Success stories come in many shapes and sizes, especially in the field of education. Some students achieve academic success right away. Others overcome serious challenges to creating the life they want for themselves. Each journey is unique, and it’s often those personal challenges that inspire individuals to reach out to others who go through similar experiences. Take Kevin Haff-Robydek, Special Education teacher and Aquinas graduate.

“I first went to Aquinas for my Bachelor’s Degree,” Haff-Robydek said. “I only spent about two years there. I didn’t do that well academically. As a kid, I was in and out of foster homes. I just didn’t have a lot of support.” Haff-Robydek eventually graduated elsewhere. Despite leaving Aquinas, Haff-Robydek had built a connection to the College that he couldn’t deny. “I always enjoyed Aquinas,” he said. “I always thought it was a great school. A lot of my friends from that time are still friends of mine today.” Perhaps it was these connections that turned Haff-Robydek’s eye once again to Aquinas when, years later, he decided to pursue a career in teaching: “I got into the Master in Education program.”

But how does a once-struggling student decide that the education system is the place where his calling lies? Through his own connections to young people. “I had been coaching football for about eight, maybe nine, years at that time,” Haff-Robydek said. “I also had been volunteering with coaching some younger kids. I just always loved kids.” Haff-Robydek’s job also played a significant role: “I went back to work at Wedgwood Christian Services, which is a residential treatment program. That’s for kids that are pulled out of foster homes; they’re usually... kids that basically have nowhere to go.”

Working with young people who have experienced many significant obstacles in only a few short years has an impact, even on those who went through similar experiences themselves. “I found a lot of those kids had learning disabilities, things going on in their lives,” Haff-Robydek said. He had notable success in his work at Wedgwood. “While I worked there, the restraints went down. A lot of those kids get restraints because they will either hurt themselves or others.”

Haff-Robydek was determined to be a part of the solution, to slow the spiral of young people who have slipped through the cracks of society and lost control of their own behaviors. “If I could work with these kids a little sooner - if I could work with them beforehand - we could prevent some of these kids from getting in that situation, that would be huge.”

Enter Aquinas College: round two. Haff-Robydek enrolled in the Education program, his purpose clear. Were there obstacles to his academic success this time around? “It wasn’t necessarily a challenge once I decided to get my certificate, but deciding to get my certificate was a long process,” he said. He added that it was important for him to realize “that’s the direction God wanted me to go in. So once I prayed to God and realized that’s the direction I wanted to go, I went for it.” Haff-Robydek continued to work at Wedgwood while attending Aquinas, embodying through his example the Dominican charisms (core spiritual values) of prayer, study, community and service.

“I was drawn to Aquinas partly because I wasn’t successful the first time, and people were really good to me there,” Haff-Robydek said. “I just wasn’t, at the time because of the things that happened to me as a kid, I wasn’t mature enough. I didn’t have the support system to be able to make it. [Aquinas] is that small community where people draw you in, and they take care of you. And obviously it has an amazing reputation in the Grand Rapids area - and I think throughout the state of Michigan - with education.”

A 2010 graduate of Aquinas College, Haff-Robydek is now a teacher at a Portland public high school. He was also recently accepted by the University of Michigan to complete his Educational Specialist’s degree, specifically in Educational Leadership. “I would see me being either a principal, or eventually a superintendent,” he said of his future plans. Haff-Robydek is quick to bring the focus back to his current teaching work in Special Education. “As a Special Education teacher, it is the most wonderful, amazing job that anybody could ever have! Every day I get to see kids reach success that they never thought they could.”