Graduation Speech - NYS OCFS - Tryon

"I was selected by my classmates to give our graduation speech at Parker Training Academy, 12/10/99. Here is Part 1 of my NYS OCFS Graduation Speech when I worked at Tryon."

When I first started working for the Office of Children and Family Services in April of 1998, I ran in to an old friend who asked me where I was working these days. I told him I was a YDA at Tryon in Johnstown. He looked at me with a confused expression and asked me what the heck a YDA is and what kind of company Tryon is. I told him that YDA stands for "Youth Division Aid" and Tryon is a residential center. His eyebrow raised and he asked me in a frustrated tone, "What do you do?" I thought for a few seconds and said, "I'm a guard in a reform school." That seemed like the right answer at the time, but the longer I worked there, the more I realized that Tryon is not simply a reform school and being a YDA is so much more than being a guard. Yes, we do guard the youths in our facility and yes, we do our best to reform and educate them, but those are the simplest definitions for what we do.

Perhaps reforming assumes that these children were ever truly formed to begin with. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to be a positive influence in the lives of impressionable teenagers who, for the most part, have lacked positive role models throughout their lives. We are mentors who help guide these young people through the final stages of adolescence before their age makes them legally adults, but are still children on the inside.

Why should we do this for kids who break the law and break the rules time and time again? I'm reminded of a video we watched in class called "Eye Of The Storm" about a third grade class room of blue eyed children and brown eyed children. Not only did Miss Elliot teach those children a valuable lesson on prejudice, but she showed how easily young people can be influenced and persuaded by adults in a position to teach them. She demonstrated that it was possible to change overnight, the students ability to learn based on what they were told about their ability to learn, and how they were treated by the other students after they were told half of them were better than the others. As YDA's we need to take that lesson to heart and give these kids a sense of self worth, but not at the expense of their peers.

Equality and consistency will create an environment that will allow us to use the opportunity we have been given to plant the seed of self-esteem. With that, when they leave OCFS to return home, they will not feel the need to rejoin or become part of gangs who make them feel safe and important. They will already have the self-confidence inside themselves to survive and a real chance to flourish on their own when they venture out into the world. To do that, we must do our best to share and instill in them our "Valiant Vision".

"The rest of the speech is about the training and staff that worked with us, thank you's and the like. jj