This year, we have gotten to welcome many new teachers to the high school faculty, including Alex Sinn, a Spring Lake alumnus. If you are familiar with the teaching staff, you may know Mr. Joe Sinn, who has been teaching here for many years, and this year his son, Alex, has joined the staff!
Sinn graduated from Spring Lake High School in 2011, and soon after he studied journalism at Grand Valley State University. Sinn had an amazing experience studying there and promotes it to his students. His college degree and experience set him up for many opportunities in the world of journalism: he worked for MLive Sports (a state-wide sports coverage program), the Cadillac News, and the Grand Haven Tribune.
Sinn met his wife, Libby, when working as a college student at Jet’s Pizza. They were together when Sinn was studying and working in journalism, and they now have a 5-year-old daughter together who goes to Jeffers. When they had the baby, Sinn decided that he would need a career change with his family in mind. Careers in journalism, while exciting and fulfilling, can be unpredictable. Sinn decided to go back to school at Grand Valley for three years to obtain his teaching certificate.
Sinn loved his career as a journalist and is still incredibly passionate about storytelling and media. This is partially why he is such a great fit for his position at Spring Lake! He not only teaches freshman and senior English classes, but he also teaches our Publication class, which not only produces this very newspaper but also the yearbook and our podcast: The Share Chair.
“I love news and information, I love literature, and reading. I think that being an informed literate person is very valuable. That was kind of the match between news reporting and being a teacher–I still care about the same goals and values. I get to live towards that same vision,” Sinn said.
Sinn said that the strangest part of teaching at Spring Lake so far is how it brings him back to his high school experience. He says that some of his greatest mentors taught here or still teach here. For example, David Theune recently resigned from teaching and is now the Director of Communications for the district. Sinn took several classes with Theune including drama and film. Ironically, Sinn is now teaching the Publication class that Theune taught before him.
Since Sinn is a SPring Lake alumnus he can better relate to his students and environment through common experience, and he says that he is happy to come to work every day.
“You are not guaranteed to look forward to your work days,” he emphasized. “That is a really rare thing that I don’t take for granted.”
Overall, Sinn is a great addition to our SLHS faculty, and he says that he has thoroughly enjoyed his time here so far. It has been a smooth and easy transition for him thus far, so let us give him a warm welcome back to the building.