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My name is Jairon King. I am 11 years old.
My name is Nikhai Hill-Green. I’m 15 years old.
My name is Zion McCaskill and I’m 13 years old.
We interviewed Andre Turner.
We interviewed Andre Turner.
We interviewed Mr. Andre Turner on June 22nd, 2016.
I was born September 11th, 1983. I was born and raised in Garfield, Kincaid St. I come from a household with a mother and a father. I have five siblings. My dad was always around. He worked 30 years in construction as a laborer for Golden Triangle. My mother was a supervisor and dietary at Western Hospital, so pretty well-rounded family atmosphere, particularly in terms of the household setting. Most important person to me, probably would be my mother. Although I came from a two parent household, my mother was very strong in her beliefs and her approach towards raising us to be young, responsible, smart individuals. She played a major role in just making sure that we chased our education, obtained the proper education.
I graduated from Mansfield University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. I work at Shuman Juvenile Detention Center. I’m a wing supervisor. I’ve been there for 11 years.
I have a 5 year old daughter named Brooklyn and a three-year old son named Andre. Having kids was a different experience. It becomes a selfless job and since it’s no longer about you, it changes you and matures you quick. You gotta roll with the punches.
Community shaped me in a lot of ways and taught me a lot of responsibility. At a young age, growing up in what you can consider the gang era, it taught me how to stand up for myself, but also I’ll stand up for the things that we believe in. It was right and wrong, being responsible enough to know the difference. Being a part of the Garfield Gator Organization kept me out of trouble, kept me out of the streets. I just wanted to continue that path with coaching and also seeing all of you young guys be productive, positive young men.
Our community is heading in the right direction with change. We just have to make sure that young men who live in our community continue the job. We have younger kids looking up to us. We just have to make sure that we continue to be positive and make sure that our Community continues to go in a positive direction. It’s tough being a minority young man, especially in inner city. It’s important that we stay grounded and we stay respectful and we keep ourselves busy. It’s easy to get caught up in the streets, or doing things that aren’t particularly the right way, things like major league football, basketball, baseball, any type of groups or activities that you can be in, particularly our Garfield Gator situation. I think it’s a positive to make sure that we stay on the right path. The Garfield Gator Organization kept us off the streets, kept us out of trouble. Playing football, being with these coaches and staff five and six months out of the year, and then even continually through the summer, through working now and just mentoring us, kept us moving in the right direction. I had a lot of male role models, responsible male figures in my life. They laid the blueprint for me. I just had to follow it. I see an older man in my life have children, get married, buy homes, be successful in their communities by standing tall in them. And-and I just followed that blueprint. Bob Jones and Garth Taylor, a few of my Big Brothers, Sean Miles, Dion Turner. Those four individuals not to forget my dad too, he was a hard working man and taught me a lot of things in terms of just staying positive and then always having a job. You know, his biggest thing was, you know, you always have a job. Just be able to support yourself. Those individuals, they pushed me and they made sure that I stayed on that right path.
I had a lot of obstacles in life. Death, misfortune, ups and downs financially. Even as a high schooler, you know, my grades weren’t all that good, which resulted in me getting a scholarship from a smaller school. I didn’t take my grades as seriously as I should have, but they were able to be caught in enough time to change some things around, maybe my junior or senior year of high school. It’s easy to fall off track. It’s easy to get sidetracked. You just gotta stay positive stay on the path.
As a young kid, I wanted to go to the NFL. In that process, you know, I had these other dreams of being a veterinarian, actually own and operate my own Pitbull kennel, American bully kennel. Between going to the NFL and being a veterinarian, that was two of my main goals in life. I said the best day of my life… that would be split in 2, but one of my best days in life was getting a football scholarship to Mansfield University right out of high school. And then the second-half of that was becoming a father.
Stay positive. Stay focused. You’ll run into roadblocks in life, that’s just a part of growing up. That’s just a part of being a young man. You just gotta keep your eye on the goal, you know, keep your eye on the prize and keep pushing. You know, life happens at an extremely fast pace and you just got to keep it moving, keep it pushing. Hard work is important and overall maturation process in terms of who you want to become as a young adult. You gotta work hard to do anything, you know, to be a good computer guy. You gotta work hard at being the best computer guy you can be. If you want to play ball, you gotta work out and try to be the best football guy you can be, you know, in, in relation to hard work. It’s just important that you don’t shy away from hard work because nothing worth having is easy, you know. You gotta work for it.