Teen Living Life With Courage and Hope

Welcome back to the POP QUIZ! This is a regular, yet totally unexpected, feature where we ask students, parents, staff, our friends, and partners to answer a few questions about what they are learning, reading, and thinking about. Today we feature Annie Jett, a seventh grader at Hillside Middle School.

Prior to Hillside, Annie attended fifth grade at Lincoln and kindergarten through fourth grade at Northglade Montessori Magnet School. Annie is “loving my educational experience at Hillside.” With her positive attitude, this student who thinks deeply about many subject matters has a bright future ahead of her.

Alright, Annie: pencil out, eyes on your own paper. Good luck.

Pop Quiz

What is your favorite subject?

Life skills. It is helping me become a more advanced person. The class helps me not only now with how I can see and do things but, how in the future, what I’m learning will help me in the different environments I find myself in when I’m out in the world.

Any favorite teachers?

In elementary school it was Ms. [Carla] Waller. She’s retired now, but she was my teacher at Northglade Montessori Magnet School. Also, Ms. [Suezann] Bennett-Sheldon. She teaches life skills here at Hillside. She’s really helpful and teaches you different ways to approach things. She also is able to figure out different ways to help you learn.

How has CIS figured into your educational experience?

CIS has been there for me. The people care. When I was at Northglade, Mr. [Derek] Miller was my site coordinator. And when I got to Hillside, his wife, Ms. Precious [Miller] was my site coordinator.

You had the Miller team!

Yes, they were both very helpful, responsible, and respectful. They especially help me calm down my anger when I was mad. And when my father passed away in 2017, Ms. Precious was there for me. We had just finished doing a Prevention Works program when my granny came down to the school that day and told me my father had passed in a car crash on the highway… I went into a coma…I felt paralyzed. I felt that way for weeks, like I couldn’t move.

Ms. Precious was there. She even came to my classes when I was sad and down. She helped me get through it before she went to Western.

And now Ms. Jody Sikkema is your CIS Site Coordinator.

Yes, and I have found the same connection with her, just in a different way. Ms. Jody helps me find different ways to handle my emotions. She’s gotten me involved in Grief 101 with Ms. Cate. Ms. Cate has helped me a lot. The Grief 101 group [offered through Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan] has connected me with more people who have the same thing. At first, I was even scared to talk about it, was going to bust down……It helps to be surrounded by other people that have similar situations. I was stuck in my shell and Ms. Cate has helped me open up.

I know how to handle things, but I also know that some times are just going to be hard, like the 13th of every month…[the date of her father’s death]. All together, Ms. Precious, Ms. Jody, and Ms. Cate have really, really, really helped me a lot with this.

Your father’s death is such a huge thing to deal with. In talking with Ms. Cate recently for the upcoming CIS newsletter, she said that grief is something that never goes away. You learn to live with it.

That’s right. And that’s what I’m doing every day.

Annie with Ms. Mariah Adamy, WMU School of Social Work student interning with CIS. “Ms. Mariah is very open and it’s easy to talk to her,” says Annie.

What is something you’ve recently learned?

That I can make more connections with others and that is good to do for me. I might be afraid to talk to you because I don’t know you, but I still am talking to you.

You are putting yourself out there.

Yes. And I’m becoming more mature and more wise about my decisions. When my dad was here, he always knew how to put me in check. Now I’m learning how to do that.

What is your favorite word right now?

Courage. If it wasn’t for courage, I’d still be down and wouldn’t have others to lift me up. I think about courage every day. It comes up in different forms, you know? Like, I might call my granny and she helps me, lifts my spirits up.

I love my family and education, but at the end of the day I still have to deal with one of my parents gone. I’m moving along and finding new paths every day to take. That is the way of courage.

What are you currently reading?

The Hate U Give. It’s our all school read at Hillside.

What would you ask the author, Angie Thomas, if you got the chance?

I would ask Angie Thomas, “How were you able to do this so well? How were you able to compare real life to the life you have created in your book?” She really was able to capture real life—and the world of black and white—so real, like. How was she able to do that?

Behind every successful person is a caring adult. Who has been your caring adult?

Every adult I know and see. Even if I don’t know you, I can see how you are caring. That’s one of my special abilities.

Also, my principal, Mr. McKissack. I think of him as my uncle because he knows me and has known my family a long time. He was a teacher when my mom was here at the school. And even though he’s not my real uncle, he cares like a real uncle. He’s helped me through things, too. He’s the kind of person I like to be around.

Thank you, Annie, for hanging out with us at Ask Me About My 12,000+ Kids.

In our Spring 2019 CIS Connections, you can learn more about Annie, Ms. Cate, and the partnership between CIS and Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan.

Tags: Atiba McKissack, Carla Waller, Cate Jarvis, Derek Miller, Hillside Middle School, Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan, Jody Sikkema, Precious Miller, Sueann Bennett-Sheldon