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Winter Semester 2016<br />
thecollegiatelive.com<br />
<strong>FACES</strong> <strong>OF</strong> <strong>GRCC</strong>
Your school. Your source. Your story.<br />
Vol. 4, No. 2 Winter Semester 2016<br />
Kayla Tucker<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
Zach Watkins<br />
Sports Editor<br />
Gary Manier<br />
A&E/Features<br />
Editor<br />
Chris Powers<br />
Web Editor<br />
Layout Editor<br />
John Rothwell<br />
Photo Editor<br />
Savannah Miles<br />
Advertising<br />
Manager<br />
Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood<br />
Collegiate Adviser<br />
On the cover<br />
Faces of <strong>GRCC</strong><br />
Photos by Collegiate Staff<br />
Layout by Kayla Tucker<br />
The Collegiate Magazine<br />
is a student publication<br />
of Grand Rapids<br />
Community College<br />
143 Bostwick Ave.<br />
Grand Rapids, MI 49503<br />
Room 339, Main<br />
collegiate@grcc.edu<br />
Phone: (616) 234-4157<br />
www.TheCollegiateLive.com<br />
Features<br />
01<br />
‘The Old Man in the Back<br />
07 34<br />
Row’<br />
Ensuring Hispanic Students<br />
12<br />
Have Representation<br />
48<br />
16 Hear me out...<br />
22<br />
Back in the Game<br />
The Resillient Underdog<br />
Beating the Odds<br />
Letter from the Editor<br />
28<br />
Community (College) Policing<br />
with <strong>GRCC</strong>’s Finest<br />
Sharpening Skills,<br />
Opening New Doors<br />
42 Freebird<br />
54<br />
55<br />
On the Rise<br />
MSU redshirt junior making a name<br />
for himself<br />
The Art of a Survivor<br />
Life beyond the chair<br />
Dear Readers,<br />
This semester’s magazine is something that we have never done before. Last year we, the staff<br />
at The Collegiate, discussed ways in which we could share the stories of everyday people on<br />
campus, the ones who don’t get in newspaper articles, the people who don’t always get noticed.<br />
We decided on following a theme based off of “Humans of New York,” a photo-heavy blog by a<br />
photographer named Brandon Stanton who walks the streets of NYC and interviews and photographs<br />
people he sees. Since 2010, Stanton has documented many stories and has reached<br />
beyond the city, interviewing migrants in Syria and New York prisoners, too.<br />
In this magazine, you’ll notice a similar approach. Our reporters fanned out across campus -<br />
and even a little off campus - and met a handful of interesting and relatable people.<br />
Some of the stories that struck me are those that speak about life-changing moments. Almost<br />
everyone has one, or will have one, at some point in their life - big or small - and it’s amazing<br />
to see how these people got to the point in their life they are at now. Tragedies, spontaneous<br />
decisions, time spent in the military or in border control detention, it’s incredible to see the<br />
faces of those you sit in class with or buy your food from at the Raider Grille, and know a little<br />
bit more than the superficial.<br />
I believe that if everyone took more time in the day to turn off the screen and engage in real<br />
conversations with those around them, the world would be a better place. Stereotypes could<br />
crumble and quick judgements would less likely be made. We are all people. We all struggle. We<br />
all laugh. We all want to be someone.<br />
We all made it to Grand Rapids Community College for some reason. And that matters.<br />
Everyone has a story and everyone deserves to be heard. I hope that by reading through this<br />
magazine you will see that, too.<br />
<strong>GRCC</strong>.Collegiate<br />
@<strong>GRCC</strong>_Collegiate<br />
<strong>GRCC</strong>Collegiate<br />
@thecollegiate<br />
Kayla Tucker<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
kaylatuckercollegiate@gmail.com
BACK IN<br />
THE GAME:<br />
How Deiona Rogers<br />
followed her passion<br />
back to the hardwood<br />
by Avery Jennings<br />
Growing up on the north<br />
side of Grand Rapids, Deiona<br />
Rogers, never learned to<br />
play basketball “like a girl.”<br />
“We lived in the projects, so there<br />
weren’t that many things to do,” said<br />
Rogers, sophomore point guard for<br />
Grand Rapids Community College.<br />
“And all the guys were always<br />
playing basketball, so I just went out<br />
there to see if I could do it … People<br />
tell me I play like a guy all the time.”<br />
Rogers said playing street basketball<br />
with the guys in her neighborhood<br />
helped her become a better<br />
player.<br />
“It’s easier to play against girls<br />
now that I’ve played with guys all<br />
my life,” Rogers said. “I’m tougher.”<br />
Rogers has loved the game of<br />
basketball ever since she was little,<br />
but because of her family situation<br />
growing up, it was not always easy<br />
to play.<br />
“We were really family oriented<br />
growing up,” Rogers said. “Until my<br />
John Rothwell | Photo Editor<br />
mom and dad split up … I mean, we<br />
still have pieces of our family, but<br />
we’re not as close anymore.”<br />
Deiona was caught in the middle<br />
of two important figures in her<br />
life, as her parents were giving her<br />
different messages of how to live<br />
her life.<br />
“When my mom and dad were<br />
together, I would listen to my dad<br />
more because he was a good father<br />
figure and has always been there<br />
for me. When they split up, I went<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 1
with my mom, so then I listened to<br />
her more, and my life changed a lot<br />
… My dad was very school oriented<br />
and my mom supported me more<br />
in basketball, so there was some<br />
tension sometimes.”<br />
Rogers made the most of her<br />
situation, as she would use her athletic<br />
abilities to put herself through<br />
college.<br />
“My parents don’t have the money<br />
to put me through college, and God<br />
gave me the gift of basketball, so<br />
I figured I should use that to go to<br />
school for free,” Rogers said.<br />
Originally Rogers was set to go<br />
to Wayne State University on a fullride<br />
scholarship, but the coach that<br />
recruited her was fired before their<br />
basketball season started.<br />
“I had to start over with a new<br />
coach,” Rogers said, noting that<br />
when it didn’t work out her transcripts<br />
were held by the college<br />
which delayed her ability to transfer<br />
and forced her to take time off<br />
school. “They’re actually trying to<br />
recruit me back to Wayne State, but<br />
I’m not (going back) because that<br />
messed up my life, just the way that<br />
everything played out.”<br />
And it didn’t help that there were<br />
other issues Rogers was facing outside<br />
of basketball.<br />
“My mom and dad were sick, so I<br />
was just worried about other things,<br />
not so much focused on basketball<br />
at the time.”<br />
Rogers proceeded to work after<br />
she was through with Wayne State,<br />
trying to figure where to go next.<br />
“That year after Wayne, I was<br />
working at a factory that worked<br />
with carbon fiber, so it was really<br />
bad for my skin,” Rogers said. “And<br />
there were so many people there<br />
that were so negative and bitter<br />
about life and I was like ‘I’ve got to<br />
get out of here.’ And then people<br />
there at the factory that knew me,<br />
that knew I played basketball, were<br />
like ‘Why don’t you play again? Why<br />
would you let it stop?’ And I thought<br />
to myself like ‘yeah ... you’re right.’<br />
Rogers and a friend at the factory,<br />
who also played basketball with<br />
Rogers at Union high school, decided<br />
they were going to try and play<br />
together at <strong>GRCC</strong>.<br />
“Me and Erica Harris planned<br />
to go to <strong>GRCC</strong> and play basketball<br />
together because we played in high<br />
school together,” Rogers said.<br />
Harris would eventually leave the<br />
team, but Rogers stayed and became<br />
a leader and key contributor to the<br />
success of <strong>GRCC</strong> women’s basketball<br />
team.<br />
Rogers finished the season leading<br />
the team with an average of 5.7<br />
assists per game, 3.5 steals per game<br />
and 8.4 rebounds per game.<br />
“Creating for other people to<br />
Rogers<br />
score comes easiest to me,” Rogers<br />
said. “A lot of the time teams are<br />
focused on stopping me from<br />
scoring which opens it up for other<br />
people to score. A couple of games<br />
(during) the season, when I got the<br />
National (Junior College Athletic<br />
Association Division II) player of<br />
the week (award) I was averaging<br />
9 assists [per game], so I’m sure it’s<br />
helped my team and helped me win<br />
that award.”<br />
Even with Rogers’ small demeanor,<br />
at 5 feet 2 inches, her quickness<br />
and quick thinking has helped her<br />
succeed this past season, especially<br />
in the rebounding area.<br />
Rogers said that “being shorter<br />
than other people” has been her<br />
biggest challenge as a basketball<br />
player because she has “to be more<br />
in shape than other people,” so she<br />
can out run them.<br />
“But being quicker and having a<br />
high basketball IQ has helped me<br />
stay out of foul trouble,” Rogers<br />
said. “Because a lot of fouls come<br />
from rebounding, and I’m pretty<br />
good at rebounding, even with my<br />
height, so I go after the ball rather<br />
than box (out) people because I’m<br />
quicker than them.”<br />
Last season, Rogers helped her<br />
team sustain a seven game winning<br />
streak and finish the season with a<br />
winning record of 18-11.<br />
“I liked playing basketball here<br />
(<strong>GRCC</strong>) because I met a lot of people<br />
playing on the basketball team,”<br />
Rogers said. “And even in class,<br />
people would see my duffel bag and<br />
ask me if I played a sport, so I made<br />
friends that way and my professors<br />
paid more attention to me because<br />
I was on the team. They would ask<br />
me about the games and come to<br />
the games, so that was cool.”<br />
2 | TheCollegiateLive.com
<strong>FACES</strong> <strong>OF</strong><br />
<strong>GRCC</strong><br />
Jenanna Greeno<br />
Age 26, Muskegon<br />
“I am going to school for physical therapy ...<br />
I already have a degree and I am a dental<br />
hygienist ... I am not happy with my career<br />
so I decided to come back and try something<br />
different.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Arielle Jackson<br />
Pamela Santana<br />
Age 19, Dominican Republic<br />
“I was born in Dominican Republic.<br />
I came here to Michigan two years<br />
ago because my mom met someone<br />
here and then they got married,<br />
so we ended up moving here. The<br />
change has been huge, from the language<br />
to basically everything. All my<br />
friends are there, you know I made<br />
friends here, but it's not the same.<br />
Reporting and photo<br />
by Jasiel Ochoa-Mendoza<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 3
Douglas Luke<br />
Age 54, Grand Rapids<br />
“The first two or three times she didn’t notice me. I started making<br />
some eye contact, we talked a little bit, got to know each other. One<br />
day I ran down to the station with the dog - he usually sits and stays<br />
outside. I was talking with one of her co-workers, when I noticed she<br />
was outside with my dog. I walked out and she promptly started firing<br />
questions at me. Who are you, what do you believe, what don’t you<br />
believe ... I believe in Jesus Christ. (I) thought, that’s okay, I’m just going<br />
to talk about Christianity.<br />
“She gave me her number, but I wasn’t getting a call or text back.<br />
(I) was thinking now that’s really strange. She gave me her number,<br />
I didn’t ask for it. That was when I realized I had been calling the<br />
wrong number for about a week. When we connected it was good,<br />
we knew it, and it was fast.<br />
Reporting by Jill Rothwell<br />
Photo by John Rothwell | Photo Editor<br />
Jacqueline Luke<br />
Age 27, Grand Rapids<br />
“I’m very happy. He brought<br />
me to his church. It was the<br />
first time I had stepped into a<br />
church in a number of years.<br />
The connection between<br />
God and our relationship<br />
is beautiful and amazing,<br />
something I never dreamed<br />
I could have. Being in the<br />
park is our special time,<br />
enjoying the scene, the sun<br />
and nature together.”<br />
Reporting by John Rothwell
Tim Harrisson<br />
Age 28, Grand Rapids<br />
“I went to Aquinas immediately after<br />
high school after graduating, only<br />
managed to stay there about a semester<br />
and half. Then kind of had trouble<br />
sticking to it. Couldn’t really see the<br />
forest through the trees. No real clear<br />
direction, no real clear social connection<br />
to anyone in the school. So I kind of<br />
tried to go a different direction. I went<br />
to massage therapy school at Blue<br />
Heron (Academy). For a few years I kind<br />
of didn’t do much with that either until I<br />
got employed down here at the Amway<br />
Grand and J.W. Marriott Hotel in<br />
their spas. Been doing that ever since.<br />
Saved up enough money to go back to<br />
school. Decided I need to get moving towards something more sustainable, something more permanent.<br />
“I’d like to stick to (teaching) high school. I really like a more casual style of teaching where I can really<br />
explain things to people that are interested. Kids kind of scare me. I don’t think I would have as strong<br />
a connection and I really want my potential future students to understand sarcasm because that will<br />
definitely be a strong functioning characteristic of any educational style I end up having if I do go into<br />
teaching.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Matt Smith<br />
Kyle Frozley<br />
Age 20, disc golf player from Grand Rapids<br />
“I just loved watching people throw at the park, so I tried it<br />
myself and now I play all the time, it really relieves me from<br />
the real world.<br />
“Sometimes I will play with people I don’t even know.<br />
“You would be surprised with some of the great people you<br />
can meet just by playing a round with them.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Andy McDonald<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 5
Ava Gumowski<br />
Age 22, Grand Rapids<br />
“I’m majoring in fine arts. I want to major in<br />
medical illustration because I need to take<br />
care of my parents in their old age because I’m<br />
an only child. I feel as though I owe them that<br />
much. As far as I can remember I’ve wanted to<br />
be a starving artist. People told me I couldn’t<br />
do it.<br />
“I definitely know I can make my own way if<br />
I produce enough work and market myself<br />
well...It is something that’s always come easy<br />
to me. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do<br />
and I have to do it to keep on living.<br />
“My life philosophy is that you just have to let it<br />
come as it goes.<br />
“In the past five years I’ve experienced more<br />
traumatic experiences than most people<br />
would in their whole lifetime. In the past five<br />
years I’ve been stalked, assaulted, raped, accosted,<br />
involved in a driveby (BB gun) and hit<br />
by a car on my bike. In spite of all this, what<br />
doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. These experiences<br />
have changed my outlook on life for<br />
the better. Bringing me closer to my strengths.<br />
Providing me with the motivation to confront<br />
my weaknesses. It makes me stronger as I just<br />
have to keep going. I have to do what makes<br />
me happy and have to just exist.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Matt Smith<br />
6 | TheCollegiateLive.com
‘The Old Man<br />
in the<br />
Back Row’<br />
Story and photos by John Rothwell<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 7
“Be nice to everybody<br />
because you never<br />
know who you are going<br />
to run into later in life.”<br />
Mike Kennedy used to<br />
sell Twinkies. As a<br />
driver for Hostess<br />
Brands, he would<br />
drive his route along Michigan’s<br />
western coast from Norton<br />
Shores to Port Sheldon delivering<br />
snack cakes to vendors.<br />
That all changed when the<br />
company went bankrupt and<br />
Kennedy was let go from his job<br />
in November of 2012.<br />
Kennedy, 53, of Kentwood<br />
could have done a lateral move<br />
with another company and gotten<br />
back into sales but he wanted<br />
to do something with skill and<br />
decided on information security.<br />
Using the Michigan Works<br />
Program, a program that assists<br />
people who have lost their jobs<br />
with retraining and education,<br />
Kennedy was able to start at<br />
Grand Rapids Community College<br />
in August 2013.<br />
When asked if he is enjoying<br />
school and being a student, a big<br />
smile came to Kennedy’s face,<br />
along with the answer, “I love it.<br />
“It is hard to schedule classes<br />
around shows I want to go to.<br />
Lush is playing on a Monday in<br />
September at Saint Andrew’s in<br />
8 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Detroit,” Kennedy said. “I have a<br />
physics class that night and will<br />
not be able to go to the concert.”<br />
Kennedy is going to summer<br />
camp, Electric Forest and Pearl<br />
Jam this summer.<br />
Besides being a student, Kennedy<br />
is in his 20th year volunteering<br />
at a local nonprofit, the<br />
Community Media Center, where<br />
he is a programmer for the local<br />
radio station 88.1, WYCE.<br />
“I am a volunteer programmer.”<br />
Kennedy said. “People<br />
would like to refer to us as<br />
deejays but we are not told what<br />
to play, when to play it and how<br />
many times to play it so we call<br />
ourselves programmers.”<br />
Not knowing what the next<br />
song is going to be, Kennedy is<br />
one of the 75 volunteers that<br />
are the last bastion of what real<br />
radio is.<br />
“People ask what we play and<br />
I tell them everything and anything<br />
but hair bands, gangster rap<br />
and corporate country,” Kennedy<br />
said.<br />
Listening to the station, you<br />
could hear anything from Frank<br />
Sinatra to the Sex Pistols. The radio<br />
station plays an eclectic mix<br />
of jazz, rock, blues and world<br />
music.<br />
“If I come across somebody<br />
that has not listened to WYCE<br />
I tell them to listen four or five<br />
times throughout the week<br />
because it is like the weather,<br />
always changing and never the<br />
same,” Kennedy said.<br />
Kennedy describes himself<br />
as the epitome of a “broke ass<br />
college student,” who is married,<br />
having met his wife on a blind<br />
date while in high school. He first<br />
saw his wife at a Halloween party<br />
in 1980. She was dressed as a<br />
Southern belle and Kennedy was<br />
too shy to talk her. He just stayed<br />
in the corner playing music.<br />
Kennedy’s first date with his<br />
wife was to a high school play,<br />
“South Pacific.” Kennedy used a<br />
line from the play, “I consider it<br />
a good night when I get a handshake”<br />
on his future wife at the<br />
end of the date.<br />
“I barely kissed her goodnight<br />
that night and 36 years later it’s<br />
still the same,” he said, with a<br />
laugh. “I still shake her hand.”<br />
Kennedy said he does do some<br />
things around the house. His wife<br />
cooks and does the dishes. He<br />
does the laundry and studies.<br />
“I am doing really well in<br />
school,” Kennedy said. “I have<br />
been on the Dean’s list six out of<br />
the seven semesters.”<br />
With a grade point much<br />
higher than in high school, Kennedy<br />
attributes the new success<br />
to time management, utilizing<br />
the tutoring system and talking<br />
with the professors and fellow<br />
students.<br />
“It’s been fun. I don’t mind being<br />
the old man in the back row<br />
screwing up the curve,” Kennedy<br />
said. “I have had great professors<br />
and I have been challenged in all<br />
my classes.”<br />
As a full-time student taking<br />
12 credit hours, he found 15 was<br />
too hard. Kennedy offered some<br />
advice to younger students and<br />
to the college.<br />
“The one thing they (the<br />
school) should tell a first year<br />
student is look out for week<br />
nine and week 10 because that<br />
is when everything comes to a<br />
head,” Kennedy said. “Your term<br />
paper is due, you seem to have<br />
tests in your other classes.”<br />
To students, Kennedy suggests<br />
to get points early instead of<br />
falling behind later.<br />
“Do your homework, read and<br />
participate in the class and you<br />
will not be struggling at the end<br />
of the class,” Kennedy said.<br />
Kennedy never thought he<br />
would make it through, but he<br />
has been able to move on with<br />
the help of the tutoring that<br />
<strong>GRCC</strong> offers.<br />
“I really appreciate the math<br />
tutoring department and the computer<br />
tutoring department - they<br />
both have really helped me out<br />
alot,” Kennedy said.<br />
In one of his classes, the class<br />
developed an app for Grand<br />
Rapids Festival of the Arts. It<br />
was part of a 2015 Armen Awards<br />
project and the team came in<br />
second place.<br />
“It was a great learning experience<br />
to be on a team,” Kennedy<br />
said. “Being in nonprofit I know<br />
what it’s like when the dollars<br />
are not there. It was a worthwhile<br />
challenge to help out on<br />
something that has been in Grand<br />
Rapids for over 40 years.”<br />
As one of the senior members<br />
on campus, Kennedy gave a few<br />
philosophical suggestions to the<br />
younger generations of students<br />
attending <strong>GRCC</strong>.<br />
“Be nice to everybody because<br />
you never know who you are<br />
going to run into later in life. Everybody<br />
should dance.” Stealing<br />
a line from the ‘Interns,’ Kennedy<br />
said. “Look up three inches.<br />
There is a world out there. Get<br />
out of your phone.”<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 9
Brooke Thayer<br />
Age 20, Newaygo<br />
“The most defining moment in my life is when I decided I wanted to<br />
live. Not only live in general but to completely change my mindset of<br />
living to please others to living to please myself. I’m in the process of<br />
learning to live for myself. To live for my desires and not how society<br />
tells me I should or most importantly how my parents push me to live.<br />
I really struggled before, having no passion to drive me or even the<br />
courage to fight for my own life. But when I hit my lowest point, I made<br />
the hardest decision of my life. Not to give up. To keep trying. And I<br />
did.”<br />
Reporting by Hannah Burnis<br />
Photo by John Rothwell<br />
Grant Stevens<br />
Age 18, Dorr<br />
“I really like to listen to a lot of music and I find a lot of influence in<br />
my daily life from the music I listen to. I would definitely say artists<br />
like J Cole and Kendrick Lamar are very influential, as well as Lecrae<br />
and Andy Mineo. These are all hip hop artists. I think that these artists<br />
are trying to influence me to live my life to the fullest, to enjoy my life,<br />
and to take advantage of opportunities that I am given to make the<br />
world a better place.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Kevin Matienzo<br />
Autumn Watson<br />
Age 19, Grand Rapids<br />
“I traveled to Costa Rica in 2014, December. I was there for a week for study<br />
abroad for my Spanish class in high school and it was great. It was beautiful,<br />
it was a different scenery. They are so environmentally aware. They always<br />
make sure that they are conserving water and using natural resources … Everything<br />
that they have for electricity they use solar power, wind or water …<br />
They try not to pollute their environment, which is really eye-opening to see.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Arielle Jackson<br />
10 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Emma Stewart<br />
Age 22, Grand Rapids, grew up in the Middle<br />
East in Muscat, Oman<br />
“My parents are both American and they encouraged<br />
me to study in an American college<br />
in Holland, Michigan. I’m living on my own for<br />
the first time in an apartment and working in a<br />
restaurant. A very good restaurant, Marie Catrib’s.<br />
I’m cooking there. I’m burning myself out<br />
early on, working 50 hours a week.<br />
“I really like (Immanuel) Kant, the philosopher.<br />
He’s German. I think the coolest thing about him<br />
is he never travelled more than 10 miles away<br />
from his home town in Germany and yet he<br />
was able to describe the way the world works<br />
in words that still affect us today. We think that<br />
now we have to get around (travel) and experience different things to get to know things. He knew it<br />
all just from staying in his home town. Sometimes when I get up I try to think about his words.<br />
“There was a quote once that I liked a lot that went something like, everywhere you go you’ll always<br />
miss someone and that’s the richness of knowing more than one people or place.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Matt Smith<br />
Eddie Brown<br />
Age 39, Detroit<br />
“I had to go to work to take care of these<br />
kids. I have car notes and rent to pay. I have a<br />
good job as well. I been with them for 11 years.<br />
I can’t complain.<br />
“The money’s decent. It’s not real yet. It can<br />
do better. I just have a lot going on right now.<br />
Trying to get my credit up. You can’t live in this<br />
world without credit anymore. I need to buy us<br />
a house because paying rent isn’t life.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Dawan Brown<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 11
ENSURING<br />
HISPANIC<br />
STUDENTS HAVE<br />
REPRESENTATION<br />
Get to know Student Alliance’s Kevin Curiel<br />
Story and photo by Mike Balmer<br />
12 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Kevin Curiel-Vazquez is the External<br />
Affairs Director of the Grand Rapids<br />
Community College Student Alliance<br />
and works hard to set an example for<br />
fellow Hispanic students.<br />
Curiel, 25, is from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico<br />
and moved to Grand Rapids 17 years<br />
ago when he was 8. And while his childhood<br />
went smoothly, he remembers that things<br />
really got challenging once he graduated<br />
high school and started thinking of college.<br />
“As a first-generation college student, there<br />
are resources that you don’t have,” Curiel<br />
said. “Nobody is going to tell you how to do<br />
college. Nobody is going to tell you how to<br />
do it, or how to do it right. Your parents can’t<br />
do a lot for you, and you have to pave your<br />
own path and figure it out by yourself.”<br />
As a Deferred Action Childhood Arrival<br />
(DACA) Student, Curiel has a green card,<br />
and is allowed to go to school and work in<br />
the United States, however he is not eligible<br />
to receive federal financial aid or scholarships<br />
to do so. This can make completing<br />
college almost impossible due to busy, fulltime<br />
work and class schedules.<br />
Curiel has been a student at <strong>GRCC</strong> for six<br />
years, attending part-time, taking one or<br />
two classes at a time as he can afford them.<br />
After his first couple of years, Curiel noticed<br />
a lack of Hispanic student involvement, and<br />
decided to take action and provide an example<br />
in his community. He began to work<br />
with the Hispanic Student Organization, and<br />
doors started to open for him. He saw the<br />
growing Hispanic population here at <strong>GRCC</strong>,<br />
and wanted to encourage other Hispanic<br />
students to continue with school and recognize<br />
the benefits of having an education.<br />
“This year was the first year that Hispanic<br />
students were the highest minority in <strong>GRCC</strong>,<br />
so this is where I saw a good opportunity,”<br />
Curiel said. “This year alone they are putting<br />
a lot of attention on the Hispanic students.<br />
While more of them are coming in, [we’re<br />
focused on] how are we going to make sure<br />
they succeed, and how are we going to<br />
bring them to <strong>GRCC</strong>, and how are we going<br />
to make sure that they get the credentials<br />
that they need.”<br />
Curiel’s days are busy, working mornings<br />
at Costco, spending afternoons fulfilling his<br />
responsibilities to the Student Alliance and<br />
attending class, and working on homework<br />
at the end of his day. Despite having a very<br />
busy schedule, he is happy to just have the<br />
opportunity to get an education.<br />
Curiel is studying architecture, and is very<br />
passionate about the “Green Movement.”<br />
He hopes to go to the University of Michigan,<br />
which is the only four-year university<br />
in Michigan that provides financial aid to<br />
DACA students. This has motivated him to<br />
improve his grades and to get more involved<br />
here at <strong>GRCC</strong>.<br />
Curiel’s advice to DACA students who are<br />
attempting to get an education is to not get<br />
discouraged.<br />
“Because our situation is very delicate and<br />
unique, the most important thing is to let<br />
people hear your story, hear your voice,”<br />
Curiel said. “Go out there, start getting more<br />
involved. The more you get involved, that’s<br />
when the doors start opening for you. That’s<br />
when you realize that there is support for<br />
DACA students, and there is support to help<br />
us go through school, but that’s not going<br />
to happen if we just wait for that opportunity<br />
to come to us. You can’t really wait for<br />
a miracle to happen, you’ve got to be the<br />
miracle, and go out there and really take<br />
action and personal responsibility for your<br />
future.”<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 13
Joe Zambran<br />
Age 20, Lowell<br />
“With all of the other answers I’ve given you, this<br />
is going to be different but the most defining moment<br />
in my life was when I bought my third car. It<br />
was my own money, my own work put into it and<br />
it’s a really nice car. This car made me really interested<br />
in cars now. I still have it to this day. I work<br />
on it every day. I’ve been building it the last three<br />
years. It’s in a completely different state to when I<br />
got it. To me that is really cool having something,<br />
then turning it into something so great. At least to<br />
me it’s great. It’s a 2005 Subaru WRX. I swapped<br />
the motor out of it. It’s a lot louder, faster, than it<br />
was before. I’m also doing a lot of support modifications.<br />
When you upgrade the big things in the<br />
motor you need to upgrade all the little things<br />
that go along with it so they do not break. I also<br />
installed bigger brakes to make it stop faster. A lot<br />
of exterior work was done as well. It looks completely<br />
different. When I first got it, it looked like a<br />
typical car. Now it looks very unique. I added a<br />
lot of my personal touches. It’s just nice to know<br />
that I created something that means so much to<br />
me and I put my hard work into it. It’s a learning<br />
experience in itself and I will continue working on<br />
cars as a hobby. It’s definitely not cheap but it’s<br />
motivating that I pay for it all myself.”<br />
Reporting by Hannah Burnis<br />
Courtesy Joe Zambran<br />
Photo by John Rothwell | Photo Editor<br />
14 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Jim Blue<br />
Age 60, Ada<br />
“I play the piano and the trumpet, I’ve really always just had a great<br />
passion for music. I’ve never really been disciplined enough to play for a<br />
career but I heard <strong>GRCC</strong> had a good program, and I’m lucky enough to<br />
be able to take all classes I enjoy.<br />
“Since I was a kid I would play the trumpet, and it would shape the things<br />
I did, such as friends and all of the different kinds of music I got into.<br />
“Really, I just love music, and nothing takes me away from the real world<br />
more than my instruments. It’s amazing what they can do to a person’s<br />
life.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Andy McDonald<br />
LC Cooper, Jr.<br />
Age 24, Benton Harbor<br />
Photo by John Rothwell | Photo Editor<br />
“My father passed away two years ago and I realized at that time I’d<br />
have to take care of my family. My mother’s been working the same job<br />
the last 30 years, so I know for my family to survive I’d have to step up<br />
and take school seriously and I look at life (through) a bit of different lens<br />
now. I am the one who has to take responsibility to better my business<br />
to support not only my lifestyle, but my mother’s as well. My business<br />
doubles as a record label and a personal development company. I’m a<br />
musician. I like to record music and my long term goal with this business<br />
is to create a platform for younger kids to get mentored, to take them<br />
through the process that I went through and continue going through, so<br />
blending music and education, I call it edutainment.”<br />
Reporting by Cesar Ayala<br />
Dakota Hagler<br />
Age 19, Grandville<br />
“I enjoy pushing myself to learn new things. I used to get made fun of<br />
when I was younger because people thought I was weird. I’m also the<br />
same person that would rather learn more and expand as a person, rather<br />
than just sit there and do the same thing day in and day out.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Gary Manier<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 15
Hear<br />
me out...<br />
by Wyatt Ridgway<br />
Photos by John Rothwell<br />
16 | TheCollegiateLive.com
I can remember the first time I<br />
stuttered at 10 years old. It caught me<br />
completely off guard. I was so used<br />
to being able to speak fluently and<br />
normally that I didn’t even think that<br />
it was possible to speak any different.<br />
I recall my mom being aware of it immediately<br />
and asking me if everything<br />
was alright and why I struggled. I<br />
didn’t have much to tell her other than<br />
I didn’t know.<br />
I wasn’t born with this problem. I<br />
can still remember a time when I was<br />
able to speak clearly without any issue.<br />
Those were probably better days,<br />
but back then I wasn’t old enough to<br />
really consciously make friends or<br />
right and wrong decisions. I just kind<br />
of did my homework, and stayed home<br />
every day finding something to do in<br />
video games. Around fourth or fifth<br />
grade, I started to notice my stuttering<br />
impediment show its face. Mom did<br />
too, so did Dad. I think after a while,<br />
my brother Eli did, too. It evolved from<br />
being able to say a few sentences to<br />
Mom and Dad to trying my very best<br />
to get a paragraph out to my parents<br />
over the new game they got me, or how<br />
bad my day was, or how much homework<br />
I had, without losing my breath.<br />
The first thing my parents did was<br />
send me straight to speech therapy,<br />
lessons on how to properly pronounce<br />
words and sentences, how to sound<br />
them out and make it easier for your<br />
brain to create words. When I was<br />
young, it sounded incredibly stupid.<br />
Why would I ever need to take classes<br />
for something that I already knew how<br />
to do prior to having this problem? I<br />
guess I was just so used to speaking<br />
fluently that I never thought I’d need to<br />
remember how to pronounce syllables<br />
right.<br />
I had speech about two times a<br />
week and it took me out of some of my<br />
boring classes that I hated in school.<br />
It was actually a point of excitement<br />
for me during the week. The lessons<br />
were often very engaging and fun to<br />
be in and we ended up always playing<br />
a game at the end if I did well enough,<br />
and that alone made me want to do as<br />
best I could (which I did, I always did).<br />
I didn’t really get bullied for it too<br />
much in grade school, but that was<br />
mostly because I could practically do<br />
everything by myself and not talk to<br />
anyone. In middle school it was a lot<br />
different. Middle school is just a bad<br />
experience for almost everyone, but<br />
the bullying really started there. Aside<br />
from the occasional “stutter face”<br />
insult I got by the “cool kids” in grade<br />
school, I was picked on by the middle<br />
school kids a lot worse. I’d say it was<br />
probably the hardest two years of my<br />
life in school up to that point because<br />
of how group-dependent a lot of the<br />
school work ended up being. I was<br />
still this super shy, antisocial kid that<br />
couldn’t speak worth a damn. It ended<br />
up getting so bad that the teachers<br />
would hesitate to pick me when I had<br />
my hand raised to answer questions,<br />
on the rare occasions that I even<br />
raised my hand.<br />
Needless to say, school was not<br />
good to me in seventh and eighth<br />
grade. Kids would exclude me from<br />
hanging out with them and talking to<br />
them was so much of a chore for them<br />
that they just would try their best to<br />
not even speak to me at all. Teachers<br />
got so fed up with my stuttering, especially<br />
in English class, that I was being<br />
marked down in presentations for<br />
stuttering. I always ended up getting<br />
a lower grade than others in presentations<br />
even if mine was better than<br />
theirs. I always told myself that talk is<br />
cheap to make myself feel better.<br />
Oddly enough, the real pain didn’t<br />
start to set in until high school. High<br />
school was a lot easier for me as far as<br />
socializing goes because everybody<br />
was a lot more accepting. But it was<br />
still hard. Communicating was still<br />
just as much of a chore as it ever was.<br />
During my first year of high school it<br />
was nearly impossible for it take me<br />
less than 10 minutes to get through a<br />
single thought. People would often get<br />
so tired of me talking, especially when<br />
they already knew what I was going<br />
to say, that they would very frequently<br />
finish my sentences for me.<br />
Some may think finishing my sentences<br />
was helpful. But, to me, it was<br />
an insult. I wasn’t important enough<br />
and what I was saying wasn’t important<br />
enough to listen to so they ended<br />
it early. It got so annoying that I had<br />
to tell people to stop finishing my sentences<br />
and start being mean to people<br />
to get them to start treating me with<br />
the respect I needed and wanted.<br />
I was often told by some of my<br />
favorite teachers that if I didn’t have<br />
the stuttering issues I do that I would<br />
easily have the best reading voice.<br />
I’ve been told that I’m a very dramatic<br />
person. I would agree with that. I’ve<br />
also been told that I have an excellent<br />
ability to read in different tones.<br />
I don’t just read in monotone, I read<br />
with different voices in my head and<br />
make different sounds for things in<br />
books. I think it’s hilarious and oddly<br />
enough so did my teachers. After a<br />
while I managed to get an edge up<br />
on the competition thanks to a note<br />
from my speech therapist to all of my<br />
English teachers telling them that they<br />
could no longer grade me down for<br />
stuttering during presentations. I was<br />
relieved that I would no longer have<br />
10-point deductions because I tripped<br />
up on a word.<br />
Unfortunately, during my second<br />
year of high school the loneliness<br />
started to kick in and the self hate<br />
started to grow. I started to hate<br />
myself for having this disability and<br />
inability to speak right. Even with all<br />
of my training, I still wouldn’t speak<br />
to practically anyone at school and I<br />
would only speak when spoken to. I<br />
started to question myself and doubt<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 17
my worth and existence<br />
because I was<br />
so shunned and cast<br />
out because of my<br />
inability to speak. In<br />
this world, being able<br />
to speak your mind<br />
fluently and quickly<br />
means everything.<br />
Many take it for<br />
granted, but being<br />
able to speak fluently<br />
means so much to<br />
me and others like<br />
me that we might<br />
pay anything for the<br />
ability to. We stutter,<br />
we clack and grind<br />
our teeth, we start<br />
to twitch, bite our<br />
tongues, we can’t even move correctly.<br />
It’s a nightmare for all of us when we<br />
try to desperately fit in both at home<br />
and at school or out in the world.<br />
Thankfully, in my third year of<br />
high school, things started to look up<br />
for me. I’m not sure what happened<br />
to me but a lot of my shyness and self<br />
loathing went away, and my confidence<br />
skyrocketed. It was so strange<br />
being able to fluently speak almost<br />
every sentence and word again. I felt<br />
so overjoyed that I was able to finally<br />
fit in with some groups, so much that<br />
I started to attend Gamer’s Club again<br />
and started to attend Multicultural<br />
Club. A turning point that year was at<br />
the annual international fair where I<br />
led one of the stands and taught people<br />
about England with my best bud,<br />
Alistair, by my side as he handed out<br />
biscuits and tea to people.<br />
In my fourth and final year of high<br />
school my ability to speak right went<br />
down again, but no fear because I took<br />
a drama class. It was the first time I<br />
took a drama class and it took me out<br />
of my comfort zone and let me become<br />
animated. I’d always wanted to act a<br />
18 | TheCollegiateLive.com<br />
little bit. I’ve always been an animated<br />
person at heart, acting out certain<br />
movie scenes that I liked and throwing<br />
out emotion. For my final grade I had<br />
to practice and recite a speech from<br />
a movie or game that I really liked. I<br />
picked the one that I wanted out, it<br />
was a speech that a Jedi Master gave<br />
to the other masters at the end of an<br />
amazing game where she defends her<br />
student and saves him at the end. It<br />
was really complicated and difficult.<br />
I went first on the exam presentation<br />
day because I was so confident and<br />
talked my heart out. My drama teacher<br />
told me he had never seen a more well<br />
performed final exam piece and told<br />
me that my stutter was almost undetectable.<br />
I ended up graduating high school<br />
and the bullying stopped. I didn’t see<br />
most of my friends from high school<br />
for a long time until I started going<br />
to Grand Rapids Community College<br />
and took a few classes. The stuttering<br />
issues persisted through the years of<br />
not going to school. I ended up taking<br />
a near two-year break from school<br />
and did not take any therapy classes.<br />
Then I went back<br />
to <strong>GRCC</strong> for a few<br />
classes. During those<br />
two years a lot of my<br />
training was forgotten<br />
but oddly enough<br />
I think I’ve done a<br />
better job at understanding<br />
how to<br />
speak properly than<br />
in the previous years.<br />
It’s still very obvious<br />
during class when<br />
I’m trying to give out<br />
answers or when I<br />
get nervous.<br />
I think I can say<br />
that stuttering has<br />
bettered myself<br />
over the years. It’s<br />
made me realize that everyone has a<br />
weakness of some sort and you have<br />
to overcome that weakness to be<br />
better, to forever etch your mark on<br />
the galaxy.<br />
I think what people ultimately have<br />
to understand is that stuttering is a<br />
work in progress for most of us. It is<br />
for me, too. I still struggle with getting<br />
it to stop and getting myself to apply<br />
the lessons I’ve learned over the years.<br />
Speech therapy has helped tremendously.<br />
The issue, for me anyways, will<br />
always be trying to apply the techniques<br />
I’ve been taught in the moment<br />
I need them the most. Everybody<br />
that stutters struggles with different<br />
things. For those that are looking at us<br />
from the outside in, just try to understand<br />
that we’re working on it. We’re<br />
trying our very best to make sure<br />
that you can understand us clearly<br />
and quickly. Believe me, we also have<br />
better things to do than stutter step<br />
over our own words. I hope people can<br />
try to remember that when they listen<br />
to us, we’re trying our best, and please<br />
don’t finish our sentences for us.
Natalie Vice<br />
Age 18, Dorr<br />
“Well I finished high school and I didn’t have that much money to go<br />
to a university. So I thought I’d get my gen eds done at <strong>GRCC</strong>, save<br />
the money then transfer later on. I’m hoping to (go to) Wayne State<br />
University. I have two jobs right now. I work at a candle store and then<br />
I clean offices once a week and in the summer I also have a job at an<br />
ice cream shop. Right now I’m working towards a bachelor’s in biology<br />
then hopefully after that I will do my master’s for assistant pathology.<br />
I procrastinate like it’s my job so it’s been a little bit stressful but I’ve<br />
gotten better at it, which is good.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Kiyrah Floyd<br />
Hunter Brown<br />
Age 21, from Hudsonville, Grandville, Jenison<br />
“My dad used to be a b-boy, he had a cardboard box that<br />
he had laminated and carried around with him so he could<br />
breakdance against anyone, anywhere. My mom made him<br />
throw it away when she had me because she thought he was<br />
too old to be doing that type of stuff. It was pretty awesome<br />
to me, I felt ‘fresh’ growing up.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Gary Manier<br />
Justin DeDario<br />
Age 18, Grandville, but his life before that involved a lot of moving from<br />
state to state<br />
“I was lucky enough to do most of the moving at a young age, so it was<br />
never hard to meet new friends. I hope to help the kids at work everyday<br />
who have problems meeting new people.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Andy McDonald<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 19
Paul Houston<br />
Age 64, originally from Lansing,<br />
been in Grand Rapids for 28 years<br />
“I don’t have to be ashamed of<br />
being gay anymore.”<br />
Reporting and photo<br />
by Kayla Tucker, Editor-in-Chief<br />
Hayley Razzoog<br />
Age 18, Grand Rapids<br />
“My favorite production was Seussical the Musical where<br />
I got to play the Cat in the Hat. It’s something that really<br />
helped me develop my skills as an actor and helped me<br />
flush out how I would go about building a character. It was<br />
very challenging, but very rewarding.<br />
“My ultimate goal in life is to make people happy and be<br />
able to be happy while doing it. If I can go outside and<br />
make someone happy, it will make me happy and it will go<br />
around in a circle.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Matt Smith<br />
20 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Samuel Casares<br />
Age 24, Grand Rapids<br />
“My degree that I hope to earn<br />
is in music education, but I am<br />
thinking about changing it to<br />
music therapy. Like working at<br />
a hospital, just playing music for<br />
people. I think that would be<br />
pretty sweet. I feel like helping<br />
people by doing my own thing<br />
musically would be pretty<br />
great. Why not? I feel like<br />
there are certain wards who<br />
have people to come to<br />
play piano, or I have seen<br />
people hand out instruments<br />
to everyone in the<br />
hospital to give them a<br />
chance to interact. Or like<br />
an old folks home would<br />
be fun. Just a way to help<br />
people using my music.”<br />
Reporting and photo<br />
by Mike Balmer<br />
Elisabeth Brott<br />
Age 42, Grand Rapids<br />
Have you ever seen that painting by Michelangelo where God<br />
is coming down and touching Adam’s finger? That’s kind of<br />
what it is (religion), it’s kind of that connection that you have<br />
with people. It’s a big passion of mine, like I live in the city of<br />
Grand Rapids, my church is in the city of Grand Rapids. It’s how<br />
to keep the city healthy with food, housing, jobs, all that kind of<br />
stuff.<br />
Reporting and photo by Priya Kaur<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 21
The Resilient Underdog<br />
Beating the odds<br />
by Nathan Taylor<br />
I was counted out my whole life, an underdog<br />
from the time I came out of the womb.<br />
I moved my eighth grade year from the Black<br />
Hills neighborhood in Grand Rapids to the Twin<br />
Lake area of North Muskegon. City life to small<br />
town country life just like that. I grew up going<br />
to The Potter’s House Christian school until high<br />
school and then made a sudden switch to public<br />
school at Reeths Puffer High School in Muskegon.<br />
I was a freshman, I didn’t know what to expect as a<br />
new kid from a different city. Right away, I felt like<br />
the outsider.<br />
Thank God basketball was my outlet. I heard<br />
that it would be tough to make the team at Reeths<br />
Puffer High, so I trained for hours every day<br />
outside on my driveway. When it was raining, and<br />
I had no gym available to me, I would dribble in<br />
my basement until my mom would yell, “Nathan,<br />
you’re making too much noise, I’m trying to watch<br />
‘The Bachelor.’” I would always say, “Mom, I have<br />
to get my handles right.”<br />
After that was done, I would run a mile and half<br />
to keep my stamina up.<br />
Any of my childhood friends will tell you that I<br />
was never really gifted in basketball. Football was<br />
my first love. I grew up playing street ball, from<br />
shooting over the backboard, to getting ripped<br />
Photo by Dylan Pelak<br />
22 | TheCollegiateLive.com
left and right in five on five. I was the<br />
kid who got picked last. And I took<br />
offense to that. People have always<br />
told me I’m too short, I’m not strong<br />
enough, I’m too slow.<br />
I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder,<br />
my mom was 4-foot-6, legally a<br />
dwarf. My dad was six-foot-two. I ended<br />
up five-foot-seven. I played every<br />
game, every practice, every possession<br />
as it was my last. I was taught that<br />
by the legend Jim Goorman a Hall of<br />
Fame Coach to play every game like<br />
it is your last because you will never<br />
know when you have to hang the<br />
shoes up.<br />
I didn’t start playing organized basketball<br />
until the seventh grade. I was<br />
always a little bit heavy. In football I<br />
played fullback and middle linebacker.<br />
So my skillset on the court wasn’t the<br />
best. I tore my ACL in the eighth grade<br />
in the first game of the season, and<br />
that ended my football career. A year<br />
long recovery would make me miss<br />
the basketball season as well.<br />
Freshman year of high school, I<br />
struggled with classes and was ineligible<br />
halfway through the season. I<br />
then saw Western Michigan Christian<br />
(WMC) High School in Norton Shores<br />
win its third state basketball championship<br />
in a row. I told my mom we<br />
needed to check this school out, and<br />
she agreed. I went on a shadow visit<br />
and met a man that would change my<br />
life entirely. Jim Goorman, aka “Gip,”<br />
was the varsity basketball coach at the<br />
time, and a well known coach in Muskegon.<br />
I talked to him about playing<br />
varsity.<br />
“I’ll have to see you play,” he said.<br />
“We have a lot of talent on this team<br />
right now. We’ll see if you can make<br />
it.”<br />
After, that summer of training,<br />
and playing on the American Youth<br />
Basketball Tour team (AYBT) at WMC,<br />
I ended up transferring to WMC. It is<br />
one of the best choices I ever made in<br />
my life.<br />
Sure enough, I wasn’t good enough<br />
and did not make the varsity team.<br />
Three Division I players were on the<br />
varsity team. I didn’t play much when I<br />
was on the JV team because of grades.<br />
I also had attitude problems at home<br />
and at school. Life was tough. My dad<br />
wasn’t in my life at the time, after he<br />
got in a drunk driving accident, nd<br />
he really never played a major role.<br />
He was there as much as he could be<br />
when I was younger. I remember the<br />
times when we would grill out and<br />
always push the patties into the grill to<br />
hear the sizzle. My dad always loved<br />
to cook and I would look forward to<br />
coming over in the summer on my<br />
weekend visits. But, one thing that has<br />
always stuck with me, was what he<br />
said to me when I started to tell him<br />
what I wanted to be when I got older.<br />
I remember him telling me when I<br />
was 13 years old that I would never<br />
make it to the pros.<br />
“You’re not good enough,” he said.<br />
“You never will be.”<br />
That stung. It made me feel worthless.<br />
It put a burning desire in me to<br />
prove him wrong.<br />
After my sophomore season I<br />
was fed up with not playing a lot. I<br />
played on an AAU team that spring<br />
and worked my butt off that summer<br />
to make the varsity team. I made the<br />
team, but other assistant coaches<br />
didn’t want me on the team. Only Gip,<br />
the head coach, believed I deserved a<br />
spot. We struggled that season with a<br />
5-16 record, Gip’s last year coaching.<br />
He had become a strong father figure<br />
to me by that time.<br />
I had another summer to improve,<br />
where I worked twice as hard, four<br />
hours a day in the gym. Ball handling<br />
with a WMC legend London Burris,<br />
shooting drills with Evan Bruinsma,<br />
arguably the best player to come out<br />
of WMC. I had a decent senior year<br />
of high school. I made the front cover<br />
of the Grand Rapids Press newspaper<br />
sports section and the Grand Haven<br />
Tribune front cover for my hard work<br />
on the court. I’ll be honest I did not<br />
know about it until a few friends<br />
showed me. I hit a few buzzer beaters,<br />
one for the win and one for a tie. But, I<br />
was inconsistent.<br />
My mom watched my best game I<br />
ever played all around. It was at our<br />
crosstown rival Muskegon Catholic<br />
Central. It was the Catholics against<br />
the Christians. My first shot was in and<br />
out. The next one, came off a screen<br />
and I let it fly from deep and let’s just<br />
say the bank was open at 8 p.m. It<br />
continued throughout the night. I hit<br />
another three-pointer and it hit the<br />
front of the rim and bounced in. At<br />
that point, anything I shot was going<br />
in, at least I thought. My next shot was<br />
a 75 footer for the tie at the end of the<br />
third quarter. Our student section went<br />
nuts. I was smiling, but I knew we had<br />
another quarter to play. We would go<br />
on to win by a final score of 55-48.<br />
All I remember is looking at my mom<br />
tearing up telling everyone, “that’s my<br />
son.”<br />
That night, I walked outside to the<br />
car with my mom, carrying her oxygen<br />
tanks. My mom went through a lot.<br />
She had asthma and suffered from<br />
heart failure when she had my twin<br />
brothers. She started crying in the car<br />
and told me that it was the best game<br />
she ever saw me play. I thanked her<br />
and told her it was for her.<br />
Receiving my diploma was the<br />
biggest accomplishment for me at<br />
the time. I didn’t know that my high<br />
school graduation would be the last<br />
time I would ever take a picture with<br />
my mom.<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 23
I was in Florida when my mother<br />
passed away in July 2013. It was a surreal<br />
feeling. It tore me into pieces. She<br />
was my everything. We would always<br />
go to church together. I would even<br />
sleep with her on the cold, hardwood<br />
floor at night, keeping an eye on her<br />
and making sure she was okay. She<br />
had many health problems. She would<br />
get out of breath walking up three<br />
stairs. She was very ill at the time but,<br />
not to the point where we thought she<br />
would die. She was only 55 years old.<br />
It tears me up just writing this. My<br />
hero taken away from me when I was<br />
only 18 years old. A mother of eight<br />
kids, she always told me if anything<br />
ever happened to take care of the family<br />
and stay together. I always told her<br />
I would play college basketball. I was<br />
told by college coaches in high school<br />
I wouldn’t be able to get my shot off.<br />
“You’re too short, you’re too slow.” I<br />
used that as motivation.<br />
Going into my freshman year I had<br />
no offers, Just prior to that an all-star<br />
game substitute. I went to Muskegon<br />
Community College where I prepared<br />
to walk on the team, but God had<br />
other plans. I injured my knee.<br />
When I came back to my high school<br />
alumni game, I tried pinning one of the<br />
kids shot off the backboard. I came<br />
down awkwardly on my left knee.<br />
This wasn’t the first time. This time<br />
I tore cartilage and needed physical<br />
therapy. My dreams felt as if they were<br />
washed down the drain. I would not<br />
give up, though. I worked as a student<br />
assistant coach on the team. I took<br />
care of the filming, laundry, and was<br />
the best water boy a player could ask<br />
for. I showed up to just about every<br />
practice.<br />
I found out my Dad passed away in<br />
October of 2013 from a seizure. I was<br />
at home doing some math homework<br />
when I received the call from my older<br />
brother. I was shocked. One parent<br />
wasn’t enough. It didn’t hit me right<br />
away because I was still trying to cope<br />
with my mom being gone. Basketball<br />
was the only thing that could keep my<br />
mind off of things. My Chicago teammates<br />
Tyiwan Jones, Turean Conner,<br />
Nick Norals, and Reginald Washington<br />
really reached out to me. They stuck<br />
by my side.<br />
During that time, I bounced around<br />
from house to house. That November,<br />
after four months of moving around to<br />
four different houses, my friend Eric<br />
Chilcote - who I met only a handful of<br />
times before this - reached out to me<br />
and said I could stay with his family.<br />
I’m grateful for the families that took<br />
me in before this, because they really<br />
did a lot for me, but now I finally had a<br />
stable home. The Chilcotes have stuck<br />
by me ever since then. They could tell<br />
I had been through a lot. They gave me<br />
the courage and the support to bounce<br />
back on my feet.<br />
I would travel from Grand Rapids -<br />
where they lived - to Muskegon every<br />
other day, an hour drive there and<br />
back. Sometimes I stayed in the house<br />
where my mom and I lived, which was<br />
unsettling. After the winter semester<br />
was over I transferred to Grand Rapids<br />
Community College, still holding on to<br />
my dreams of playing college ball.<br />
I was depressed that summer just<br />
working at Jimmy Johns and relaxing<br />
at home. I had no motivation to do<br />
anything. My host parents Mr. and Mrs.<br />
Chilcote let me know it was time to<br />
move out on my own. I was 19 years<br />
old at the time. Which was big for me.<br />
But, I thank them for that because<br />
I grew up, and learned more about<br />
myself and who I really am as a young<br />
man of God. I moved out to a small<br />
apartment, my first time actually on<br />
my own. It was tough, but I made my<br />
own rules and schedule. I was out of<br />
shape but it only took a few weeks to<br />
get into shape.<br />
I didn’t really put in as much time as<br />
I should have before getting cut from<br />
the basketball team. This wasn’t the<br />
first time I had been cut. I was used to<br />
the feeling, which meant I just wasn’t<br />
what the coach was looking for.<br />
I continued to train every morning<br />
at 6 a.m. at <strong>GRCC</strong>. I would not give up<br />
that easy on my dreams. The coach<br />
left after a few games for a different<br />
job. So an interim coach filled<br />
in, David Selmon, who came out of<br />
retirement to coach the team. He put<br />
up flyers needing players because half<br />
of the team was ineligible. I finally was<br />
given an opportunity to prove myself. I<br />
joined the team. It was a weird feeling<br />
knowing I got cut by the previous<br />
coach. But, the team was very welcoming<br />
and treated me as a brother.<br />
Every practice I would be guarding<br />
an All-American, Demarcus Stuckey,<br />
who I grew up with in the Black Hills.<br />
We would battle, but he always said<br />
I would foul him which was the case<br />
half of the time. I was not as quick as<br />
him, but he made me better each and<br />
every day. He carried our team to the<br />
championship. It was the best time of<br />
my life. I didn’t play much but, when<br />
I did get in the game, I made things<br />
happen. The season came to a close.<br />
We lost in the championship, but it<br />
was a great run.<br />
A new coach was hired because<br />
Selmon went back into retirement.<br />
I went to all of the open gyms and<br />
played well, until late July when I<br />
injured my knee once again playing<br />
football. I gained some weight during<br />
that time and just worked. I came back<br />
to the open gyms and my quickness<br />
disappeared. I wasn’t the same. So I<br />
decided to take a year off.<br />
Depression hit me so fast. I would<br />
just eat and sleep most of the time. I<br />
24 | TheCollegiateLive.com
wasn’t productive at all. I didn’t want to live anymore.<br />
Life was a waste of time to me. There was no hero in<br />
my life and it felt like everything had been taken away<br />
from me. Basketball was my only outlet and I gave it<br />
up.<br />
Sure enough, I got back into the gym and started to<br />
get my energy back. I went from one job to five jobs in<br />
a matter of two months. I volunteered coaching kids<br />
at the YMCA and also started helping out at Greater<br />
Generation Basketball. I really am thankful to LJ<br />
Kilgore for letting me work with and be a mentor to<br />
these kids. It has impacted me so much, that I started<br />
my own personal training, Nate The Great Basketball<br />
training. I started to post videos of me on Instagram<br />
and record my workouts. I kept my faith through this<br />
whole time. God has blessed me so much, these past<br />
few months, so many doors have been opened.<br />
Out of nowhere I just got invited to the Circle of<br />
Men Athletics Beyond Talent showcase in Gary, Indiana<br />
later this month. Over a 100 coaches will be there,<br />
so this is another way God has shown me he has my<br />
back. I gave up on him this past fall after I gave up on<br />
basketball. I was depressed, feeling like I was alone.<br />
But, I had a dream and my Mom appeared in the<br />
dream. She asked me, why are you doing this? Skipping<br />
class, sitting around all day not being productive.<br />
She told me, “I want to see you play again.” That’s all I<br />
needed to hear from her. Since then I have been in the<br />
gym at least six days a week.Focusing on my diet, and<br />
expanding my flexibility.<br />
I decided to have a relationship with God again<br />
because for a while there I had turned on him for the<br />
first time in my life. I missed two months of church. I<br />
got back into his word. I feel blessed. Journalism has<br />
paved a way for me to tell my story to others going<br />
through tough times. If I can impact just one person,<br />
that would make me happy. I’m so thankful for everyone<br />
who has had my back in life and has been there<br />
for me. I just want to say thank you from the bottom<br />
of my heart, from the car rides to the Christmas presents,<br />
to all the professors who have helped me at MCC<br />
and <strong>GRCC</strong>.<br />
My mom wrote this to me before she passed, on the<br />
back of a bookmark: “I am so proud of you and all that<br />
you are, I will always be with you in your heart. Always<br />
look to the heavenly father first with everything.<br />
Acknowledge him in all your ways and he will direct<br />
your paths. Love you, Momma.”<br />
Photo by John Rothwell | Photo Editor<br />
Taylor uses the bookmark his mother left him to mark his<br />
spot in his devotionals.<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 25
Janet Romanowski<br />
Age 45, East Grand Rapids<br />
“I was always attracted to the bad guys, they were<br />
so fascinating to me. Jay, a boy I went to <strong>GRCC</strong><br />
with, had always liked me but I never knew it. I<br />
always just considered him my friend, but little did<br />
I know he would forever change my life. Before<br />
I ended up with Jay I met a guy and he brainwashed<br />
me, had me convinced of so many things.<br />
My parents were extremely strict growing up, I had<br />
a curfew and I knew better than to break it. One<br />
night this ‘bad boy’ I was seeing fought me and<br />
forced me into a corner and wouldn’t let me leave<br />
the house we were at even after I told him I was going<br />
to be late for my curfew. I finally made it home<br />
at 3 a.m. and my mom was still up, extremely furious<br />
with me. Jay who had been at the house where I<br />
was forced against my own will called my house<br />
phone to make sure I was okay. He was always<br />
looking out for me. I didn’t know it at the time but<br />
it was kind of a bad thing that turned into a good<br />
thing, you know? He wasn’t my type at the time,<br />
but he ended up being the guy, my guy.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Nikki Herrmann<br />
Dustin Suchomski<br />
Age 20, Grand Rapids<br />
“I was actually playing a lot of sports<br />
in high school. I had fun and then,<br />
I don’t know, I just got into partying<br />
a little too much. <strong>GRCC</strong> gave me<br />
initiative to start doing more so now I<br />
have a whole bunch of goals. I wake<br />
up and always have something to do<br />
besides waking up and having nothing<br />
to do.”<br />
Reporting and photo<br />
by Jasiel Ochoa-Mendoza<br />
26 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Dan Bui<br />
Age 20, Grand Rapids<br />
Vy Bui<br />
Age 28, Grand Rapids<br />
“My girlfriend and I have been together for a year and three<br />
months. I would describe my relationship with her as difficult because<br />
we have our differences. When I say differences I mean<br />
that we argue sometimes, but that’s standard in any relationship.<br />
We usually argue about little things that have to do with<br />
knowledge like who’s wrong and right. We don’t always have<br />
the same view on certain topics. I still consider this relationship<br />
with my girlfriend important. I want to take this relationship further<br />
but I don’t know if it will. There’s a 40 - 60 percent chance<br />
that I could see a possibility of getting married to my girlfriend.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Kevin Matienzo<br />
“I work full time as an activity leader for Hope Network side by<br />
side program. What I do at work is help lead different activity<br />
groups for our participants. I lead groups such as discussion groups<br />
for brain stimulation exercise. I have a kitchen club where we<br />
prepare snacks for everyone else, crafting groups, art class, nail<br />
and spa groups. I work with participants who are between their<br />
60’s to 90’s. I work mostly with women because we only have a<br />
handful of men that come. I love my job and I have been there for<br />
over seven years. I think I would consider this job a passion. When I<br />
first started, I wasn’t sure if this was what I wanted to do but as time<br />
went on the place just grew on me and I can’t picture my career<br />
anywhere else.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Kevin Matienzo<br />
Myka Irvine<br />
Age 19, Grand Rapids<br />
“I didn't really know what I wanted to do after high<br />
school, but I didn’t want to jump into a university because<br />
I didn’t know what I wanted to major in yet. Balancing<br />
work, and school and relationships was a struggle.<br />
I’ve been giving myself really hard semesters with<br />
a lot of credits and then I work almost 40 hours a week.<br />
Once I give myself down time... I end up getting behind<br />
in school work.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Jasiel Ochoa-Mendoza<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 27
COMMUNITY<br />
(College)<br />
POLICING<br />
with <strong>GRCC</strong>’s Finest<br />
Story and photos by Avery Jennings<br />
28 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Grand Rapids Community College Police Sgt. Jesse<br />
Heard patrols campus with a smile on his face.<br />
He holds open doors, socializes with students<br />
and lives with ‘to serve and protect’ as his life motto.<br />
Little does the campus community know, he’s a former<br />
high school all-star and All-American semi-pro football<br />
player, and winning boxer from Grand Rapids.<br />
Heard plays a major part in motivating students to continue<br />
on their journey for success.<br />
“He’s been a great help to our students and a great<br />
resource,” said <strong>GRCC</strong> Admissions and Enrollment Coordinator<br />
Francisco Ramirez. “You need mentors, like Jesse,<br />
on campus to be a successful student and it’s awesome<br />
that we have him.”<br />
Heard said he’s enjoyed being more of a friend to<br />
students than anything else. On his foot patrols around<br />
campus, he’s constantly greeting students, opening doors<br />
and being a friendly figure to everyone he meets.<br />
“My favorite part of my job is talking to students,”<br />
Heard said. “That’s why I work here. I like communicating<br />
with the youth, learning a little more about what they do,<br />
what they’re going to be doing, what they are studying<br />
and helping to motivate them and keep them going because<br />
they’ve gotten this far.”<br />
Since he was young, Heard, 49, has always respected<br />
law enforcement.<br />
“I’ve always had an interest in law enforcement,” Heard<br />
said. “I was in first grade and I got into a police cruiser<br />
and the (officer) showed me all around the car … I was<br />
like ‘Ah this is really cool, this is what I want to do.’”<br />
Football was Heard’s dream growing up, and he held a<br />
special place in his heart for it.<br />
Heard played running back for the East Kentwood High<br />
School varsity football team and played in the Michigan<br />
High School All-Star Game after graduation. In the game,<br />
Heard broke his neck, but it didn’t stop him from trying to<br />
follow his dream of playing professional football.<br />
“I went as far as I could in football,” Heard said. “I<br />
ended up going to Ferris (State University) and then I<br />
left there … so then I ended up playing semi pro football<br />
with the Grand Rapids Crush. I was All-American in that<br />
league.”<br />
Heard went on to try out professionally for the Pittsburgh<br />
Steelers, but was turned down because of his<br />
previous neck injury.<br />
“I finished out the rest of the week, of course I got cut,<br />
but it was just a good experience,” Heard said. “I was glad<br />
and still am glad I experienced it.”<br />
Heard went on to box in the Michigan Golden Gloves<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 29
league for a year in 1987.<br />
“I ended up winning the city tournament,”<br />
Heard said. “It was for the<br />
Michigan Amateur Golden Gloves … I<br />
had Buster Mathis as a trainer as well<br />
as Floyd (Mayweather) senior who<br />
helped out and trained me … It was<br />
fun but I figured out you’re gonna get<br />
hit, you’re gonna get your bell rung<br />
a few times … and it just wasn’t for<br />
me.”<br />
Athletics was Heard’s goal, but<br />
he decided it was time to try other<br />
opportunities.<br />
“I was an athlete first,” Heard said.<br />
“Football was my dream, but I had to<br />
have a plan B.”<br />
Heard studied law enforcement in<br />
an accelerated program at Lansing<br />
Community College in 2002 and<br />
joined the <strong>GRCC</strong> police department<br />
that same year. Before that, he<br />
worked as a security guard for Grand<br />
Rapids Public Schools from 1994<br />
until 2002. He takes extra pride in<br />
being able to mentor and coach the<br />
“troubled kids.”<br />
“I try and get them in the right<br />
direction,” Heard said. “That stems<br />
from the public schools when I<br />
worked there … as a security guard.<br />
They had a lot of troubled kids, a lot<br />
of kids that didn’t have a mom or a<br />
dad, or living with their grandparents<br />
and I tried to help those kids because<br />
they don’t know any different, they<br />
only know what they’re raised in.”<br />
For most of his childhood, Heard<br />
was surrounded by a negative<br />
environment at home. He is glad he<br />
experienced it, however, as it has<br />
allowed him to understand where the<br />
“troubled kids” are coming from.<br />
“To me it made me a better person,”<br />
Heard said. “When I was that troubled<br />
kid, I was an angry kid, mad at<br />
everything, (I thought) everybody was<br />
against me … it made me more understanding<br />
with the troubled kids.<br />
“Where some might go, ‘Oh, he’s a<br />
troubled kid, he’s a knucklehead, or a<br />
bad apple,’ whatever it is, without realizing,<br />
you don’t know what they’ve<br />
been through. It might be something<br />
else. You never know what it is, but<br />
I think I get a better understanding.<br />
So when I deal with people in the<br />
community, or kids that have been<br />
through a lot, I think I can read them<br />
a little better.”<br />
Heard thinks that this ability to<br />
“read” people has also helped him as<br />
a police officer.<br />
“It has helped with the calming<br />
down factor,” Heard said. “I’m always<br />
saying ‘Hey, calm down. I’m here<br />
now, bring it down, you can stop’ … I<br />
don’t judge right away. I don’t jump to<br />
conclusions. I try to figure the person<br />
out and do so safely.”<br />
After some trouble at home, Heard<br />
was welcomed into the home of his<br />
high school head football coach Bob<br />
Friberg and he said he appreciated<br />
the experience of living with his football<br />
coach because it allowed him to<br />
“live in both worlds” and realize that<br />
there was more to life than what he<br />
grew up in.<br />
“Living in the environment that I<br />
was in and moving over to living with<br />
my football coach, totally different,”<br />
Heard said. “I’m glad I experienced<br />
both worlds … getting myself more<br />
educated, knowing right from wrong.”<br />
He got close enough with the Friberg’s<br />
family that he considers them an<br />
extension of his own family.<br />
“I have three brothers and a sister<br />
on that side,” Heard said. “And that’s<br />
what we call each other, brothers and<br />
sisters … it kind of blows people’s<br />
minds when they see us because<br />
we call each other that… and we all<br />
spend the holidays together … I still<br />
see my other family too and things<br />
have gotten better on that end, but<br />
I’m really just lucky enough to have<br />
the two families.”<br />
Heard takes pride in his position at<br />
<strong>GRCC</strong>.<br />
“I’m basically in between the management<br />
positions and the officers,<br />
the guys I work with,” Heard said.<br />
“I’m still a part of the union and I<br />
listen to what they (police officers)<br />
have to say and what Chief has to say<br />
… you have to find the right balance<br />
between the two, but it’s still great to<br />
work with both parts.”<br />
Officer Kam Robles, who’s been<br />
with the <strong>GRCC</strong> Police Department for<br />
about six months has already felt the<br />
positive impact Heard has on people.<br />
“Since I’ve started here, he is<br />
probably my prefered type of leader,”<br />
Robles said. “He likes to get out and<br />
do the same stuff we (police officers)<br />
do. Not that I would expect that out<br />
of every single leader, but I think that<br />
someone who is able to supervise<br />
people efficiently and fairly and at<br />
the same time get out and do the<br />
work themselves earn a new level of<br />
respect from me.”<br />
Heard has committed to <strong>GRCC</strong> and<br />
he plans to stay for the rest of his<br />
career.<br />
“I love this place,” Heard said. “This<br />
is it for me, I don’t plan on going anywhere<br />
… at first I was thinking I was<br />
out of here after three years. Those<br />
three years went by and by that time,<br />
I realized that this place was really<br />
meant for me.”<br />
After Heard retires from law<br />
enforcement, he plans on spending<br />
more time with family.<br />
“Usually when I get out of work, I<br />
get out at 11 o’clock at night, so it’s<br />
kind of hard on my family. I was still<br />
able to make it to my kid’s sporting<br />
events by taking time off a little bit<br />
here, a little bit there, but I see them<br />
in the morning and then I don’t see<br />
them until the next day. So I’ll enjoy<br />
seeing them more.”<br />
30 | TheCollegiateLive.com
“When I was that<br />
troubled kid, I was<br />
an angry kid, mad<br />
at everything, (I<br />
thought) everybody<br />
was against me …<br />
it made me more<br />
understanding with<br />
the troubled kids.”<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 31
Marney Salmon<br />
Age 52, East Grand Rapids<br />
“I never would have pictured myself moving to<br />
Michigan. When we first moved I didn’t know what<br />
to expect. I was from Canada and was bringing my<br />
5-year-old daughter into the states with me. In order<br />
for me to be able to live here I had to be enrolled<br />
in school full-time. I didn’t know where I wanted to<br />
go or what I wanted to do, so I decided to enroll at<br />
<strong>GRCC</strong>. Shortly after, I met Alan, who is my husband<br />
now in the strangest of circumstances. When we met<br />
it was like everything that shouldn’t have gone right<br />
did. I was out with a friend where I almost didn’t go<br />
because I couldn’t find a sitter for my daughter. On<br />
the other hand, Alan was supposed to catch a flight<br />
back to England that day, but his trip had randomly<br />
gotten extended through the weekend. I saw him<br />
at the bar and he we got to talking but as the night<br />
ended we never exchanged numbers. The next night<br />
it so happened that I was able to go out again. Alan<br />
was there and he was looking for me. He had even<br />
gone out and bought a little outfit to impress me,<br />
it was cute. After that we immediately clicked and<br />
we’ve been married ever since. It’s strange to me to<br />
think that if I had never gone to the bar that night I<br />
may have never met my husband, I think it was fate<br />
that brought us both there.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Nikki Herrmann<br />
Natari Kumagai<br />
Age 23, Grand Rapids, born in Okinawa, Japan<br />
"My parents got divorced and my mom wanted us to learn English and<br />
get an education here, I'm doing a (3+1) program with Ferris and I'm going<br />
to be studying criminal justice. I don't want to be a cop, but criminal<br />
justice is such a broad degree that you could do a lot of things and I<br />
chose juvenile probation. I believe every little thing you go through in life<br />
builds who you are today, every little struggle and every little happiness<br />
made me who I am."<br />
Reporting and photo by Cesar Ayala<br />
32 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Sophia Vanmeeteren<br />
Age 19, Kentwood<br />
“You have this one body, one mind, one soul,<br />
you’re gonna want to love it as much as possible<br />
because that’s the only one you get. There’s<br />
only one you in the world, and so you might as<br />
well make the best of it. Do whatever you want,<br />
do what makes you happy, don’t worry about<br />
things you can’t control. If there’s something<br />
you don’t like about the world, do your best<br />
to change it if you want to. Make decisions for<br />
yourself that will make you happy.<br />
“Whatever comes at you in life, just take it one<br />
day at a time. Life isn’t supposed to be easy.<br />
There’s so much opportunity out there, so many<br />
great things to be living for and be happy<br />
about. Even if there’s something bad going on in<br />
life, you just have to keep moving forward and<br />
always find the positive in the negative.<br />
Reporting and photo by Priya Kaur<br />
Alexia Garcia<br />
Age 18, Lowell<br />
“I plan on going into advertising,<br />
this might sound really stupid,<br />
but it’s because I watched<br />
Mad Men a lot my senior year.<br />
There’s a lot of stereotypes with<br />
advertising and I hope if I become<br />
successful in life I’d like to<br />
change those stereotypes.”<br />
Reporting and photo<br />
by Cesar Ayala<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 33
Sharpening Skills,<br />
Opening New Doors<br />
Story and photo by Jill Rothwell<br />
34 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Grand Rapids Community<br />
College Secchia Institute<br />
for Culinary Education<br />
student Jacqui Bumstead,<br />
describes her decision to<br />
make a career change from teaching<br />
as her own “mid-life crisis.”<br />
“I was a teacher overseas for<br />
years in various, exotic corners<br />
of the earth, South Korea, Peru,<br />
Jamaica and Austria, finally ending<br />
up in Dallas,” said Bumstead,<br />
33. “I just wasn’t happy, felt a little<br />
lost after teaching, but didn’t want<br />
to step back into the classroom.”<br />
Bumstead made the move back<br />
to Michigan to regroup, take stock<br />
of her interests and advantage of a<br />
supportive extended family in Eaton<br />
Rapids. She was armed with<br />
two degrees, one in education, the<br />
other in history.<br />
Initially her career ideas<br />
ranged from singing in a band,<br />
training to be a masseuse or going<br />
to beauty school. Being single, her<br />
options were wide open. Taking<br />
the tour at <strong>GRCC</strong> Secchia Institute<br />
for Culinary Education was the<br />
lightbulb moment Bumstead was<br />
looking for.<br />
“Food makes me happy,”<br />
Bumstead said. “I always loved<br />
to cook, to be in the kitchen.<br />
It’s an amazing feeling to watch<br />
people enjoy my food and see the<br />
happiness it brings. Walking into<br />
the kitchen on tour with Professor<br />
Gendler and watching Professor<br />
Campbell work with the students,<br />
I knew this was where I needed<br />
to be. The sheer joy on his face<br />
(Campbell) helping the class<br />
create, you really got the sense<br />
he and the other professors cared<br />
about the students’ success.”<br />
“To someone considering the<br />
program, I would say do it. It’s<br />
amazing because the program<br />
doesn’t focus just on making food.<br />
It’s also about the historical influence<br />
of food. I Iove that aspect,<br />
being a history nerd.”<br />
The two-year program starts<br />
out with a semester of lecture<br />
courses such as food science,<br />
culinary math and cooking fundamentals,<br />
all before going into the<br />
kitchen. Knife skills, table service<br />
and international food production<br />
are some of the lab classes<br />
required before an internship.<br />
S0tudents graduate the program<br />
with the knowledge of how-to<br />
start their own business, calculate<br />
profit and loss and how to find<br />
investors.<br />
“My favorite cuisine is Asian.<br />
I know it’s a broad statement but<br />
I love playing around with spicy,<br />
red pepper pastes and soy sauces.<br />
It’s fun for me to experiment,”<br />
Bumstead said. “Grand Rapids has<br />
a great culinary scene but I’m not<br />
the biggest fan of the ice and cold.<br />
I miss the sun and heat. My long<br />
term goal would be to open a bed<br />
and breakfast in the Gulf Coast<br />
area in a small town off the beaten<br />
path.”<br />
Bumstead is in her second year<br />
of the program with one semester<br />
and a summer internship to finish<br />
her degree.<br />
“I’m so happy and fortunate<br />
to be a part of this program. My<br />
alarm goes off at seven. Instead<br />
of hitting the snooze button I’m<br />
excited to get up and go to school<br />
because I’m looking forward to<br />
what I’m going to learn.”<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 35
John Rothwell | Photo Editor<br />
Christopher Tyminski<br />
Age 40, Muskegon<br />
“I’m a machinist, live in Muskegon now. Once in awhile we come<br />
back here. This is actually where Melissa and I went on our first<br />
date, for a walk in Riverside Park. It’s a nice day when you get<br />
to fish. I don’t use live bait, I just use lures. There’s Pike, Crappie,<br />
Bass, Bluegill, Carp here in the river. If I caught a nice Crappie or<br />
White Bass I might eat them, but mostly it’s catch and release for<br />
me. This is one of my favorite places to fish (Riverside Park). Melissa<br />
and I met online a year ago, so it’s kind of like the anniversary<br />
of our first date here at the park.”<br />
Reporting by Jill Rothwell<br />
Melissa Medina<br />
Age 40, Muskegon<br />
“Christopher taught me how<br />
to fish. I had always wanted to<br />
learn how, even before meeting<br />
him but didn’t have anyone<br />
to teach me until we met. Last<br />
year he started me out with a<br />
fishing pole and a license. I’m<br />
not afraid to touch the fish but I<br />
don’t bait hooks with live bait.”<br />
Reporting by John Rothwell<br />
36 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Jesse Ballard<br />
Age 21, Holland<br />
“My big dream in life is to write plays and musicals and to<br />
have them performed. My love of theater began when<br />
I was young. I always took joy in reading lines at school<br />
assemblies or presenting to the class. I auditioned for plays<br />
in middle school and early high school, but I didn’t get any<br />
parts until I was a junior in high school. I mostly did stage<br />
crew work, but my first role started as an understudy but<br />
then I got the part when the actor could not make the<br />
performance.<br />
“In 2014 I was out to lunch with a friend when she suggested<br />
that I try writing my own plays besides just seeing them.<br />
The thought never crossed my mind, but I tried and found<br />
myself enjoying it, making it a hobby but hopefully a career<br />
someday. I am currently working on my second draft of my<br />
first two act play “Booked,” a comedy about two competing<br />
theaters.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Dawan Brown<br />
Jose Abreu<br />
Age 36, from Santiago, Dominican Republic<br />
“I am a graphic designer. I work for an advertising<br />
company and for a local newspaper. I am a father<br />
of four children, and in my free time I like to dance,<br />
and work with digital photography. I struggle with<br />
perfectionism, I like for stuff to be perfect. If they<br />
are not perfect, I get frustrated. I (also) want to<br />
improve my English. My company sent me (to CC)<br />
to improve my English because English is my second<br />
language.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Kiyrah Floyd<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 37
Trang Nguyen<br />
Age 18, Palawan, Philippines<br />
Originally my plan was to not go to college … My plan<br />
was to actually not even finish high school at all. I was<br />
going to drop out. Just a lot of things were happening at<br />
that time, so I never really expected to graduate. I came<br />
to CC because ... it was actually last minute, towards the<br />
(end of) senior year I was going through some depression<br />
and family problems so I didn’t apply to any colleges. I<br />
didn’t apply for scholarships and towards the very last<br />
minute my counselors, my teachers wanted me to at<br />
least apply to CC to see if I’d get in, and I did get in. So<br />
here I am. Because I am first generation, I am still pretty<br />
confused about what I am going to do, what I am supposed<br />
to do, what I want to do, obviously. I am so used<br />
to having my family tell me what to do so trying to be<br />
independent is just really, really, really foreign.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Kiyrah Floyd<br />
Micah Miller<br />
Age 20, Fort Wayne, Indiana<br />
“I occasionally go on walks and take photos. Photography<br />
is definitely a hobby for me. There is a<br />
beauty everywhere in this world and having a camera<br />
allows me to frame places which are important<br />
to me or pretty. I don’t necessarily focus on certain<br />
objects or people, I just take photos of environments<br />
I see when out and about. I really just frame places<br />
straight, horizontally and/or vertically and press a<br />
button. Afterwards I edit the photos to make them<br />
look extra pretty. My end goal is to take satisfying<br />
photos for myself and other to see. Photography<br />
means the world to me because I can photograph<br />
the world with ease. Each photo I take is a memory<br />
and I cherish them all.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Kevin Matienzo<br />
38 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Osbaldo Gonzalez<br />
Age 24, Holland<br />
“My parents are immigrants from Mexico … It was really hard because<br />
they went to New York and everything in New York is really<br />
expensive and my dad was the only one working. He pretty<br />
much worked all day, everyday, even Saturday and Sunday … I<br />
think he was being paid $7 an hour or even less just to pay rent<br />
and possibly some food. I look up to him and even until this day<br />
he wakes up at 3 a.m … He comes home, goes to work and he<br />
has nothing to complain about, so I really look up to my dad.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Arielle Jackson<br />
Corinne Vandersluis<br />
Age 19, Wyoming<br />
“I like talking to people, I like meeting people, I like<br />
figuring out their brains, their emotions, anything to<br />
help people. I’d love to be a writer but that’s not exactly<br />
sustainable. I mean sometimes, it's debatable.<br />
Something to do with writing, something to do with<br />
people, a journalist would be nice.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Matt Smith<br />
Mitchell Lough<br />
Age 27, Jenison<br />
“I don’t know where my life would be without her (girlfriend). Not only, you<br />
know, companionship, she’s just a wonderful person, she cares, she really<br />
cares. That was one of the things that really drew me to her. When we first<br />
met (6 years ago), and even now, she still does but not quite to the capacity<br />
that she did, she very much believed in things, she was very impassioned<br />
about a lot of things. Really, she cared. She was in demonstrations<br />
and protests. That’s one of the things that really drew me to her, I’m very<br />
laid back and it’s not that I don’t have beliefs. Sometimes it’s hard finding<br />
that motivation to really act upon your convictions, and she had that. I<br />
think that everybody should do that no matter what your beliefs are.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Priya Kaur<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 39
Alex Merrill<br />
Age 20, Jenison<br />
“It started with a<br />
hood, it’s a European<br />
modification<br />
scene. It’s called<br />
‘rat.’ But you just do<br />
a lot of rusting and<br />
I’ve included a lot of<br />
artwork and various<br />
things. I try to bring<br />
back a lot of things<br />
back like white walls<br />
because no one really<br />
does that anymore<br />
that stuff anymore, I<br />
just try to personalize<br />
it because I just want<br />
something different<br />
you see a lot of these<br />
random cars on the road they’re just plain. I have stuff like, the mirrors are like japanese cars, I’ve done<br />
stuff like plaid, but yeah it’s all my own artwork and it started about a year ago.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Cesar Ayala<br />
Gabriella Davis<br />
Age 21, Grand Rapids<br />
“I think it’s important to see people for who they<br />
really are. I look up to people’s personality traits.<br />
If I see someone that’s like really successful, I<br />
want to know why, what did they do to get that<br />
way? Or if somebody is like really outspoken,<br />
like what did they do to feel so confident to say<br />
whatever they want?”<br />
Reporting and photo by Priya Kaur<br />
40 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Julio Gomez<br />
Age 32, Grand Rapids<br />
“I didn’t know if I wanted to play music at a young age but I did<br />
want to be involved in some type (music). I remember listening<br />
to the oldies radio stations and hearing bands and wondering<br />
who are these bands and where did they come from and why<br />
are they doing this? That got me very intrigued. In middle school<br />
I ended up learning how to play guitar. My dad did not let me<br />
play his guitar, and that gave me extra incentive to take his guitar,<br />
steal it, and learn how to play it. One day he came home<br />
and saw me playing it and realized I knew how to play guitar<br />
and he bought me a guitar. That was when I was 11 and ever<br />
since I’ve been playing in bands.<br />
Reporting and photo by Matt Smith<br />
Michael Estle<br />
Age 19, Grand Rapids<br />
Samantha Louisekane<br />
Age 19, Lowell<br />
“I always looked up to my older sister because<br />
she's always done everything right<br />
and she has her life together super young."<br />
Reporting and photo by Cesar Ayala<br />
“I work at the YMCA and I also work at Anna’s House.<br />
I’m lead staff at the Y, so I’m pretty busy there most of<br />
the time. I teach swim<br />
lessons and I lifeguard<br />
a lot, I have to make<br />
sure people are doing<br />
a good job. My<br />
favorite thing about<br />
the Y is watching<br />
people change their<br />
lives on a daily basis,<br />
people who think that<br />
they might not have<br />
time for the gym but<br />
somehow get around<br />
to it, they work out<br />
and feel better about<br />
themselves. You see some people losing weight and<br />
getting healthy, more flexible and it just feels really<br />
good.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Gary Manier<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 41
freebird<br />
by Arielle Jackson<br />
Photos by John Rothwell<br />
When I was a little girl, I dealt with many<br />
changes. My once happily married parents<br />
were on their way to a divorce when something<br />
happened that would change my life<br />
forever. And I have lived with the secret for<br />
more than a decade.<br />
At 7 years old I was sexually abused. My<br />
innocence was stolen and I lived with the<br />
shame of being mistreated for years. I did not<br />
tell anyone about what happened because of<br />
how hard it would be to explain to others.<br />
When I started attending Union High<br />
School, I could not get it out of my head. The<br />
constant memories fluttering back into my<br />
head made me feel valueless. I began to think<br />
my body was a vessel and not in my possession.<br />
I began to act out by not caring about<br />
my choices, trying to make myself feel better,<br />
but it only made things worse. Some days<br />
after school I would come home and hide in<br />
my room while listening to “Runaway Love”<br />
by Ludacris and Mary J. Blige and cry myself<br />
to sleep. I began to realize how much being<br />
raped affected me and I tried to move on and<br />
forget it ever happened.<br />
The only problem with trying to forget<br />
about him sexually abusing me is when I have<br />
to see him every so often. He greets me with a<br />
“hello” and a smile on his face. He acts as if it<br />
never happened, while I’m wanting to say, “Do<br />
you even care about what you did to me? Do<br />
you feel bad for what you have done?” Instead<br />
I keep a smile and try to avoid being around<br />
him.<br />
During my junior and senior years of high<br />
school the lingering memories still remained.<br />
The thought that he could go on living his life<br />
without any regret for his actions or apology<br />
angered me, as I live with the pain and<br />
questions about why this unforgettable event<br />
ever happened. I decided to turn my depression<br />
and frustration into fuel and told myself<br />
I would not be a victim anymore, instead a<br />
survivor of an unjust crime and to let go of<br />
the past to move on.<br />
I forgave my persecutor for his actions,<br />
even if he was not worthy of my forgiveness. I<br />
needed to do this for myself to move on.<br />
Last fall during ArtPrize I decided to<br />
walk the blue bridge downtown. I noticed a<br />
42 | TheCollegiateLive.com
ArtPrize entry named “Unveiling.”<br />
There were several silk sheets on<br />
metal stands with words written<br />
on them. When I read the first<br />
one I saw the words, “I hate He<br />
gets to Live a Normal life” and the<br />
words, ‘He,’ ‘Live,’ and ‘Normal’ all<br />
in capital letters. I realized how<br />
much I could relate to this survivor.<br />
He lives “freely” while I live<br />
here with the pain he has caused.<br />
I also thought about how many<br />
other women and young girls have<br />
suffered and have lived the same<br />
life as I. When I read the next silk<br />
sheet, it described the events that<br />
happened to a young girl. She<br />
was 7 years old and she loved her<br />
grandfather, and unfortunately her<br />
grandfather did not love her in the<br />
same way. Instead of giving her the<br />
love and affection a grandfather is<br />
supposed to, he raped her.<br />
I continued to walk across the<br />
bridge reading each silk sheet and<br />
the saddening words, feeling the<br />
pain within their stories. When I<br />
reached the end of the bridge, there<br />
was as a stand with a sign describing<br />
the art entry and a folder with<br />
paper so that other survivors who<br />
have endured sexual abuse could<br />
write their stories, send them to<br />
the artists and let their stories be<br />
displayed as well. So I thought, why<br />
not tell my story? To allow others<br />
to know that molestation can happen<br />
at any age, even a 7-year-old. I<br />
grabbed a piece of paper from the<br />
beige folder, sat down on the grass<br />
near the bridge and began to write<br />
about that day. I then sent the letter<br />
to the artist, but it was too late for<br />
my story to be displayed. Instead I<br />
made another decision.<br />
My next step to finally overcome<br />
everything was to tell my parents.<br />
For 13 years, I kept this secret from<br />
them. When I noticed the “Unveiling”<br />
by Nichole Riley, I thought it<br />
was destiny. During ArtPrize my<br />
mother and I went to many entries<br />
and when we made our way to the<br />
Blue Bridge, I told her, “I have to<br />
tell you something after we look at<br />
this next ArtPrize entry.”<br />
She said okay and asked, “Why<br />
don’t you tell me now?”<br />
I told her I would after and we<br />
walked through the displays. She<br />
read several of the stories, then we<br />
walked to the side of bridge. I was<br />
nervous and did not want to tell<br />
her, and when I did she could not<br />
believe it.<br />
“It is hard to think about your<br />
daughter having to endure something<br />
like that,” she said. She<br />
looked at me in sorrow and extended<br />
her arms out to give me a hug.<br />
The idea of her daughter being<br />
abused pained her. She asked me<br />
why I didn’t tell her when I was<br />
younger and I replied, “Because I<br />
knew you would not believe me,<br />
something like that is not easy to<br />
tell.”<br />
I recently told my father what<br />
happened to me, too. He didn’t<br />
know what to say. When he finally<br />
did say something, he wanted to<br />
Jackson’s tattoo resembles her freedom as she<br />
learns to let go of her past.<br />
know who did this to me. I did not<br />
tell him who it was.<br />
“I am sorry you had to go<br />
through that,” he said. He told me<br />
that being able to tell others about<br />
it is one step closer to leaving it<br />
behind.<br />
Although it was difficult to tell<br />
my parents, I felt better in a way by<br />
allowing myself to talk about it. I<br />
felt that I could begin to move on<br />
and start a life that did not revolve<br />
around what happened. I never told<br />
the police, let alone my parents,<br />
about the sexual abuse because I<br />
was young and afraid.<br />
There are many times when<br />
I think about how if I didn’t tell<br />
my parents, how much this would<br />
affect my future. Would I still allow<br />
my past to control my life? Would I<br />
be the timid and anxious person I<br />
once was in high school? Opening<br />
up to my parents about what happened<br />
to me was one of the many<br />
things I never thought I would be<br />
brave enough to do. The courage<br />
to move forward and suppress the<br />
memories is what I have longed for<br />
all these years.<br />
Eight months ago I decided to<br />
get a tattoo, but did not know what<br />
to get. I found one that said “free”<br />
with a bird attached at the end. At<br />
first I did not understand the true<br />
meaning of it. Getting the tattoo<br />
because I was abused was not my<br />
initial intention but thinking about<br />
the meaning made me realize how<br />
free I feel now that I can finally let<br />
the past go. The tattoo became a<br />
sign of freedom. The freedom to<br />
think ahead and to not allow him to<br />
control my life. Now I can move on<br />
to the next chapter in my life, I do<br />
not know where it will take me but<br />
I embrace every moment I am able<br />
to live, free like a bird.<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 43
Leigh Morrison<br />
Age 22, Grand Rapids<br />
Right now I am looking at multicultural education programs so eventually what I am thinking is that<br />
I would like to either work for a place or start my own organization that goes into workplaces and<br />
schools and does trainings about diversity and the ways that we are often times prejudice toward<br />
other people even if we don’t intend to be or we don’t want to be. I’m kind of figuring out how can<br />
we address that and fix it so that we’re not hurting people intentionally or unintentionally. No one in<br />
my family has been directly involved with that (field of study). My mom was a teacher for a while. She<br />
taught mostly geography and history for middle school. She’s actually working in the nursing department<br />
here now. My dad is working in the department of institutional research and planning so he kind<br />
of does a bunch of stuff with data for the college. I guess in some ways their jobs have inspired me because<br />
we’re all kind of working for the college which serves a really diverse student body and trying to<br />
figure out how to make it the most accessible to different communities.<br />
Reporting and photo by Kiyrah Floyd<br />
44 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Luis Demas<br />
Age 24, Grand Rapids, born in Mexico<br />
“We’re managing right now. I work and my hours are<br />
pretty flexible, so I think we’ll be fine. In fact my girlfriend’s<br />
thinking about taking summer classes. I actually want to<br />
do one of those three month courses … like home remodeling<br />
over there in the tech center ... I haven’t really<br />
looked into it, kind of waiting for my girlfriend to finish her<br />
school, and then I plan on enrolling.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Kiyrah Floyd<br />
Jenna Yeazel<br />
Age 25, Holland<br />
“My health has been my biggest struggle since I<br />
was young, I have three chronic diseases, but it<br />
was a beautiful fight, and it still is.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Dawan Brown<br />
Rylee Wells<br />
Age 20, Wyoming<br />
“I’m writing a young-adult fiction book right now, but I kind of want<br />
to get to the adult genre, kind of romance thing. I work with children<br />
also, so I have a couple ideas for children books as well.<br />
John Rothwell | Photo Editor<br />
“I really never believed in having a role model. I kind of take different<br />
aspects from different people, and just kind of thrive to be the<br />
best person I can be. I don’t like looking up to just one person and<br />
wanting to be them. ‘Cause I don’t want to be them. I just want to<br />
be me.”<br />
Reporting by Marco Zamudio<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 45
Adraya Garrett<br />
Age 22, Ypsilanti<br />
“Growing up, my brother, sister and I had a social worker from<br />
child protective services that couldn't even keep our names<br />
straight. All of our names start with the letter ‘A’ and that was<br />
apparently too complicated for him. Just having someone there<br />
that’s supposed to protect you and doesn’t care is really hard,<br />
so I just want to be a better social worker for someone else. I’m<br />
a firm believer that everyone’s purpose should be to leave the<br />
world a better place when they go. Even if you touch only one<br />
person, that's enough. Just one person. Sometimes the smallest<br />
actions just keep going forward and people don’t even realize<br />
it.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Gary Manier<br />
Thomas Person<br />
Age 39, Grand Rapids<br />
“I’m pretty much laid back, I<br />
guess it<br />
depends<br />
on when<br />
I’m excited.<br />
Right<br />
now my<br />
mind is<br />
focused<br />
on this<br />
test I<br />
have<br />
to take<br />
in five<br />
minutes, but when I get out of<br />
here I’m going to be all smiles for<br />
this trip I’m going on. I’m excited,<br />
like everyone knows I’m going to<br />
Jamaica at my job, and they’re<br />
all excited for me and that puts a<br />
smile on my face.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Priya Kaur<br />
JJ Benzer<br />
Age 23, Grand Rapids<br />
“I’ve always had people<br />
ask me about the<br />
spots on my skin, sometimes<br />
people don’t<br />
notice, but when they<br />
do, they usually ask<br />
about it. I have Vitiligo,<br />
which is a disease that<br />
causes loss of skin color<br />
or blotches in the skin.<br />
Basically, when you’re<br />
about 3 or 4, the pigment-producing<br />
cells in<br />
your body stop working<br />
like they would for any<br />
normal person. Usually<br />
this disease spreads on<br />
people’s bodies their<br />
whole lives, but mine<br />
stopped by the time I<br />
was a teenager.”<br />
Reporting and photo<br />
by Nikki Herrmann<br />
46 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Mikah Townsend<br />
Age 20, Hudsonville<br />
“One unique thing about me is that I am autistic.<br />
I enjoy talking about my autism because I believe<br />
that I have this disorder for a reason. I was diagnosed<br />
early, in the second grade and that can really help<br />
because you can learn how to be you instead of worrying<br />
about fitting in because there is no use in it. I’ve<br />
learned to love my autism. There are more pros than<br />
cons in my opinion. You can blend in, you can act<br />
like you don’t have autism. I am very lucky, I am high<br />
functioning. Since I am high functioning, not many<br />
things bother me whereas I know of people who also<br />
have autism that struggle with sensory issues. I would<br />
say that I am very detail orientated. I get very distracted<br />
with paint, for example. It is very troublesome<br />
for me to notice a wall that hasn’t been properly<br />
glazed. As my mom would say, that makes my teeth<br />
itch. It’s kind of like the nails on the chalkboard sound<br />
but it’s with touch. Another random texture I can’t<br />
stand are tomatoes.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Hannah Burnis<br />
David Drummond<br />
Age 23, East Grand Rapids<br />
“I moved to East Grand Rapids from New Hampshire, which was a<br />
huge change. I found myself in a small and extremely wealthy town,<br />
but I absolutely loved it. I was the star athlete in high school and got<br />
an awesome scholarship to go to Saginaw Valley University. They<br />
have a decent football program so I decided to go for it. After a year<br />
of being in the program I dropped out and moved back home. It was<br />
hard moving back to such a small town where everyone knew I had<br />
dropped out of school. I felt like such a disappointment and needed<br />
to find a school to help me get back on my feet. I started attending<br />
Grand Rapids Community College, which helped me realize how important<br />
school actually is. Next year I will be transferring from Grand<br />
Rapids Community College to Ferris State University to play football<br />
yet again. It’s my passion, and I’m happy I could use <strong>GRCC</strong> as my<br />
backbone to set my priorities straight.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Nikki Herrmann<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 47
On the Rise:<br />
MSU redshirt junior<br />
making a name for<br />
himself through<br />
basketball<br />
Story and photos by Nathan Taylor<br />
Eron Harris is a Michigan State University<br />
shooting guard from the East Side of Indianapolis.<br />
A former high school basketball player<br />
at Lawrence North High School who had no<br />
offers going into his senior summer. A kid who<br />
gave up on the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)<br />
circuit.<br />
“I quit AAU from the sixth grade to my sophomore<br />
year,” Harris said. “I wasn't getting any<br />
playing time when I was playing for these top<br />
teams, like the Indy Stars and 100% Hoopers.<br />
Those were the two best teams in the state.”<br />
Harris’ parents decided it would be best to<br />
48 | TheCollegiateLive.com
train.<br />
“I would stay everyday, at least five<br />
hours a day, during the offseason,”<br />
Harris said. “When you love basketball<br />
you will be there to just do drills.”<br />
Harris’ father was the only person<br />
who trained Eron growing up.<br />
“All we did was just hoop with my<br />
older brother,” Harris said. “My dad<br />
played against us my whole life.”<br />
Harris said he was a “YouTube<br />
junkie,” watching videos of Kobe<br />
Bryant and Michael Jordan, his two<br />
favorite players growing up.<br />
“I would study their movements,”<br />
Harris said. “While my dad just rebounded<br />
for me.”<br />
The summer before his senior year<br />
of high school, an opportunity came<br />
from the Indiana Elite AAU team,<br />
who gave Harris a call to fill in for<br />
Yogi Ferrell who is now entering the<br />
NBA Draft. Harris did well, and Indiana<br />
Elite kept him on the roster the<br />
rest of the summer.<br />
“At the end of that summer I had<br />
about 15 offers,” Harris said. He didn’t<br />
sign his letter of intent.<br />
At the last second, Harris’ high<br />
school coach called a coach on<br />
West Virginia University’s basketball<br />
team. They thought he would fit in<br />
the system well. The coaches were<br />
impressed.<br />
“I did amazing in these workouts,”<br />
Harris said. “Coach Huggins came<br />
down on the second day. He came to<br />
my house that night and offered me at<br />
my house.”<br />
Harris thrived at WVU, averaging<br />
just under 10 points a game his freshman<br />
year. His sophomore year he<br />
broke out averaging over 17 points a<br />
game. He was named a Big 12 Honorable<br />
Mention for all-conference.<br />
Eron’s first major was journalism.<br />
“I wanted to get into something that<br />
dealt with photography and video,”<br />
Harris said. “I thought it would be<br />
something smooth where I could<br />
focus on basketball as well too.”<br />
Now, Harris is majoring in sociology.<br />
Almost out of the blue, Harris<br />
announced his plans to transfer<br />
elsewhere.<br />
“My heart wasn’t in a good place<br />
there,” Harris said. “My heart brought<br />
me here.”<br />
Harris said his two years at WVU<br />
played a key part in his path.<br />
“I have a high appreciation for that<br />
stage in my life,” Harris said.<br />
MSU coach Tom Izzo made a call to<br />
Harris’ father in hopes of recruiting<br />
Harris to the team. In the end it came<br />
MSU redshirt junior Harris sits in<br />
front of his locker in the Michigan<br />
State locker room.<br />
down to three schools, MSU, Purdue<br />
University, and the University of<br />
Michigan.<br />
Harris sat out his junior year at<br />
MSU under NCAA transfer rules..<br />
“Once I came to Michigan State,<br />
we had it all planned out and just the<br />
image of it was perfect, so me and<br />
my parents all agreed that this is the<br />
place I wanted to go.<br />
“My redshirt (junior) year, I gained<br />
a lot of confidence,” Harris said. “I got<br />
to play against the guys totally free.”<br />
One of Harris’ philosophies is that<br />
everything happens for a reason.<br />
“This past year was my first time<br />
ever being in the tournament so I<br />
don't really know what it's like going<br />
super far in the tournament,” Harris<br />
said. “Being a great basketball player,<br />
you know, I know what went wrong<br />
what we could've done a little bit<br />
better in that game, but, we had a historical<br />
season so we can’t down that.”<br />
“We're definitely going to look back<br />
at this season to be balanced on attack<br />
to where we get into a situation<br />
when we’re one and done, I want to<br />
have multiple guys to be able to help<br />
out and bring some energy.”<br />
Harris said his team didn’t do as<br />
well they should have in their 90-81<br />
loss to Middle Tennessee State on<br />
March 18.<br />
Harris said his message to MSU<br />
fans would be to stick with them.<br />
“If you don't like us anymore that's<br />
okay because we're going to be back,”<br />
Harris said. “We are looking for revenge<br />
to prove ourselves.”<br />
Harris reminds himself daily of his<br />
goals to win a championship and get<br />
into the NBA.<br />
“I'm just trying to get my schoolwork<br />
done, eat right, get into the gym<br />
even when I don't feel like it,” Harris<br />
said. “You can't slack off. You have to<br />
be the hardest worker at this level.”<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 49
James Reed<br />
Age 19, Grand Rapids<br />
“One time I was sitting<br />
down and playing and<br />
a random homeless guy<br />
came up to me and asked<br />
me if I wanted money for<br />
playing. I was like no man,<br />
I’m just playing for the hell<br />
of it, I like the music. So he<br />
sat down next to me and<br />
asked if he could play. He<br />
started strumming the craziest<br />
chords I’ve heard in my<br />
life. He was very talented, it<br />
blew me out of the water.<br />
Reporting and photo<br />
by Matt Smith<br />
Marlyn Chub Bolom<br />
Age 22, Guatemala<br />
“I want to start my own business. Before, I wanted<br />
to be a social worker, but I didn’t like the field. I’m<br />
not from here. I’m from Guatemala, and I want to<br />
go back there and build a school for kids that are<br />
not able to go to school or don’t have the financial<br />
background to go to school. I love to help<br />
people. That’s my goal. I care about others.<br />
Photo by Cesar Ayala<br />
“I came here seven years ago. I got a scholarship<br />
to come here. The program was for four years of<br />
high school and four years of college. But after<br />
the first four years, they didn’t have enough<br />
funds. And so they were gonna send me back to<br />
Guatemala. But then luckily for me, my host family<br />
took me in. So they’re taking care of me right<br />
now. I came here for education.”<br />
Reporting by Marco Zamudio<br />
50 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Melissa Lucas<br />
Age 19, Grand Rapids<br />
“(I look up to) my parents. I think specifically my dad just<br />
because he came to the U.S. at such a young age, and<br />
he went through so many struggles when he was young. I<br />
know, for example, when he was young he was into alcohol,<br />
so he did used to drink a lot when I was younger. But<br />
thankfully he kind of met God along the way. That really<br />
changed him as a person. I’ve seen him change as a<br />
person, and that really has influenced me to be a better<br />
person.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Cesar Ayala<br />
Whitney Penn<br />
Age 22, Grand Rapids, student cashier at Raider Grille<br />
“I’m going to school for political science, politics. I want<br />
to be President of the United States. I know it’d give me<br />
gray hair, but that’s my dream.<br />
“I come here at 6:30 in the morning. I do everything you<br />
all eat here. Tuesdays and Thursdays I do the cash register.”<br />
Reporting by Marco Zamudio<br />
Sam Dame<br />
Age 19, Born in Grandville<br />
“I’m a pretty quiet guy but I think of<br />
that in a good way.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Andy McDonald<br />
Photo by John Rothwell | Photo Editor<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 51
Alvaro Chachagua<br />
Age 22, El Salvador<br />
“What makes me happy?<br />
Getting good news from my<br />
family and talking with them.<br />
They live in El Salvador. It’s<br />
been almost six years. I have<br />
not seen my family.<br />
In my country, we don’t have<br />
too much work, so in 2010 I<br />
come to the United States<br />
with my brother Pedro. We<br />
took busses to cross Guatemala<br />
and then a boat to<br />
cross from Guatemala to<br />
Mexico. After that, we were<br />
on the street walking our way<br />
to the United States. For two<br />
weeks, we walked to catch<br />
the first train in Mexico. We<br />
had to catch nine trains to<br />
get to Texas. But when we got<br />
to Texas, we got caught by<br />
border patrol. They kept me<br />
there for six months and my<br />
brother was deported. But for<br />
me, I had some help from a<br />
program that helps refugees<br />
(Bethany Christian Services).<br />
They put me in foster care for<br />
two years and helped me until<br />
I turned 21. They also gave<br />
me school, a caseworker and<br />
helped me to get legal in the<br />
United States.”<br />
Reporting and photo<br />
by Marco Zamudio<br />
52 | TheCollegiateLive.com
Mansehaj Singh<br />
Age 21, Big Rapids<br />
“My religion, Sikhism, gives me a way to express<br />
myself, it gives me an aim in life. Whatever I do,<br />
I try to do it through my religion because it has<br />
shaped every aspect of my life. It’s a really easy<br />
religion, all it tries to imply is that we should<br />
love and remember God. Whatever we do, we<br />
should try to do it with an honest heart and we<br />
should care about others. If we can help someone,<br />
we should. It says that God resides in everything,<br />
so we should treat everything around<br />
us with respect. I still do not consider myself<br />
religious. I guess it depends on how you define<br />
being religious. I don’t consider Sikhism to be a<br />
religion, more of a philosophy to live by. I think<br />
it’s a really open thing, all it does is encourage<br />
you to love your surroundings, love God, serve<br />
others, and find true happiness through that.<br />
“The reason I don’t call myself religious, is because<br />
it just so happens that I can connect my<br />
whole life to Sikhism, my experiences matched<br />
up with what I read. I could relate to it, I had<br />
already experienced things I learned about, it<br />
wasn’t that I learned something and then experienced<br />
something spiritual. It’s not like Sikhism<br />
changed who I am, it just encouraged me to<br />
do a few things differently, and I guess I don’t<br />
know what people define religion as. For me,<br />
it’s sort of blind faith in something that was written<br />
a long time ago, not that it’s a bad thing.<br />
“I don’t even know what being religious means.<br />
You should just be a nice person, and believe in<br />
God and you can experience everything on a<br />
better level. I don’t believe a specific religion to<br />
be any better than another, and I don’t believe<br />
the concept of being religious. I think all religions<br />
end up talking about the same thing in<br />
the sense that they try to attain enlightenment,<br />
it might be through different paths, but in the<br />
end they’re all trying to attain enlightenment.”<br />
Reporting and photo by Priya Kaur
The Art of a<br />
Survivor<br />
by Jill Rothwell<br />
Photo by John Rothwell | Photo Editor<br />
Grand Rapids Community College Paul Collins Art<br />
Gallery recently featured a show entitled the “Feminist<br />
Art Exhibit” that drew one of the gallery’s largest<br />
crowds to date. The collaborative was 17 <strong>GRCC</strong><br />
student artists, Devin Hankinson being one.<br />
“My photography in the exhibit was a means to back myself<br />
in my decision to not report my sexual assault this year,”<br />
Hankinson, 20, said. “I didn’t have enough hard evidence,<br />
didn’t fight back hard enough, so I didn’t have any bodily<br />
proof.”<br />
Hankinson is a survivor of date rape. ‘No Proof’ was her<br />
way of poignantly and publicly revealing the details of her<br />
sexual assault through photography. Her therapy is being<br />
open and candidly talking to others about what happened. She<br />
keeps a journal as a method of therapeutic recall.<br />
“I sat alone with the assault for a while before I said it out<br />
loud,” Hankinson said. “I told a few friends because I was in<br />
shock. I thought, I can’t not tell someone. I needed someone<br />
for me.”<br />
Prior to the exhibit Hankinson had not found a way to tell<br />
her dad about the assault. She sat with him the night before<br />
the show.<br />
“At first I didn’t want my dad to find out,” Hankinson said.<br />
“I didn’t want him showing up in a room full of people and<br />
finding out. This way he had some time alone to process. He’s<br />
obviously worried for me. It happened a long time ago for me,<br />
but for my dad it just happened. He’s still getting used to me<br />
being okay now.”<br />
Hankinson, who is from Belmont, lives locally with her<br />
family and considers it a safety net that allows her to explore<br />
her art. She noted that her art is not necessarily a reflection of<br />
her experiences but more of artists she admires.<br />
“Art really makes me happy,” Hankinson said. “I have many<br />
favorite artists, from a number of periods and mediums. To<br />
name one favorite would be impossible.”<br />
As an art history major, Hankinson aspires to be a curator<br />
at an art museum or gallery. Her next move is to find a fouryear<br />
school to transfer to where she can complete her degree.<br />
One of her top picks is Central Michigan University because of<br />
their photography program, her preferred medium.<br />
“If I could stay here at <strong>GRCC</strong> and finish my degree, I would.<br />
All my family lives in this area. I’m big on family and their<br />
support,” Hankinson said.<br />
Her openness on connecting with and meeting other survivors<br />
has helped her heal. Having that perspective she feels it<br />
has made it easier for others to open up and connect with her.<br />
“There are after effects on my personality, some have told<br />
me I’m too open and bring it up too soon in conversation with<br />
new friends,” Hankinson said. “It happens to a lot of people.<br />
No one should be ashamed to talk about it.”<br />
54 | TheCollegiateLive.com
LIFE<br />
BEYOND<br />
THE CHAIR<br />
by Jennifer Lugo<br />
Photo by Kayla Tucker | Editor-in-Chief<br />
Out on the ice, Chelsea Perry propels<br />
herself along the length of<br />
the hockey rink using only upper<br />
body strength and two hockey sticks,<br />
seated in a sled built for the ice. Since<br />
the age of 8, Perry has used hockey and<br />
other sports to build herself up, mentally,<br />
emotionally, and physically.<br />
Perry, 25, is a student majoring in<br />
Recreational Therapy at Grand Rapids<br />
Community College, but outside of<br />
school, she plays hockey, basketball,<br />
downhill snow skiing, water skiing, and<br />
fencing.<br />
Perry spends a lot of her time<br />
engaged in sports, as she has always<br />
found motivation and independence in<br />
being part of that environment.<br />
“Whatever time I have left over, I<br />
choose to use for sports stuff,” said<br />
Perry. “I was given those opportunities<br />
to start those at a young age.”<br />
Born with Spina Bifida, and having<br />
holes in the L3 and L4 vertebrae in her<br />
lower spine, caused Perry to have paralysis<br />
below the knees. Although she<br />
uses a wheelchair, she still makes the<br />
effort to walk with crutches around the<br />
house to keep herself mobile.<br />
Despite this, she continues to do<br />
what any other adult her age would do<br />
- go out with friends, attend college full<br />
time, and play sports.<br />
Perry plays for the Grand Rapids<br />
Sled Wings, an adaptive sports team,<br />
that gives people with disabilities the<br />
chance to play hockey in sleds instead<br />
of standing up.<br />
Adaptive sports are led by recre-<br />
TheCollegiateLive.com | 55
ational therapists at facilities like Mary<br />
Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, and<br />
allow disabled people to be given the<br />
same opportunity to play as everyone<br />
else.<br />
Sled Wings Coach Steve Kozlowski<br />
has coached Perry for the last eight<br />
years. He said Perry is a role model for<br />
younger players.<br />
Perry coaches an adaptive sports<br />
team in addition to her playing for the<br />
Sled Wings.<br />
“We have an eight year old that just<br />
started,” Kozlowski said. “It’s great that<br />
we can look at her and say ‘Hey, look at<br />
Chelsea. She’s been here for 14 years,’<br />
and their eyes light up like ‘Wow, that’s<br />
a long time.’ That’s longer than they’ve<br />
been alive, so it shows that they can<br />
enjoy it and continue to enjoy it into<br />
adulthood.”<br />
According to the Rinks to Links<br />
website, Grand Rapids Sled Wings,<br />
sponsored in partnership with Mary<br />
Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, was<br />
the first junior-level sled hockey team<br />
in Michigan. They were founded in<br />
2001 and the team travels around the<br />
country.<br />
Perry’s idea of seeking a recreational<br />
therapy degree comes from her active<br />
role in Sled Wings, and being a part of<br />
the recreational therapy program at<br />
Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital.<br />
“I’m a typical college student,” said<br />
Perry said. “I like to go to movies. I<br />
like to go out to eat with people. In the<br />
summertime my friends and I like to<br />
find concerts to go to.”<br />
Perry currently works on the second<br />
floor of the Library Learning Center, at<br />
“The P.L.A.C.E,” a drop-in tutorial lab<br />
at <strong>GRCC</strong>, as a front desk assistant. She<br />
likes working there and finds it rewarding<br />
to be the first face that people see<br />
when they seek help.<br />
An average day for Perry includes<br />
daily struggles with getting dressed,<br />
getting in and out of vehicles, and overcoming<br />
a learning deficit that comes<br />
56 | TheCollegiateLive.com<br />
along with the physical portion of her<br />
disease. One of her biggest struggles,<br />
she said, is time management as it<br />
takes her twice as long to accomplish<br />
small tasks.<br />
“I just recently got my license, so<br />
when I go to leave the house now,<br />
I have to not only count the time it<br />
actually takes to physically get in the<br />
car and drive somewhere, but also the<br />
extra couple minutes it takes to load<br />
up my chair, or the forearm crutches I<br />
walk with,” Perry said.<br />
Perry’s family understands her<br />
struggle, but they acknowledge that it<br />
doesn’t stop her from being who she<br />
wants to be.<br />
“It’s easy to look at someone in a<br />
wheelchair and think, ‘Oh their legs<br />
don’t work, or ‘Oh, they can’t walk like<br />
me,’” said Perry’s sister, Lauren Perry.<br />
“It’s a big part of what she’s dealt with<br />
all her life, but I think there’s a lot left<br />
for her to do and accomplish, because<br />
she can do anything she sets her mind<br />
to.”<br />
Perry’s best friend, Renee Short, 30,<br />
of Grand Rapids, has known her for 15<br />
years. Perry and Short met as teammates<br />
on a hockey league, and they<br />
hang out quite frequently on weekends.<br />
“She’s a good friend,” Short said.<br />
“She’ll be there to lift you up, be there<br />
as a shoulder to cry on, whether you<br />
need a friend, or just a few laughs.”<br />
She is currently striving towards<br />
the goal of moving out of her parents’<br />
house.<br />
Perry’s twin brother, Pat Perry, said<br />
he wants to see her be able to have the<br />
same opportunities as him, when she<br />
moves out on her own.<br />
“I’ve always encouraged her since<br />
the beginning about being independent<br />
and moving out,” her brother said. “I’m<br />
excited and anxious to see her in a<br />
place where she can get to experience<br />
all these small, wonderful things about<br />
adult life.”<br />
Perry recently won the Youth Leadership<br />
and Inclusion Award at the Invest<br />
in Ability dinner last October. This is an<br />
event put on through The Advocates of<br />
Disabilities of Kent County, an organization<br />
which helps young adults direct<br />
independence throughout adulthood.<br />
Former Grand Rapids Mayor George<br />
Heartwell presented the award to her<br />
and she had a chance to speak with<br />
Heartwell about challenges facing the<br />
disabled community.<br />
“It was a huge honor to be there and<br />
to be able to kind of start to speak on<br />
issues that affect me, and issues that<br />
affect people that I know,” Perry said.<br />
“I’ve always felt like I was a part of<br />
something bigger. The fact that people<br />
want to know what I think, and people<br />
want to know where I’ve been at, and<br />
what my story is really means a lot.”<br />
A couple issues Perry mentioned to<br />
the Mayor were wheelchair accessibility<br />
around the city and snow removal<br />
on sidewalks.<br />
“In the dreams I’m pursuing, I’m<br />
always conscious of the fact that I’m<br />
doing what I do because I love it and<br />
because it’s my dream, but at the same<br />
time, I’m speaking and acting on behalf<br />
of people who aren’t always heard,”<br />
Perry said.<br />
Perry speaks out for people like<br />
herself because she understands the<br />
stigmas and stereotypes that the world<br />
has yet to conquer.<br />
“People without disabilities should<br />
not make assumptions,” Perry said.<br />
“Because the generalization and the<br />
assumption typically is that people<br />
with any type of disability have to be<br />
counted out and that’s just not true.”<br />
Perry hopes people with impairments<br />
hear her story and get inspired<br />
to enhance their quality of life.<br />
“If we’re advocating for ourselves,<br />
and connecting with the right people I<br />
think that things will start changing,”<br />
Perry said. “Because we’re saying that<br />
we deserve to be in the world using<br />
talents, passions, and skills just like
somebody that doesn’t have<br />
an impairment. That’s what<br />
adaptive sports is to me. That’s<br />
how I show people that would<br />
only typically see the chair, that<br />
there’s something beyond that.”<br />
The athlete understands that<br />
she has been given more than<br />
some people as far as opportunities<br />
go. She said she feels<br />
lucky to have the support and<br />
love that she has in her life,<br />
from her family, coaches, and<br />
friends.<br />
This support group includes<br />
her sister, Lauren Perry, who<br />
lives in Tennessee.<br />
“I think she’s ready to have<br />
her independence,” said her<br />
sister. “I think it’ll help everything<br />
about her life. She’ll get to<br />
go and step out of the bedroom<br />
that me and her shared for<br />
years. I see why it’s scary, and<br />
it may be taking her longer than<br />
some people.”<br />
Perry wants the world to understand<br />
that she doesn’t allow<br />
her failures<br />
to get in the<br />
way of what<br />
she is trying<br />
to accomplish<br />
and she lives<br />
a normal<br />
life, just like<br />
everyone else,<br />
despite her<br />
impairments.<br />
She encourage<br />
others to do<br />
the same.<br />
“I wake up<br />
everyday and<br />
I’m lucky to<br />
do the things I<br />
do,” she said.<br />
“I’m not in a<br />
place where<br />
I’m mad at the<br />
situation I’m<br />
in. Anything<br />
can be worked<br />
around when<br />
you have the<br />
guts and the<br />
wherewithal<br />
to say ‘This is<br />
my goal. This<br />
is my dream.<br />
I’m not going<br />
to stop until it<br />
happens.’”<br />
Photo by Jennifer Lugo<br />
Advertorial<br />
Yes, you can be<br />
a manager<br />
Northwood University Announces New<br />
Management Degree for Non-Business Majors<br />
You know how to work in your chosen field – now learn how to manage in it.<br />
Northwood University is proud to announce a new management degree for nonbusiness<br />
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