from º£½Ç´óÉñ, which she will complete next year. 

“The other students and I in the VABE program — kind of feel like nomads,” said Booth, who is Canadian. “We’re not super tied to one campus, and we’re not super tied to the other — we just kind of float between them. I like to stay involved with things on both campuses.” 

The culmination of Booth’s collegiate journey is far different from its beginnings. 

She started out as an engineering student at another Canadian university but soon realized it wasn’t for her. 

“I really wanted some design in my life,” she said. “I didn’t want to just be crunching numbers every day.” 

Booth knew of the VABE program through a family friend and decided to give it a shot. Making the transition from engineering to architecture was “intense,” she said. 

“It was definitely very jarring at first,” she said. “In engineering, it’s very cutthroat, like a ‘if you’re not first, you’re last’ kind of mentality. Nobody was really close in the program I was in. It was really just studying – there wasn’t any time for extra curriculars or anything like that.” 

Instead, it’s been a completely different experience for Booth at º£½Ç´óÉñ and Windsor. She found a tight-knit community through her cohort of about 15 students, who all take the same classes together at both institutions. 

“I feel like we’ve become a little family,” Booth said. “We all look out for each other. The people in my program, I feel like they’re some of my closest friends I’ve ever made. We’re always together and we have this unique challenge that we have to figure out together.” 

Being involved is something Booth has been intentional about, given that she balances two campus communities in different countries. She has been part of º£½Ç´óÉñ’s chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) organization, becoming vice president after starting out as marketing and events coordinator. She will serve as editor of Dichotomy, SACD’s student-run academic journal, next year. 

At Windsor, she played intramural sports and was involved with the Creative Arts Student Society. 

“Finley has not moved through our School in a passive and anonymous way,” said SACD Dean Dan Pitera. “She has always been thoughtful, deliberate and passionate about everything she has pursued.” 

The ability to be creative and seeing ideas become reality made architecture an appealing option for Booth.  

“It’s cool to see your designs turn into something in real life and something that people experience every day,” Booth said. “Even though they’re not really thinking about it, it’s unconsciously impacting them, their experience within a space. We’re inside 90% of the day. I think it's really cool getting to impact people in a way they don’t really understand.” 

Last year, Booth spent her summer overseas through º£½Ç´óÉñ’s Volterra, Italy, study abroad program. Traveling and seeing historical architecture was an opportunity she relished, one that inspired her master’s thesis topic. She plans to study airports and how they can better support the communities they are in. 

“I love that whole traveling experience of getting to the airport and waiting,” she said. “That made me really interested in airports specifically and how easy it is to move around over there compared to here.” 

Booth didn’t know much about º£½Ç´óÉñ before she started the VABE program but has enjoyed being part of a warm campus community. 

“It was really interesting to go back between the two campuses, but we were always made to feel welcome here,” she said. “We were never excluded.” 

She felt that love and support two years ago when her mother, Denice, passed away. 

“There’s a very strong network of people who will help you out when you struggle,” she said. 

Booth is happy to have followed in her mother’s footsteps, as she was also in the visual arts program at Windsor. She also worked at the university, which led to mother-daughter bonding opportunities when Booth was in Canada. 

“I hope I made her proud by getting through the degree,” Booth said. “I think she knew how unhappy I was in engineering, and I think she was a little bit worried about me finding my path after that. 

“I hope she knows I’m a lot happier now and that I made it through and I’m going to be doing something I like.”