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Many alumni of the LaSalle School in Albany keep in touch with old teachers, childcare workers or counselors, but a steady stream of former students feel called to a career at their old school.

Currently, at least five of the organization's more than 200 staff members are graduates of one of its programs.

D. Troy Kennedy is a supervisor of direct-care training and a supervisor-on-duty at the day services program. He trains every new staff member in the therapeutic crisis intervention model and leads refresher courses twice a year; he also trains staff in alcohol and substance abuse counseling, CPR and first aid.

Mr. Kennedy began his career at LaSalle 17 years ago at the age of 26, starting as a childcare worker and moving up through the ranks. His connection to LaSalle stems back to his youth, when his single mother raised him and his seven siblings in urban areas of Albany. Mr. Kennedy described himself as half-Irish and half-black; growing up, he said, other children often teased him about his "Puerto Rican" appearance, and he felt the need to prove himself and bully others.

As a teenager, he cut school and stole things like radar detectors and a car stereo. "I started running amok," he said.

At 14, his school district recommended he live at LaSalle for a period. There, he continued to bully other children, so he moved to a group home before graduating 126th out of 400 students at Albany High School. He was a defensive lineman on the football team there.

In retrospect, he said, it was LaSalle's influence that helped him finish school. The Christian Brothers who operate the school often watched his football games.

"I wasn't enough of a knucklehead to drive them away," Mr. Kennedy joked. "They still loved me no matter what. Once the Christian Brothers hugged me, they never let me go."

One of his mentors convinced him he was a talented athlete: "He led me to believe in myself greater than I did. It only takes one person to believe in somebody to change your whole world."

Mr. Kennedy played on semi-professional teams for a while after high school. If it weren't for LaSalle, he said, he could imagine himself in prison. "That was the route I was on. The love and the relationships I built here [at LaSalle] were next to having a parent in my life."

Rashiek Haynes, 20, is a new, full-time residence childcare worker at LaSalle. He's in his second year at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, studying human services.

When he was a teenager, Mr. Haynes was caught stealing a car and put on probation by Albany County. Instead of detention, he enrolled in the 90-day Evening Reporting Center program at LaSalle in 2006.

Mr. Haynes enjoyed the program's enrichment activities. He remembered baking frosted cookies in the home and careers room, making CD covers in the art room and blending beats in the recording studios.

"Most of my time [back then], I would rather be there," Mr. Haynes recalled. "It provided me with a sense of, 'Being negative isn't the way to go.'"

During a recent cheerful reunion with his former probation officer, Mr. Haynes reflected on how the school staff held him accountable for his actions and helped him turn his life around.

LaSalle, he declared, is "like another home."

(11/25/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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