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The Creator
Hi there! Thanks for visiting The My School Sucks Vlog project website. My name is Devin Wiles. I am a sophomore (as of the 2023-24 academic year) at the University of Michigan studying Business Administration with a Minor in Writing. No, I do not hope to go into IB (see Vlog #2 in The Project). Rather, I am looking to pursue a career in sports, either in the communications sector or in the very niche baseball operations world. I currently work in communications for the Michigan Football team and am the Editor-in-Chief for the Michigan Society for American Baseball Research. Outside of sports, I enjoy spending time with family (and my cats!), writing poetry, and trying new foods.
My Story
I grew up just like any other kid. I woke up every morning, got ready for the day, ate breakfast, went to school, came home, ate dinner, did homework, caused trouble for my parents, went to bed, and did it all over again. However, to an extent, I was born an outsider. There was no guarantee, as I walked up the front path at Woodland Elementary in Troy, Michigan, on my first day of kindergarten in 2009, that I was going to make it all the way through my primary education without dropping out. There was no guarantee that I would get to pursue a higher level of education after that. There was no guarantee that I would have the opportunity to pursue a career that could stabilize my family financially.
Over half of the students at my high school qualified for free or reduced lunch, less than a quarter of students took at least one AP exam (a near requirement to get into U-M and similar schools), and our students rank in the bottom 25% in the state in math proficiency. Now, this isn't to say I haven't personally been lucky in so many ways. I've had parents who have supported me in pursuing whatever I have ever wanted, within financial restrictions. I went to a high school that also had a 97% graduation rate, a far cry from many other schools with lower per pupil expenditures. I never personally feared for my safety during my primary schooling experience, although many of my classmates couldn't say the same. I had it easier than some, harder than others. That's just life, really.
My school district had an interesting blend of students, including those spanning a wide range of ethnicities (nearly a split demographic across the board) and financial backgrounds (from those who worked to help pay their family bills to those whose parents were considering sending them to private school). I am grateful to have been amongst such a diverse group of classmates, but it allowed me to see the good, the bad, and everything in between throughout my time in primary school. What I learned through these experiences is that, even within my own 1,000-person high school, there are such varied opportunities from student-to-student. So, it's difficult for me to imagine if we had all been placed in different school districts, assigned a dollar amount for how much our education is worth based on our financial and demographic backgrounds. This is actually happening out there, every single time a child is born into this world and into a financial situation and into a school district. Why is it that a child's story is limited before it even begins?
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