August 4, 2009

Dear Friends:
I often get asked what happens to former DeLaSalle students and graduates. I wish there was a simple answer. Sometimes it takes a little time for our graduates to “find themselves”.
For instance, Ossco, Tisa and Terrance* all graduated from DeLaSalle some time ago: Tisa in 1987, Ossco in 1993 and Terrance in 1995.
They each then worked at a series of jobs in their fields of interest. They wanted to own their own business, and after some time, they all succeeded, against enormous odds!
Tisa was a teen mother at DeLaSalle. She worked in our print shop, which awakened a desire in her to own her own business someday.
After graduation, she had a series of jobs in the clothing industry, marrying and raising a family at the same time. She persevered with her dream. Today, she has an upscale clothing shop in Crown Center near downtown Kansas City.
Ossco was a former gang member who had a transforming experience after being chased by a Kansas City policeman.
He was fortunate not to have been shot in this chase. After all, he was carrying a gun and was alleged to have aimed it at the policeman.
He was then given a second chance by a judge who could have sentenced him to a long time in prison. Instead, Ossco was sent(enced) to DeLaSalle!
After graduation, he worked in community organizing and getting kids out of gangs. He persevered with his dream, though, giving talks to young people throughout Kansas City and its suburbs, making sure that principals and students knew he could help them with through their difficulties. He now operates a national consulting business offering gang intervention strategies that have literally saved thousands of young people from gang violence and drugs.
Terrence was another former gang member who went to work in maintenance after graduation from DeLaSalle. He taught himself how to build air conditioning and heating systems, got licensed, and now has his own heating and air conditioning business. In fact, he is helping DeLaSalle in its upcoming capital campaign to renovate its aging facility!
Now, let’s fast forward to some of the sixty young people who graduated from DeLaSalle this spring.
Dominique and Monteke have high hopes of becoming artists. Interestingly, they both left Kansas City this summer to enroll in community colleges in other states. (It is not uncommon for young people living in Kansas City’s urban core to relocate to other cities because of the exceptionally high incidence of random violence in their neighborhoods). They were each involved in arts programming at DeLaSalle, and could be self-employed artists in the future!
Marcus and Ashley intend to go to college this fall, too. Marcus worked his way through high school and even earned 3 college credits at DeLaSalle (in our unique dual credit program). He has enrolled for the fall in a college in Kansas.
Ashley will attend a local community college. She is very talented, even working as a part-time receptionist at DeLaSalle during the past school year.
Then there’s Devon. Devon will not be going to college, unless the prison to which he is sentenced has such a program.
Devon had been struggling with substance abuse for years. We worked hard to try to get him to go clean. He stopped coming to school for a long stretch this past fall. We kept him on our rolls, even going to his house to convince his parents to help us turn him around. Without going into details, his parents were not able to help. Devon came to school off and on in the spring, until he was arrested. He finished up the last of his credits while awaiting his court date. We gave his diploma to his sister who also graduated this spring, who has a promising life ahead of her, as she has purposefully avoided following in her brother’s footsteps.
I hope and believe that Devon’s story is not complete. It takes time for our young people to find themselves. We give every one of our young people the opportunity to turn their lives around. Sometimes it takes a little more time for some of them to find themselves.
Thank you for giving us the time to help our community’s young people. For all of the Devons and Montekes and Osscos and Ashleys. None of them would have made it without you, our friends and supporters.

Jim Dougherty

* All first names in this letter are real, but I have avoided using their last names to protect their identity.