Jesse's Story: Turning the Corner
One Teen's Odyssey from Harsh Streets to Prep School

 Listen to Katie Davis' profile of Jesse Jean.

Jesse Jean. Photo: Katie Davis/ Neighborhood Stories  View a photo gallery

"I finally am awakened from a loving dream in which I am free of being at this place.... Sometimes I feel I should not be at Hyde because I feel out of place." Jesse Jean, from an essay written for English class at Hyde  Listen to Jesse read his entire essay  Jesse talks with Katie Davis about returning to Hyde

A mural in Jesse's Washington, D.C. neighborhood, dedicated to the memory of Jesse's friends Bai and Tay. Photo: Tiny Washington

"It is devastating to see these curious, energetic boys turn 14 and 15, to see their faces turn hard, and watch them learn how to sell drugs and begin 'thugging it,' as Jesse says. It is almost an automatic path for so many of the teenagers where we live." Katie Davis

Jesse Jean's self-portrait. Photo: Teri Ellison

May 28, 2002 -- Jesse Jean grew up without parents in inner-city Washington, D.C. At 16, he was a failing student in danger of dropping out and falling victim to street crime. Then came an extraordinary chance to start anew: Two volunteer tutors helped Jesse get into a private boarding school in Connecticut. On All Things Considered, producer Katie Davis helps Jesse tell his story, as he finishes his first year away from home.

Jesse's odyssey is part of Davis' ongoing series called Neighborhood Stories, about the Adams Morgan community where she grew up. Davis says the stories explore "the anatomy of community -- how it is built and how it can fragment." Here, in an essay exclusively for npr.org, Davis offers her reflections on Jesse and his community.

By Katie Davis

Jesse was one of a sprawling group of boys I saw racing around my neighborhood for years. Two seasons ago he played for my community basketball team, and was so low-key that I paid little attention to him. I was busy with the mouthy, rambunctious kids who needed constant guidance.

At mid-season, Jesse's tutors, Toni Husted and Teri Ellison, called to ask me to "bench" Jesse because he wasn't going to school. (No school, no sports was their strategy.) I agreed, although it was hard to sideline Jesse because he had a wicked three-pointer that helped us win games.

That's when I started to learn more about the obstacles that Jesse faced. I knew his street corner well. It is a harsh place to walk by, much less grow up on. I went to a funeral with Jesse, the funeral of our friend Bai Secka, gunned down at the age of 20 on May 25, 2001.

I knew many of Jesse's cousins and friends; they had been part of a youth group I run (The Urban Rangers Youth Service Group) and they were members of the Good Shepherd Teen Learning Center which fights fiercely to guide our neighborhood kids. (The center's director, Chris Dwyer, used to go down to Jesse's apartment and make him go to school the year that Jesse was absent so much.)

It is devastating to see these curious, energetic boys turn 14 and 15, to see their faces turn hard, and watch them learn how to sell drugs and begin "thugging it," as Jesse says. It is almost an automatic path for so many of the teenagers where we live.

So, I knew some of Jesse's story. And I knew the power of the neighborhood.

When I heard last summer that Jesse had won a scholarship to Hyde Boarding School, I was relieved. Maybe, I thought, maybe Jesse will have a shot at a future. And that's when I knew that I wanted to track his experience. I wanted to know how someone makes such an epic journey, literally and emotionally. I also thought the conversations might help Jesse make sense of his own experience -- might serve as a kind of running journal.

Now, as this first school year at Hyde winds down, I realize I will not stop following this young man’s story. It is a story that has power for the other boys in our neighborhood. They are keenly aware of what Jesse is doing, purely through word of mouth. They know about the pristine new gym that Jesse shoots basketball in -- a gym with a weight room and a trainer who will wrap a bad knee. They’ve heard about the campus theater with 1,000 seats, where each student has to get up on stage and act.

Jesse also shares tales of the rough times with his old friends. Over Spring break, when he was asked to provide guidance to a troubled teenager at his old teen center, what Jesse told the young man was straight from his life at Hyde: “You know when you’re starting to get off track. That’s when you have to ask for help. That’s what I do.”

I suspect that over the next few years, Jesse will be asked more and more to share his story with young people -- back in his old neighborhood and at Hyde Boarding School. For my part, I will be taking my microphone up to Hyde the next two years. And I plan to be in the audience recording, in the spring of 2004, when Jesse Jean graduates.

Other Resources

• Hyde Schools official Web site.

• Good Shepherd Ministries, which helps run the teen center where Jesse Jean met his tutors.

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