East Grand Rapids — On her unconventional path to a career in education, Annie Kim Sytsma learned she’s “not a cubicle person.”
The new assistant principal of East Grand Rapids High School wants to be in it — up, active, involved and getting things done.
“I’m a people person,” Sytsma said. “I want to serve people.”
Education is a third career for Sytsma, who is originally from Korea, and grew up in Orange County, California, before coming to Michigan by way of Calvin University.
Previously, she owned her own wedding and events business in California. She also worked in marketing and publishing for a time, which is where she learned that cubicle life was not for her. Nor was “following the dollar signs.”
“I wanted to find something that was more me, where I could serve and be there for other people,” Sytsma said. “I never really thought that I would go into education — I wasn’t a student who loved the academic school stuff — but I was extremely social. … I was just drawn to people.”
With a little help from the district she now calls home, Sytsma considered, and later settled on, education as the final phase of her career evolution. She reached out to the principal of EGRHS at the time, and asked if she could visit some classrooms to find out what teaching is all about.
“I spent, like, a day a month here, just watching veteran teachers teach and do their craft, and it’s where I said, ‘Yeah, I could do this,’” Sytsma said.
Her desire to stay active extends beyond the workplace to the family’s Rockford “homestead,” as Sytsma calls it, where she, her husband and her two sons are always up to something.
“We have a couple of acres, so we’re out in our backyard quite a bit,” she said. “We are very outdoorsy. We’ll do lakes, swimming, hiking, snowboarding — so many hobbies.”
They also raise chickens, harvest organic eggs, two-track on their property, play with their two labradors and more. Sytsma also recently took up teaching her native Korean to her sons, Deacon and Roman, and doing watercolor activities with them.
Other positions in education:
• Guest teacher, United World College in Maastricht, Netherlands, through Grand Valley State University’s College of Education
• Student teaching assistant, Hudsonville High School
• Student teacher, Rockford High School
• English and psychology teacher, district instructional tech specialist and intervention coordinator, Cedar Springs High School
Education/degrees: Sytsma describes herself as a “collector” of degrees, and she’s earned several. She has an associate degree from Grand Rapids Community College and bachelor’s degrees from Calvin University and Grand Valley State University spanning a number of fields: English, communications, psychology, political science and secondary education.
She also has two master’s degrees: one in education technology from Michigan State University, and one in instructional design and technology from the American College of Education in Indianapolis.
If you had to listen to one song the rest of your life: It was a toss-up between Louis Armstrong’s rendition of “What a Wonderful World,” and Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Each song has a special place in her heart, she said, and reminds her of one of her sons.
Your first concert: “I think it might have been when I was at Calvin and I went to Modest Mouse.”
‘I never really thought that I would go into education — I wasn’t a student who loved the academic school stuff — but I was extremely social. … I was just drawn to people.’
— Annie Kim Sytsma, East Grand Rapids High School assistant principal
Why did you want to become an administrator? “Our teachers and our staff really need a lot of support. They need somebody on their team. In the same way that I’ve supported and loved all of the students I’ve had, I wanted to do that for our teachers and our staff, so they can do that for their students.”
She said teachers are asked to do so much, and wants to help alleviate their burden so they can be free to focus on students.
Sytsma strives to be what she calls an “atraditional admin,” who focuses on support and service more than anything else.
What ideas or strategies will you bring from your last posting? “Just learning and being patient. … Education is busy. It takes time to make something successful. We need to be intentional about the foundations that we’re going to lay and build upon.
“If we’re able to be connected and anchored into those same goals and vision, it would be amazing to see how cohesive and consistent we can be.”
Read more from East Grand Rapids:
• East already ‘feels like home’ to new high school principal
• Healthcare leaders ask students for ideas, solutions
