Joy Walczak, Host (JW): Welcome to the Your Dream Is Our Dream podcast where we celebrate student success one dream at a time. This program is made possible by Kent ISD in partnership with WGVU. I'm Joy Walczak and today I'm talking with Karen Barrose, a Kent County Sheriff's Department Deputy and Gregg Isenhoff, Work-Based Learning Coordinator at Kent ISD. Thanks to both of you for being here today.
Karen Barrose (KB) and Gregg Isenhoff (GI): Thanks for having us.
JW: We're really excited to have this conversation. And we are right now at East Kentwood High School. And we're here, Karen, because you are a school resource officer at Kentwood Public Schools. But not long ago, you were also a high school student at Godwin and also at Kent Career Tech Center. Can you tell me about the program that helped you get into the position you're in today?
KB: Yeah, for sure. Again, thank you for having us. Being at KCTC was great for me. It really gave me that space to not only find good staff, good friends, and also my education. You know, that's where everything started for me.As I was going through high school, I was very unsure of what exactly I wanted to do, but taking that CJ program class really made a difference for me. And I just can't be any more grateful to KCTC and to my instructors who's here, one of them is here today. It was a blessing and I owe a lot to them for where I'm at now.
JW: Fantastic. Greg, I know you work every day to help connect students with real life opportunities in your career now as a work-based learning coordinator, but you were once Karen's instructor in the Criminal Justice program at Kent Career Tech Center. Tell us how that program helps students like Karen succeed, and what do you remember about Karen from that time?
KB: Okay, so as soon as, first I'm gonna take that last part, I'm gonna answer that first. So, as soon as I saw your email with Karen Barrose, immediately your face came right into my vision. I was like, no way, Karen! And it's really interesting when you start seeing students, because Karen was always a good student, always smiling, always had a good attitude during class. And part of the thing is, when I saw that she was working for Kent County Sheriff's Department, I'm starting to see more and more of those students that I've had working in all the different agencies. One, I'm super proud of Karen. It's so cool watching you in the place that you are. Two, I used to, when I worked for Kentwood PD, I did the D.A.R.E. program at East Kentwood schools.So now I see you in East Kentwood schools, kind of doing what I did, Hebrew we say L'dor V'dor, generation to generation.
KB: For sure.
GI: Back to the C.J. program, the stuff that we put in as instructors to the students, we bring on from the generations to generations of law enforcement. With that being said, I got to take it to my mentor, Tom Lamika. Tom Lamika said, Gregg, nobody cares, and this goes for all teachers listening - nobody cares to know how much information you know. He goes, everybody doesn't care because they'll forget about what you said moments later. But what they will remember is an experience. And what I want to say is every day in CJ, what we try to do to bring to the students is an experience that would be something that they would remember forever in that learning process. So bringing real life scenarios to the program really enhances learning. And I think that's what we did well in criminal justice.
JW: Karen, I'm sure that you probably agree with what Mr. Isenhoff just said, but can you share with us how your CJ training at KCTC really did apply to what you're doing today?
KB: Yeah, like I can think back to being in class and we were learning like investigations and kind of like the questions that he just said.Those are moments where you really have to take into account, okay, who am I talking to? What are their rights? What do we have to get out of this conversation?And a lot of times I've learned even throughout my career, it's not always about just getting to those questions as fast as you can. It's about actually building that rapport with the individual, um getting down to their level, even if it's with a little kid, like here, you know, some little kids go through tough things in life. And setting down at that level with them is what really sets me aside from someone else.I want everybody that I'm talking to to feel comfortable, you know, to know that I do have that empathy, that support, encouragement to help them, whatever they're going through, and be there, hold their hand as they're going. I really do enjoy my job but I really see myself more as the person who is just there and with this kind of job we really show up in people's worst moments, and realizing that, you know, sometimes people may lash out or have certain conversations that you might think, like, wow, I didn't expect that, but just know that you were there for that person during that time is really rewarding to me. And just knowing that I can make that person's life a little different, even if it's, you know, hey, I know that police officer actually cared when I was talking to them.
JW: And your time at KCTC helped you establish some of those skills that you're now describing.
KB: 100%! Just investigations, handcuffing. I mean, by the time I got to, you know, my education at Ferris or at GRCC through the police academy, I kind already knew a lot of the stuff that we had talked to just from KCTC. So honestly, it was just kind of like refresher for me and just knowing how to, you know, be professional. That was a huge thing that my instructors at KCTC always told us be professional. You're not just representing yourself. You're representing KCTC, your school, your future department, your family. So I really took that at heart and you know, here I am.
JW: Fantastic. And Gregg, it's also about building those community partnerships, which KCTC and Kent ISD strive to do every day. Can you tell us how those partnerships really enhance a student's experience?
GI: Absolutely. When we look at work-based learning, this was something we did in CJ way before pretty much any of the programs really did this.And when I jumped on board with the criminal justice program, we only had police officers sitting on that board. And our advisory board, said, it has to grow. We brought on, at that point, I started reaching out to all my contacts from juvenile probation, juvenile corrections, juvenile…everything that deals with juvenile…everything that deals with the federal special agent side of things, so I brought on all the special agents from all the federal agencies in Grand Rapids including all the juvenile services, different attorneys, and we brought the whole community of criminal justice together, put them on an advisory board to look at our curriculum in the way that we could look at it and say, how do we enhance the student skills to diversify the different career paths that they could take within the criminal justice system, because a lot of students would come in and they don't necessarily want to be a police officer. Maybe they want to be an attorney.Okay, so watching that happen and letting kids find that avenue and bringing in guest speakers to talk about how they got into that career, because a lot of kids are like, oh my gosh, you're a special agent. You're like somebody special. And they're like, not really.I'm just like you. I was in your seat like 10 years ago.So listening to those experiences from people in industry really opens the eyes to the students to be like, I can do that.
GI: And on top of that, the culture that we put in CJ,it was always respecting others in our class, always going above. If you see somebody that needs a door open, hold the door open for them. If somebody comes in from an administration side and they open up the door to walk in that classroom, everybody would say, ready up! And everybody would stand up and recognize that person. And then we'd sit back down. But it was always the respect and honor of what we showed each other in the class and others outside of class. Because when you're in uniform, people are always looking at you. So that was one thing that we really wanted to touch on, too, is a professionalism within our industry. That's why when we brought in industry professionals, we didn't do it until second quarter because we had to teach them what professionalism looked like in our industry. And then from there, they got to meet the people because now they understood what our industry is all about.
JW:Absolutely.And our Going Pro behaviors are so important for all of our students at Kent Career Tech Center.Also, I wanted to ask you, Karen, why do you think it's important to start asking students about what their dreams are at an early age?
KB: Honestly, it kind of all starts at home. As parents, sometimes people may look at their children and say, I see you doing this. I see you doing a profession that isn't what the child is looking for.So it's very important to start at home as parents and ask that question. But then as that student, also asking yourself, what do I really want to do? And being honest with yourself, right? And then having that network to connect with staff, other students, teachers in general, and asking them, hey, how do I get here? Because we don't know, honestly, as students we don't know. And that's okay, I'm totally fine with always saying I didn't know what I was doing half the time going through school. And sometimes I still don't know everything, you know, we're not perfect. But at the same time, understanding that there's people out here that actually care and want you to succeed.All you have to do is ask, but it's important to be real.And if your parent, or you see other people, family members, siblings, they're doing something, that doesn't mean it's necessarily for you. And just being honest with you and realizing that, this is not for me. I want to do this. And then going full power in what you want to do. You're going to be happy with whatever you choose to do.
JW: And do you feel like your dreams are coming true?
KB: 100% and you know I'm very blessed and I tell this to my partners, my family, I'm very blessed to be in the position that I am right now. I personally never thought I would be working with students, not because I don't like kids, obviously I love kids working here, but I just didn't see that going through CJ class. That wasn't part of my plan and really having that change of mindset early on in my career is what really helped me understand that what I have planned is not necessarily what’s going to happen, and am beyond happy and blessed to be in the position that I am in. I would not change it. I love it here. I love who I work with. I love I the support I get from my department, the support I get from school and from the kids, you know, it's really turned into more of a mentorship role for important for me to just fully embrace that.
KB: And not to have the timeline, you know? A lot of us have those timelines like, by this age, I want to be at this spot in my life or in my career.But that's just not realistic.Allowing for those blessings to come in the most unique ways is really what makes a difference.
KB: Well, today we're definitely seeing you as a role model for the students here at East Kentwood High School and also for the students at your alma mater at Godwin.
KB: Thank you.
JW: You're welcome. And Gregg, just one more note on why it's important for the whole community to embrace our students and to help them achieve their dreams.
GI: When we look at work-based learning and just getting inside the classrooms, all the business owners out there, I just want to throw this out there to you. There are several different students out there that have such great gifts and they're trying to explore where does my gift need to go? And as a business owner, corporation, whatever you are, if you get in and you let that talent grow from high school, all the way through, you could actually take it down to middle school with awareness talks that opens the eyes and ears of the youth to say, oh, I can take this path as a career. And the cool thing is there's so many opportunities with apprenticeships currently right now, including the MARC, which is the Michigan Apprentice Ready Certificate, that's coming out where a student in high school can actually roll their hours over in the apprenticeship from high school into the actual USDOL apprenticeship, which is huge. And we work with them with several different businesses at the Kent ISD in helping their HR and legal teams get that together. So if you are interested, please feel free to reach out to our Work-Based Learning as well and we will help you with that.
JW: Fantastic. Well, I want to congratulate you, Karen, so much on your role here as a school resource officer at Kentwood Public Schools and thank both of you for having this conversation with us about helping students achieve their dreams.
KB and GI: Thank you.
JW: And I also want to thank everyone who's listening today. If you have a story about a student who dreams big, we would love to share that story on our Your Dream Is Our Dream podcast.You can submit your ideas and hear more episodes at KentISD.org/Your Dream. I'm Joy Walczak. The Your Dream Is Our Dream podcast is presented by Kent ISD in partnership with WGVU.
