News & Blog: Community

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A brief introduction to our newest staff member, Queyonna Hunt

I’m Queyonna Hunt, the new Literacy Coordinator of the Adult Tutoring Program with the Literacy Center of West Michigan. I am writing to introduce myself, and will provide you with all the best tidbits so as not to bore you. So, let's start with a list of all the odd jobs I have had before becoming a Literacy Coordinator.Queyonna

The first job I ever had was a cashier position at Popeye's Chicken n' Biscuit; I was 16-years-old. At 21, I worked at a tattoo parlor with intimidating looking people with the softest hearts. Ink'd Up Tattoos was where I learned not to judge a person by the way they look. I sweated and toiled on a homestay farm in the U.P. and traveled to countless music festivals across the U.S. as a food vendor selling gourmet tacos.


When I was 12, all I wanted to be when I grew up was a poet. I dreamed of Harlem Renaissance and Black Art Movements. All of this dreaming came from spending hours in the Seymour Branch library. As a Grand Rapids native, one can say my sense of adventure started young as I often biked 2 miles from my childhood home to reach the library.

Quey Why I ServeI learned during my undergraduate career the nuances of craft and style. In 2013, I graduated from GVSU with two B.A's; one in Creative Writing and the other in Journalism with an emphasis in Print. In 2016, I started freelancing, and as a professional freelance writer, I combine the art of words with attention to detail to maximize the impact of written communications.

It was not until I began serving as an AmeriCorps member at the Literacy Center that I fell in love with teaching, explicitly teaching English. I am so appreciative that my journey has brought me back to the place where I fell in love with literacy. As the saying goes, I see this as the start of a beautiful friendship.

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