Public safety officers come from all walks of life, but it is probably safe to say that very few come from a background in dairy farming, like Officer Mike Dykstra.
Although Dykstra no longer farms, he still sells horse hay all around Addison County and helps out a friend on his dairy farm. But, as he puts it, it’s, “no more milking cows” for him.
Dykstra’s parents and grandparents immigrated from the Netherlands in the 1960’s, and one of his grandfather’s dreams when coming to America had been to own a farm. He fulfilled his dream by purchasing a dairy farm in Addison County, which Dykstra began managing at age 15. Before that, he had milked cows twice a day since he was eight. Eventually, Dykstra ran the farm for eight years before buying it back in the ninth year (his grandfather had sold it). For him, farming was a very independent profession.
“I had never worked for anybody else before I came to work here,” Dykstra said.
But there were drawbacks: nine years after buying the farm, Dykstra experienced a farm accident that left him in intensive care for four days and out of work for months after that. In an industry where farmers live from payment to payment, the accident took him out of farming for too long for the farm to recover financially. Dykstra moved on.
“It was a great life, but there’s no money in it,” Dykstra said. ”Once you miss that amount of time … there’s so little margin for error.”
While farming had consumed a considerable amount of time, Dykstra had simultaneously invested his time in firefighting; he was a volunteer firefighter for 16 years before rising to become a firefighter, captain, assistant captain and chief in the span of seven years. Spending 10 years as a fire chief in New Haven, Vt. ensured that Dykstra, even now, knows everyone in the small town of 2100.
Now, instead of working as a fire chief full-time, Dykstra helps train volunteer firefighters in Ferrisburg. Able to plan his own schedule, Dykstra can fit the once– a –week training sessions and scattered fire calls in with his full-time job at Middlebury.
Though his experience in the fire department may have utilized many different skills than does working in public safety, Dykstra has found that his experience dealing with people who “aren’t in their right mind” – he’d come upon an accident scene and find an intoxicated driver or a grief-stricken victim after an accident – has been fairly applicable to this job.
“I think my time in the fire service made it so that I could do a fairly decent job here,” Dykstra said.
Dykstra anticipated when coming to Middlebury that the personal interaction involved in the job would be a good fit, and he’s found that to be true.
“I enjoy seeing the students change as time goes on, and building that relationship,” Dykstra said.
Dykstra adopts a markedly upbeat attitude about his job here, saying that although an officer could become frustrated or not interact much with students, “It’s all what you make it to be … and I enjoy getting to know students when I go out at night.”
Every public safety officer has a unique way of interacting and communicating with students when on night duty, and Dykstra’s relationship with the students is clearly one hinging on mutual respect.
“I’m pretty easy to get along with and easy to work with, but I set my boundaries,” he says. “I tell students, ‘I’m going to let you do this and if you don’t follow through, there’ll be repercussions.’ Students are generally pretty respectful of that.”
Dykstra is a day officer this year, and he has found that while working the day shift allows him to meet more faculty and staff, he hasn’t gotten to meet very many students. In fact, since he didn’t work the day shift last year, he knows few sophomores or first-years.
“In the night shift, you see the other side of the students, but you also get to know the students better,” Dykstra said. “You lose that connection to students [working in the day]. You don’t get that interaction with students like you do at night.”
In addition to his work at Middlebury and with the fire department, Dykstra finds time to play basketball at the college and get out on the golf course a couple of times every month. And although between his children, his job, and his hobbies (including the volunteer fire fighting, because, “anything you throw money at but expect nothing in return is a hobby, right?”), Dykstra has little extra time, he’s also working towards a degree.
With the help of Middlebury’s “Furthering Education Fund” for employees, Dykstra is working with Champlain College towards getting “life credits.” Life credits would allow Dykstra, who has had extensive experience managing a business in the real world, to get college credit for his skills in this arena. Ultimately, Dykstra hopes to gain 50 credits through this program, and work towards a degree in business management.
Ultimately, Dykstra sees his job as one centered mostly around communication, not punitive action.
“[Public safety is] more of the public relations – working with students, talking to students, addressing students and trying to work through them,” Dykstra said. “We shouldn’t be looked at as taking the hammer and pounding [students] down.”
Getting to Know: Officer Mike
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