My dad and mom were both Dutch immigrants. Both journeyed to Canada with their families in the 1950s in search of a better life, including for the next generation. Though my dad was 18 when he emigrated, and spoke little to no English, he decided to become an English major in college and later taught both English and machine shop at South Huron District High School in my hometown of Exeter, Ontario.
Consequently, it was impossible to make a grammatical error of speech around him and not have it corrected. And books were a central figure in our house growing up. As a result, I became a decent writer in high school and decided to also be an English major at Calvin, along with a journalism minor.
Over the years I have always done some work as a freelance writer, along with a lifelong focus on public relations as my primary career. In 2010, I went back to school part time (one class per semester), and over the next four years I completed a master’s degree in communications at Grand Valley State University, a degree that allowed me to do some undergraduate teaching at the college level in the advertising and public relations fields.
In the summer of 2019, I began my own freelance writing and communications business and soon after also began writing for School News Network. As a college professor, I always had a strong sense that the next generation was pretty amazing and that our world would be in good hands with them. It’s been great at SNN to see that the same is true for this next generation of K-12 students.
In my spare time, I play pick-up hockey with a great group of guys (and some women) and pickleball in a local ladder league, also with a great group of guys (and some women). I also try, with my wife, Sue, to keep tabs on our two adult children (one is doing a post-graduate leadership internship in Indianapolis with the NCAA and the other is a student in Grand Rapids Community College’s culinary program).