Notre Dame student goes
from drug dealer to graduate

BY NANCY ARMOUR
Associated Press Writer

SOUTH BEND, IN (AP) - Terry Jones was 14, dealing crack for fast cash when he got lucky. He got busted for a fight and put behind bars.

It didn't seem like good luck to him then. But now, graduating Sunday from the University of Notre Dame seven years later, he sees how it saved him. And he wants to return the favor and show kids in trouble another way to live.

``I believe I owe it to my mentor, teachers, counselors, friends and family and to myself to repay that gift,'' Jones, 22, said. ``I'm excited I can be a force and I'm glad I made it this far.''

He graduates with a degree in human resources management, has a job waiting, a new car -- and a mission to save kids like himself. He's not proud of his past, but he won't hide it either.

Growing up poor and fatherless in Cincinnati, Jones said he wasn't a bad kid, just one that made bad decisions. A few months after he started dealing, a fight landed him at Buckeye Youth Center, a reformatory near Columbus, Ohio.

It was there that one of the staff members took him aside.

``He said, `You're the worst type of person. You're intelligent, but you're not using it. You're using it for destruction,''' Jones recalled. ``He seemed so disappointed in me. ... I just remember him shaking his head and walking away from me. That image stuck with me.''

The change did not come quick. Slowly, he realized that selling drugs and hanging out with the wrong crowd had only brought him trouble. If he went back, he would probably return to Buckeye or, even worse, be sent to prison.

``I systematically designed a positive path to take on how not to get in trouble,'' he said. ``I sat down with a pencil and paper and wrote down all the things that were negative elements in my life and I cut all those connections.''

He got help from a mentor assigned to him when he went to Taft High School, the next stop after Buckeye.

But James Brock was more than a mentor. He took the young man into his life, bringing him to eat meals at his home and along on family outings.

Brock got Jones out of the vocational courses he'd been taking and put him on the college-bound track. When it came time to look at colleges, it was Brock who often made the trips with Jones.

``Terry Jones didn't have a chance to fail,'' Brock said, laughing. ``I made sure I was everywhere he was. I would check with his teachers about his extracurricular activities and show up. I would go down and eat lunch with him.''

On Sunday, Brock will be at graduation.

Since he was in high school, Jones has been telling his story to kids who grew up like him. He stops at Taft when he's in Cincinnati -- not just to visit teachers and counselors, but to show students they can make it, too.

His job in Columbus puts him close to Buckeye again, and Jones hopes to be a counselor or an adviser.

``I have an interest in helping students who may be at that point where they could go either way,'' he said. ``Hopefully I could add a little more weight to the positive side.''