Former Grand Rapids Press editor finds new career in teaching

Written by: Tom Mitsos
Edited by: Natasa Crljencia

After 15 years in the newspaper industry, Grand Valley State University Professor Amorak Huey has decided it was time for a change.

Huey (pictured left courtesy of his Twitter) is far from alone. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mid-life career changes are on the rise.

Prior to his career as a university professor, Huey worked in the news industry. He has worked at newspapers all over the U.S. including the Tallahassee Democrat in Tallahassee, Florida, the News-Enterprise in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, the Lexington Herald-Leader in Lexington, Kentucky, and the Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

At the Grand Rapids Press, Huey was the assistant sports editor. He was a copy editor at the other three locations.

Like many other Americans, Huey cites changes in his original field as the major motivation for a career change.

“I didn’t like where the paper was going,” he said referring to the state of newspapers in today’s society.

Huey said many people are getting their news online rather than in the newspaper. There are fewer journalism jobs available, and those that are available are lower paying.

Huey said in order to stop newspapers from becoming extinct, there needs to be more public journalism like National Public Radio. He said it’s so hard for newspapers because they are trying to make a profit whereas NPR is trying to break even.

Despite the criticism of the newspaper, Huey said he enjoyed his time at the newspaper and the tight deadlines gave him an adrenaline rush he loved.

“It’s like publishing a book a day,” he said.

Huey enjoyed explaining the news to the readers, which he related to what a professor does everyday. In addition to being able to explain information to others, Huey said both the newspaper job and the teaching job require you to be “on” everyday.

“There is no time to stop and get lazy,” he said.

For the majority of his newspaper career, Huey was a copy editor. As a copy editor, it was Huey’s job to edit other reporters’ articles. However, he said he did do some writing occasionally.

He joined the Grand Rapids Press in 2000, where he was the assistant sports editor. His job was to oversee the copy editors and also planned the stories that would go into the paper.

Mary Ullmer, executive sports editor at the Grand Rapids Press, said Huey was quiet when he first started working at the Press.

“However, it became apparent he knew what he was doing,” she said.

Ullmer also said Huey is an intelligent person and has good leadership skills.

“He’s in the top three of people that I’ve worked with,” she said. “He always has an explanation and a reason for doing things.”

Ullmer said she still talks to Huey today. She said she talks to him about how to approach problems or if she just wants to run some ideas by him.

One of the aspects that Huey hated at the Press was the hours. He said his day started at 3 a.m. and he would work until noon. On weekends, he worked from 4 p.m. until 1 a.m.

“I worked every weekend for 15 years,” he said. “That’s when sports happen; weekends.”

Huey said the hours were another reason he wanted to leave the newspaper business. As a professor, he works regular hours and he doesn’t have to work on weekends. Like other Americans, demanding schedules are difficult to maintain for a lifetime. Career changes are often sought to cope with changes in family or civic demands.

When Huey was going to college, he knew he wanted to write for a living, but he wasn’t exactly sure how he would go about doing that. In 1992, he graduated from Birmingham-Southern College with a degree in English and a minor in political science. He then went to Florida State University to get a master’s degree in English. However, he transferred to Western Michigan University, which is located in his hometown of Kalamazoo. He soon realized graduate school was not for him.

“If you don’t have a goal, graduate school is tough,” he said.

Despite knowing graduate school wasn’t for him, he finished his master’s degree in 2007 receiving his M.F.A. in English. In the fall of 2007, while working at the Grand Rapids Press, Huey participated in adjunct teaching at GVSU. He still worked full-time at the paper, but he also taught at the university on the side.

Becky Beard, a former student of Huey’s, liked his teaching style.

“He made us think outside the box,” she said. Beard had Huey for WRT381, a writing and sports course at GVSU. Beard said Huey’s class made her want to become a sports writer.

“I’ve always thought about it, but now I really want to focus on it,” she said.

Beard admitted she did not know what to expect going into the class. She thought it might have been a “blow-off” class. However, she said she worked very hard in Huey’s class.

In the fall of 2008, Huey was offered a full-time job at GVSU. While Huey may no longer write on a daily basis, he still writes, and is hoping to get his work published.

He writes poetry and is also working on a novel. He described the novel as a mystery thriller.

Huey is living proof that it is never too late to change your career. While he went to graduate school with no plan, it worked out in the end as he would have never been able to teach without a master’s degree.

This is an excerpt of an article Huey wrote for the Grand Rapids Press. The article is Huey’s opinion that Barry Bonds is great despite the steroid controversy.

“The Historic home run stands as the next benchmark in Bonds’ controversial career. Instead of acclaim, instead of celebration of his achievement, instead of the breathless glee that accompanied Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s chase of Roger Maris and Cal Ripken’s pursuit of Lou Gehrig, Bonds has been subjected to a withering barrage of criticism from the mostly white, mostly middle-aged American sports media establishment.
…It is utterly inconceivable that no one in power in the sport had any idea what a rampant problem steroids were becoming. It’s just as improbable that reporters didn’t suspect, either. Yet everyone turned a blind eye, until Caminiti died of a drug overdose and Canseco’s book bared the game’s secrets.”

If you're interested in reading some of Huey’s writing you can read his blog.

You can also follow Huey on twitter.