‘They Weren’t Going to Give Up on Me’: Nijyel’s Story

Clockwise from left: Nijyel Johnson (center) at his GED graduation ceremony with Steepletown’s MelanieRose Straub and Emilio Zamarripa; Nijyel Johnson (right) sharing his story at a Young Leaders Society event in October 2019; Nijyel (right) at his oath of enlistment for the Army National Guard.

Today, Nijyel Johnson is a little over a month into basic training at Fort Benning in Georgia. It’s a very different place than the one he was in eight years ago.

Joining the Army National Guard had been a dream of Nijyel’s since he was a kid, but, as he put it, “I got a little sidetracked and fell off course.”

Nijyel’s father died before he was born. Growing up, he felt like he had to provide for his mother and younger brother, to be the man of the house. He got involved in criminal activity and dropped out of high school. He spent time in jail.

“I used to walk around angry a whole lot,” Nijyel said.

In 2012, he got out of jail for what he decided would be the last time. His oldest daughter had just been born. Holding his daughter in his arms, he knew the time had come to make a change.

“I know what it’s like to grow up without a father, to not have an education, to have a job instead of a career,” Nijyel said. “I wanted to leave a foundation behind before I left this earth.”

A friend of his had gone through the GED program at Steepletown Neighborhood Services, a partner agency of Heart of West Michigan United Way. Nijyel met with workforce development director Emilio Zamarripa and decided to enroll.

Nijyel did well, passing four of the five tests that made up the GED relatively quickly. That wasn’t a big surprise to him, since he’d always considered himself a good student. The difference was that this time he felt he’d found a group of people — Emilio, education coordinator MelanieRose Straub, JobStart program coordinator Korey Anderson — that genuinely cared about him.

“I wasn’t used to no one giving a damn. Don’t get me wrong, my mom loved me, but as far as that male, structured discipline and role model, I never had that.”

“We have an intentionality in making sure that each one of our participants know that they are in complete charge of everything that’s happening in the process,” Emilio said.

The road to graduation had a few bends in it. His second daughter was born. His grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, and he moved down to Florida to take care of her for the better part of a year. He and his wife split up.

Nijyel (center) with Steepletown staff and graduates after his testimony helped the agency win a mini-grant at Pop-Up Giving 2019, an event organized by Young Leaders Society.

Through it all, Emilio stayed in touch with Nijyel.

“I knew that no matter what was going on they weren’t going to give up on me,” Nijyel said. “When I was going through my divorce, Emilio said, you know, we can catch you up. You can take books home.”

“It was really inspiring to see Nijyel grow in his desire to do this for himself,” Emilio said.

Then, in 2014, the GED test changed.

The GED Testing Service overhauled the test to align with Common Core, meaning that, unless Nijyel passed his remaining math test before January 1, 2014, the four tests in reading, writing, science, and social studies he’d already completed would be invalidated.

“Think of finals week in your third year of undergrad,” Emilio recalled. “We’re cramming, we’re cramming, we’re cramming, and everyone’s just busting their butts.”

Some of the students in the program got in under the wire, but Nijyel wasn’t one of them.

Knowing he would have to start from scratch, Nijyel put his GED on hold for a few years. But, as before, he kept the lines of communication open.

Emilio Zamarripa, Nijyel Johnson, and MelanieRose Straub.

Steepletown doesn’t kick students out of the program, even if it takes them years to finish. As Emilio puts it, “Around here, the process takes precedence, and the process is different for everyone.”

It took a few years, but finally in 2019, Nijyel came back, ready to climb the mountain one more time.

“It switched from us asking the questions to him doing all that planning in advance,” Emilio said. “When he came back to the table, he was like, I know what I need to do.”

In the summer of 2019, Nijyel passed the last of his tests and earned his GED.

Emilio chalks it up to Nijyel’s resiliency. Nijyel credits the team at Steepletown, who showed him love and became a kind of family.

“Emilio and the kind of man he is, his principles — I took some of those principles from him and applied them to myself,” Nijyel said.

When United Way spoke with Nijyel, he was a week away from shipping out to basic training. His daughters, seven and five, weren’t thrilled about the prospect of not seeing their dad for 22 weeks, but Nijyel said they understood that he was doing it for them.

“I explained to them that this is a stepping-stone to get us where we need to be. They’ve seen me graduate. They’ve seen my military photos. They’ve seen the photo where I was sworn in.”

With the money he earns in the Guard, Nijyel hopes to buy a house, and he’s already set up investment accounts for his daughters. “I told them, once I get back here, we can have a house and a yard. They want dogs and stuff like that.”

“Steepletown has been part of this young man’s life,” Emilio said. “And through Steepletown, United Way has been a part of his life.”

Learn more about how Heart of West Michigan United Way’s partnerships with local agencies like Steepletown by visiting our Agency Partners page.

Nijyel Johnson at his oath of enlistment for the Army National Guard.