Faith in Youth: Giving Hope to Kids

Hello! My name is Michael Dirksen and I am an AmeriCorps member serving in Holland, Michigan. In what little free time I have, I enjoy watching bad movies, making obscure Harry Potter references, and pointless road trips. Along with a handful of other Michigan's AmeriCorps members, I represent the Faith in Youth partnership where we focus on mentoring and educating youth along Michigan’s lakeshore. We do this through after-school programming, mentoring, summer recreation programming, and alternative suspension programs.

If you have ever heard anything about Holland, Mich, I know by this point you are probably thinking about that quiet Dutch suburb of Grand Rapids known for its small Christian college and a huge festival that celebrates tulips. Though I am a proud graduate of that college and a huge fan of tulip time, I am here to tell you about the other side of the mid-west coastal town that I have come to know through my time at West Ottawa’s alternative suspension program.

When a kid gets suspended, it’s almost never because of one mistake. More often than not, it’s the last resort for addressing a long line of behavior issues. These behavior issues, which Holland has come to know so well, often stem from the same problem: home. Every day, society forces the poverty class into a survivalist mentality which can lead to what the middle class defines as absent parenting. While other structural factors like gangs, drugs, and peer pressure obviously lead kids into our program, our problem in Holland begins and ends here. This is the cycle of poverty.

Everyday, my Ameri-awesome team and I come in to serve these kids, not only as a teacher but as an advocate, mentor, and friend as well. Though our main goal is teaching them so they can re-enter school without falling further behind, our not-so-latent goals are much more important. One day at the suspension program I will never forget involved a student who was only suspended for two days but was desperately behind in math. After a significant amount of frustration and working with him for almost two straight days, we had finally made a bit of progress. Before he left he looked at me and said, “No one has ever helped me like that before. I really can do this, can’t I?” This student’s problem was never a lack of ability, but his own lack of self-confidence reinforced by the expectations placed on him. We use the suspension program to tell these students, sometimes for the first time, that they can do this. That is how we fight the cycle of poverty.

My own middle school experiences lead me to believe suspension and expulsion were about as common and just as devastating as getting struck by lightning. Fortunately, that is not true. Students come and go, and even after making them do that math test again, confiscating their cell phones almost daily, and saying the phrase “lets get back to work” like a broken record, the students consistently say the suspension program helped them do better once they returned to school. Finally, though the program has only been around for a few years, we have many kids well on the way towards graduation. While we are by no means trying to save the world nor are we the only support these students have in their educational lives, but I can say, without a doubt in my mind, the suspension program is working to end the cycle of poverty in the lives of the students we see.

You may be wondering why exactly am I serving with the alternative suspension program. I did not major in education nor do I have any intention of working in a school after this year. Still, I would not trade this experience for anything. I am working with the alternative suspension program because I believe there is something better for these kids, their families, and this city. I believe it is up to us to teach these kids when the schools have deemed them unteachable; to advocate for them when society has tossed them aside; and to value them when they no longer value themselves. And I believe that starts right here, right now.