BEMIDJI-Ethan Aho wants to help kids someday.
That's why he's set to graduate from Oak Hills Christian College on Saturday with a psychology and biblical studies degree. Aho, 23, plans to work at a group home in Staples, Minn., and, eventually, earn a master's degree in counseling and become a licensed counselor.
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After that, the plan is a little fuzzier. Aho knows he wants to work with adolescents, children and their families, and said he'd love to work with kids with Down syndrome or autism.
"Help them function day-to-day, teach them life skills, and help the family develop social skills and stuff like that," he explained. Aho said he originally studied addictions counseling at Oak Hills, but didn't have as much aptitude-or appetite-for that sort of work.
"Over time, I realized that I've been really good with adolescents and kids, so I just think I really mesh really well with that," he said.
Aho comes from a big family, and grew up with a lot of other children. He said he has 127 first cousins and is related to "like 99 percent" of the 250 people in his home church's congregation. He's volunteered at a bible camp in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and helped out or interned at a bevy of Bemidji-area service firms, such as Evergreen Youth & Family Services. He worked at the Village of Hope for nearly a year. Aho said he dreams of one day opening a faith-based retreat center for kids with mental illness or developmental disabilities and their families.
"But everyone's welcome," he said. "It'll be faith-based, but I'm not going to jam it down people's throats."
Aho grew up Lutheran, and said it was important for him to enroll in a faith-based school. He picked Oak Hills because it's relatively close to his family home near Sebeka, Minn., affordable, relatively speaking, and because it has a small student body. He estimated his classes had about 10-15 students per professor.
"I really felt it was more of a personal connection with the staff," Aho said. "BSU, it's really hard to connect with your professor because they have so many other students. It's very unique, where you can just go over to their office and just sit down and talk."
