Schuyler and Madison Pruis are pictured at Camp Henry in 2021.
By Julie Freer
Legal News
Schuyler Pruis has countless memories and friendships thanks to Camp Henry, a summer and fall youth retreat that traces its roots to 1937. He first visited in 2016 when he was a sophomore at Calvin University, helping lead a middle school youth group from his church.
“There was something about the place that seemed special to me and just made me feel at home,” said Pruis, an associate attorney in Varnum’s Grand Rapids office.
The following three summers, Pruis worked as a counselor at Camp Henry, located in Newaygo, about 35 miles north of Grand Rapids. He also met and eventually proposed to his future wife, Madison, who was also a counselor, at Camp Henry.
When the opportunity arose to give back by joining the organization’s board of directors, Pruis says, “With all that Camp Henry has meant to me, it was an easy ‘yes.’”
He will be one of 16 board members charged with overseeing camp operations and programming, and ensuring young campers experience time in nature, and learn, grow and bond together.
“A lot of who I am today has come from the experiences I had at Camp Henry, so I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to hopefully help others have a similar experience that I did,” said Pruis.
During Pruis’ three summers as a counselor, he worked with students in the 8-17 age bracket, leading them through a variety of activities each day. The most enjoyable element, he says, was bonding with both his fellow staffers and campers.
“Working at a summer camp has a way of bonding people together in a special way,” said Pruis. “It is an incredibly high energy job that also requires a lot of focus to make sure your campers are cared for, sometimes on little to no sleep. But it is also one of the most fulfilling jobs I will ever have because of the impact that you get to have on campers. The further I’ve gotten away from my experience as a counselor, the more I’ve come to realize that a lot of the life lessons I learned in those three summers are
more applicable to me now than they ever have been.”
Pruis grew up in Grand Rapids and comes from a family of Calvin University alums; both his parents went there, as did his older brother. His two younger siblings are currently graduate and undergraduate students at Calvin.
“My major was in secondary education with a focus in history/social studies, but during the fall of my senior year, I studied abroad on the South Island of New Zealand in a little town called Kaikoura,” said Pruis. “During that semester, I took courses in sustainability and ecology, which set me on a path towards thinking about environmental law as a career.”
After his student teaching experience in the fall, he decided to go to law school rather than move forward with teaching.
“While I loved certain aspects of teaching, there were other parts that I realized were not for me in the long term,” said Pruis. “I think my semester abroad and the subject matter I was learning about gave me the time and space to think about the type of difference I wanted to make and really pushed me towards the legal profession.”
After graduating from Calvin in 2019, Pruis took a year-and-a-half off before law school and did a term of service with AmeriCorps in Lansing doing data management for a Michigan nonprofit.
“When the time came to apply to law schools, I was looking for a bit of the opposite experience,” said Pruis. “Having spent the majority of my life in Michigan, I was looking to go outside the state for law school to experience a new place.”
Wake Forest University in North Carolina had a great reputation as a school with an up-and-coming environmental law program, a legal writing program, and a variety of clinics to participate in, he says.
Pruis is now part of the Business and Corporate Practice Team at Varnum, focusing his practice on business and transactional matters. He helps clients navigate mergers and acquisitions, advises emerging companies and works with private and family-owned businesses to provide strategic and practical legal advice on a variety of business law issues.
Pruis says Varnum’s free agency program for new associates has allowed him the opportunity to try different practice groups, rather than be siloed into a specific practice area.
“I had the opportunity to try corporate work and found I really enjoyed it,” said Pruis. “What I’ve really come to appreciate about the work I do for the Business and Corporate Practice Team, beyond the people I work with, is helping people navigate major moments in their businesses and careers, whether that be helping them get their business off the ground, selling their business, or providing them with expertise to get them over any speed bumps they might encounter along the way. And while I’m looking forward to continuing to learn from and work with the corporate practice team, I’m hoping that as my knowledge and confidence increases, I can also find ways for the corporate work to intersect with my interest in environmental law.”
Pruis and his wife Madison bought a house in Grand Rapids last summer and are enjoying settling back into the community and seeing family on a more frequent basis.
They enjoy staying active and are looking forward to participating in the Grand Rapids Triathlon in June.
“I also love to travel and explore new places,” said Pruis, who traveled with his family to Norway, Switzerland, South Africa, and Zambia. He and Madison will travel to the Canadian Rockies this summer.
His work on the Camp Henry board also will keep him busy.
“I’m a strong proponent that everyone, regardless of their age, could benefit from time at a summer camp because it offers a chance to unplug from the world and focus on the person you want to be,” said Pruis.
Legal News
Schuyler Pruis has countless memories and friendships thanks to Camp Henry, a summer and fall youth retreat that traces its roots to 1937. He first visited in 2016 when he was a sophomore at Calvin University, helping lead a middle school youth group from his church.
“There was something about the place that seemed special to me and just made me feel at home,” said Pruis, an associate attorney in Varnum’s Grand Rapids office.
The following three summers, Pruis worked as a counselor at Camp Henry, located in Newaygo, about 35 miles north of Grand Rapids. He also met and eventually proposed to his future wife, Madison, who was also a counselor, at Camp Henry.
When the opportunity arose to give back by joining the organization’s board of directors, Pruis says, “With all that Camp Henry has meant to me, it was an easy ‘yes.’”
He will be one of 16 board members charged with overseeing camp operations and programming, and ensuring young campers experience time in nature, and learn, grow and bond together.
“A lot of who I am today has come from the experiences I had at Camp Henry, so I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to hopefully help others have a similar experience that I did,” said Pruis.
During Pruis’ three summers as a counselor, he worked with students in the 8-17 age bracket, leading them through a variety of activities each day. The most enjoyable element, he says, was bonding with both his fellow staffers and campers.
“Working at a summer camp has a way of bonding people together in a special way,” said Pruis. “It is an incredibly high energy job that also requires a lot of focus to make sure your campers are cared for, sometimes on little to no sleep. But it is also one of the most fulfilling jobs I will ever have because of the impact that you get to have on campers. The further I’ve gotten away from my experience as a counselor, the more I’ve come to realize that a lot of the life lessons I learned in those three summers are
more applicable to me now than they ever have been.”
Pruis grew up in Grand Rapids and comes from a family of Calvin University alums; both his parents went there, as did his older brother. His two younger siblings are currently graduate and undergraduate students at Calvin.
“My major was in secondary education with a focus in history/social studies, but during the fall of my senior year, I studied abroad on the South Island of New Zealand in a little town called Kaikoura,” said Pruis. “During that semester, I took courses in sustainability and ecology, which set me on a path towards thinking about environmental law as a career.”
After his student teaching experience in the fall, he decided to go to law school rather than move forward with teaching.
“While I loved certain aspects of teaching, there were other parts that I realized were not for me in the long term,” said Pruis. “I think my semester abroad and the subject matter I was learning about gave me the time and space to think about the type of difference I wanted to make and really pushed me towards the legal profession.”
After graduating from Calvin in 2019, Pruis took a year-and-a-half off before law school and did a term of service with AmeriCorps in Lansing doing data management for a Michigan nonprofit.
“When the time came to apply to law schools, I was looking for a bit of the opposite experience,” said Pruis. “Having spent the majority of my life in Michigan, I was looking to go outside the state for law school to experience a new place.”
Wake Forest University in North Carolina had a great reputation as a school with an up-and-coming environmental law program, a legal writing program, and a variety of clinics to participate in, he says.
Pruis is now part of the Business and Corporate Practice Team at Varnum, focusing his practice on business and transactional matters. He helps clients navigate mergers and acquisitions, advises emerging companies and works with private and family-owned businesses to provide strategic and practical legal advice on a variety of business law issues.
Pruis says Varnum’s free agency program for new associates has allowed him the opportunity to try different practice groups, rather than be siloed into a specific practice area.
“I had the opportunity to try corporate work and found I really enjoyed it,” said Pruis. “What I’ve really come to appreciate about the work I do for the Business and Corporate Practice Team, beyond the people I work with, is helping people navigate major moments in their businesses and careers, whether that be helping them get their business off the ground, selling their business, or providing them with expertise to get them over any speed bumps they might encounter along the way. And while I’m looking forward to continuing to learn from and work with the corporate practice team, I’m hoping that as my knowledge and confidence increases, I can also find ways for the corporate work to intersect with my interest in environmental law.”
Pruis and his wife Madison bought a house in Grand Rapids last summer and are enjoying settling back into the community and seeing family on a more frequent basis.
They enjoy staying active and are looking forward to participating in the Grand Rapids Triathlon in June.
“I also love to travel and explore new places,” said Pruis, who traveled with his family to Norway, Switzerland, South Africa, and Zambia. He and Madison will travel to the Canadian Rockies this summer.
His work on the Camp Henry board also will keep him busy.
“I’m a strong proponent that everyone, regardless of their age, could benefit from time at a summer camp because it offers a chance to unplug from the world and focus on the person you want to be,” said Pruis.
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