Mike Joyce, class of 1986, had a good high school experience. He always felt it had a family feel about it, sort of a larger community. Both his mom and dad were in service occupations, dad in education and mom a nurse, and so Mike grew up feeling comfortable in a school environment. He also played three sports, and was in both Minnesingers and band. Going to college was expected in his family, so he attended Trinity College in Connecticut, where he majored in biology. He had always been drawn to science, and he figures that was influenced greatly by his love of and closeness to nature, growing up on Martha’s Vineyard.
At Trinity, Mike participated in an Upward Bound program. The Upward Bound program prepares low-income, first-generation high school students for college by offering academic tutoring, financial aid advice, college tours, and intensive summer programs, working in the Hartford public schools, getting much-needed experience in teaching. During the summers, he usually came home to the Island to work, earning money for his tuition. After graduation, he substituted in the Island schools for a year or so, but realized that if he was serious about teaching, he needed to get his teaching certification, and he did so through a master’s program at Westfield State.
However, Mike wanted to get experience beyond the Vineyard, so he ventured to the North Carolina public schools, where he would teach in a very poor school that was overcrowded, without needed resources or supplies. He also experienced segregation up close even though, as a policy, it had officially ended. Due to a lack of interracial socialization, students did not know one another due to separation by race, even though they sat next to each other in his class. It was a wake-up call for Mike, one that he would never forget. After a few years in North Carolina, he moved on to West Springfield, where he continued to teach.
One spring break, he was visiting Martha’s Vineyard and bumped into Doug Herr, the assistant principal at MVRHS, who told him of a position in science that was opening. Mike applied, and has been teaching in the science department ever since — for more than 28 years. He has also coached basketball and golf for those years. Mike feels strongly that connecting with students outside the classroom as a coach or as a spectator at their events is an important aspect of creating rapport and a more meaningful relationship with the students. It has been a good fit for Mike, bringing his valuable teaching experience to us, and is a good fit for us having such an educator come home. Thanks Mike!
Marge Harris was a teacher at MVRHS for 27 years. You can contact her at margeharris@comcast.net. This column appears twice a month.