{"id":4477,"date":"2020-05-07T11:48:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T15:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=4477"},"modified":"2020-05-07T11:50:08","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T15:50:08","slug":"chantale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=4477","title":{"rendered":"Chantale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Sophia Jaeger<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Bucs&#8217; Blade<br \/>\nGrand Haven HS<br \/>\n1st Place Division 1, News Writing<br \/>\nDiversity Coverage<\/p>\n<p><b>JUDGING CRITERIA<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Topic relevant to the school or students and reflects lifestyles, challenges and potentials of those from a diverse background<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sharp, attention-getting lead grabs reader and arouses curiosity<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shows thorough reporting skills through research and interviewing<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Effective use of facts\/quotes from both primary and secondary sources<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Balanced, fair and sensitive presentation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clearly, concisely and vividly<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proper diction\/grammar; use of third person<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A bright smile stretches across freshman Chantal Muziranyenge\u2019s face nearly reaching the thin gold hoops that dangle from each ear. She laughs loudly with her face tilted back. Her voice carries the warmth and roundness of something not quite English, the only hint that she is anything beyond a normal high school student. But at the age most of us learned to walk, Muziranyenge fled the Democratic Republic of Congo with her mother to reach safety in Kenya. Once there, they lived in refugee housing, but at the age of three, she was left all alone when her mother died. She had to rely on the kindness of a stranger who took her in for a short time before she was placed in the orphanage Heshima Kenya. \u201cMy earliest childhood was a cold place,\u201d Muziranyenge said. \u201cI didn\u2019t get to listen to stories at night or have comfort, that was my childhood.\u201d She spent three years at Heshima Kenya living with girls who had also fled their home countries in hopes of a better future only to find themselves alone in a foreign land. \u201cIn the war, when people flee, everyone is about themselves,\u201d Muziranyenge said. \u201cThey want to save themselves and everything else comes later. Mothers with children would leave their kids behind just so they come first.\u201d Despite not having a family for most of her childhood, Muziranyenge found refuge with the other girls at the orphanage. \u201cI think we were each others\u2019 God\u2019s candles,\u201d Muziranyenge said. \u201cThe stories, they have made them who they are. And we did have a connection because we really had the same situation, the same stories. We became sisters.\u201d When Muziranyenge left the orphanage to live with a family in Kenya she found herself lost once again. The woman who had taken her in acted harsh and made Muziranyenge work with the threat of the wooden spoon looming overhead. \u201cShe was not very nice,\u201d said Muziranyenge \u201cI was really happy that I was not living with her anymore.\u201d She was nine years old when she got the news that she was getting a new start in America. Extended Grace in Grand Rapids and the United Nations had partnered to bring her a world away to begin life once more. \u201cIt was very emotional for me to leave, but I was excited that I was being helped,\u201d Muziranyenge said. \u201cThat I was being accepted into a new country.\u201d When she reached Grand Rapids she joined her first family. In a new country with little knowledge of American culture, she had to orient herself to a completely new way of life. \u201cIt was really hard for me,\u201d Muziranyenge said. \u201cEspecially because I had to live with different people that had different religions and have to adapt to their ways of life.\u201d Finding a family that worked for Muziranyenge was difficult. She spent years moving to different families and awaiting placement in residential homes throughout West Michigan. \u201cIt was really hard, especially as a child changing schools, adapting to different kinds of life,\u201d Muziranyenge said. \u201cMy childhood was literally stolen out from me\u201d It wasn\u2019t easy being in a new country with little knowledge of her past or uncertainty for her future. \u201cI used to feel very small, alone and abandoned,\u201d Muziranyenge said. \u201cI used to think a lot of things like, \u2018why not another person?\u2019 but of course it happened to me. So I did struggle about that and I had depression for a very long time. I didn\u2019t want to be alive anymore because I don\u2019t have a family, I don\u2019t have anything. I felt sorry for myself.\u201d To help get through these challenging times Muziranyenge forced herself to abandon her childhood. \u201cEspecially when I was alone. I had to have the mindset of an adult, think or determine where I\u2019m going to eat,\u201d Muziranyenge said. \u201cAnd that affected me, that\u2019s the trauma I still have today.\u201d Despite the trouble of finding a family Muziranyenge never blamed her foster parents for the issues. \u201cBecause of my past experience, I didn\u2019t know how to handle it.\u201d Muziranyenge said \u201cAnd they didn\u2019t know how to handle it, but we tried to talk it out, tried to work out that I can\u2019t go there without telling them and I didn\u2019t know why that was because I was on my own for a very long time. So I thought they just told me, I\u2019m not gonna let them do that. But I was wrong, just because I didn\u2019t make that happen.\u201d Two years ago Muziranyenge moved to Grand Haven to live with a new foster family because the previous one wasn\u2019t the right fit. Here she slowly learned what it meant to rely on someone else and to truly have parents for the first time in a long while. But even with the hope of a new home and a steady life, Muziranyenge battles the need to be in control and she found herself at ends with the family she lived with in Grand Haven. \u201cWe always have disagreements just because we had a different idea of what a home is,\u201d Muziranyenge said. Muziranyenge must start over once more. This winter she will leave Grand Haven High School and her current family to live in a residential home in Grand Rapids. Despite this, Muziranyenge looks to the future and hopes of helping others with stories like her own. \u201cThis experience has made me who I am,\u201d Muziranyenge said. \u201cIt has made me really strong, and being able to make decisions, and being able to be more independent, and knowing that the most important thing, especially for me right now, is education because I know I can use it to change the world and change my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sophia Jaeger The Bucs&#8217; Blade Grand Haven HS 1st Place Division 1, News Writing Diversity Coverage JUDGING CRITERIA Topic relevant to the school or students and reflects lifestyles, challenges and potentials of those from a diverse background Sharp, attention-getting lead grabs reader and arouses curiosity Shows thorough reporting skills through research and interviewing Effective [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[64,4],"tags":[175,20],"class_list":["post-4477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","category-diversitycoverage","category-nw","tag-2019-20","tag-division1","post_format-post-format-image","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/19-JAN-pdf.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/19-JAN-pdf.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Joel Beeker","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=9"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/19-JAN-pdf.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6K0n6-chantale","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}