When the initial nine charter schools opened in Michigan in the fall of 1994, Zach Leipham of Grand Rapids was one of the first to enroll. A couple months later, he became the most famous charter school student in America.
On Oct. 31, 1994, TIME magazine did a story on this new phenomenon called charter schools. On the cover of the magazine, it boldly called these public school academies “New Hope for Public Schools.”
The cover boy was a smiling first-grader from the West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science in Grand Rapids with his hand in the air named Zach Leipham.
More than 30 years later, he remembers the day fondly.
“For that picture, I very much remember it, they asked me to raise my hand like I really wanted to answer the question,” Zach said.
On Oct. 31, 2024 – exactly 30 years after he made his national debut on the cover of TIME – Zach visited his old school to reminisce. All of his old teachers have moved on, but he told the current staff how much he cherished the education he received there.
Lots of alumni return to the school every year to tell the teachers and administrators how much they loved their charter school education, and it was especially gratifying for them to be hearing it from one of the school’s most famous alums.
“Everything about West Michigan Academy I’ve always loved,” said Leipham. “We were always outside, always learning about nature. Anytime I go through hiking trails on anything it just reminds me of being a kid here, getting exposed to nature and learning about it. I really feel like I’m like eight years old anytime I’m in the woods.”
The school’s mission then and now is to use the environment to teach lessons for every part of the curriculum. The school sits on a beautiful piece of land that covers more than 60 acres and includes fields, forests, streams, marshes, gardens, trails and more.
And like every kid through the generations, he also remembers being pretty nervous on the first day of school.
“I was seven, first grade. I can remember my first day of school, being in the classroom, not wanting my parents to leave just like any other kid,” he said.
West Michigan Academy of Environment Science is authorized by Central Michigan University and managed by Choice Schools Associates. Kerri Barrett of Choice Schools said the school has remained true to its mission.
“They have a garden. So, they will be planting and harvesting every fall. They take the maple trees in the spring and make maple syrup,” Kerri said.
Zach said the school was the perfect fit for him back then.
“My imagination could just grow, and my mind could, you know – it was awesome. I was excited about different things and not tied down to a desk all the time," he said.
He also remembers very well the excitement he and his family felt when TIME magazine hit the newsstands and the mailboxes that day.
“When it came out, I remember, my family was calling,” he said. “I had some family that lived in Texas and you pick up the phone (and they’re saying), ‘oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.’ ”
Zach became something of a celebrity in Grand Rapids when the magazine came out – and it was all a bit overwhelming for him. He told the Grand Rapids Press back in 1994, “It feels good. I never even knew there was a magazine called TIME.”
He also told the paper that the other students in the school were asking him for his autograph.
These days, Zach is a musician who still lives in the Grand Rapids area. He and his wife have two children, both of whom attend a Montessori school.
Over the past 30-plus years, Michigan’s charter schools have educated more than a million students. All of them can tell stories of the positive impact their schools have made on them, and it’s refreshing to know that one of the original students still feels the same way.
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