Dec. 7, 2020, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Start at Grand Rapids Community College and go anywhere! Every former student has a story to tell about how GRCC – or Grand Rapids Junior College – gave them the education and opportunity to be successful. We’re sharing some of those stories, and want to hear yours!
David Cope left high school with less-than-stellar grades and a lot of anger.
“I wasted my years in high school, enraged at parents, authorities, caring only for my English, Latin and French classes, a passion for poetry, as well as a variety of antisocial behaviors,” he said. “My grades were not good enough to attend my chosen school -- U of M -- and I didn’t have enough money anyways.”
Grand Rapids Junior College was a “convenient” second choice. While working 10 to 20 hours per week as a dishwasher at the airport, Cope attended classes and found himself as poetry editor for Display magazine, a compilation of art and creative writing from GRJC (now GRCC) students.
“This was my first experience of editing a magazine, and I made lifelong friends among the students I encountered there and on The Collegiate,” he said.
“Poetry has been in my life blood ever since I first memorized psalms in first grade and began writing it with a passion in eighth grade. Everything in the experience of work on Display began the continuous preparation and execution of writing that has given me a most fulfilling life, from book publications and acclaim to national awards for my work and in my retirement.”
After receiving his Associate of Arts in 1968, Cope earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s from Western Michigan University.
“GRJC gave me the platform to succeed at Michigan, and eventually I was able to use the skills I perfected in grad school to teach my most beloved subjects at GRCC,” he said.
In addition to teaching poetry and writing, Cope developed courses in Shakespeare, multicultural literature and women’s studies during his 22 years at GRCC.
“Both teaching and writing are callings and require enormous commitment to be successful,” he said.
Cope is committed to both fields: He has written seven books and two chapbooks of poetry, has edited three anthologies, and was Grand Rapids’ poet laureate from 2011-2014.. He won first place in the Kent County Dyer Ives Poetry Competition, received the Pushcart Prize and won an award in literature from the American Academy/Institute of Arts and Letters.
Cope, GRCC’s 1984 Distinguished Alumnus, has retired from teaching but continues to write while editing and publishing Big Scream magazine. In 2019, Cope was the only American poet to attend an international poetics conference in Sichuan, China, and he has since published his multidisciplinary journal, A Bridge Across the Pacific, on the experiences, lessons, and poetry he wrote while there.
“Since retirement, I have given myself over to my poetry career with all the energy I gave to my teaching and the poetry I wrote during those years as well,” he said. “I have been rewarded by the continuing friendship of former students and colleagues, publishing them in my magazine and encouraging their own work.”