People’s journeys often follow a complicated path, which can include becoming an “emerging leader” much later in life. After serving almost two decades in Sing Sing prison, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree and helped found the Rehabilitation Through Arts program, Mark Wallace is a youth worker, a mentor, and an example of the power of redemption.
Mark Wallace, 45
Facilitator for School Violence Prevention, K-12, Newburgh Enlarged City School District
Newburgh, New York
[transcript of phone interview]
Wallace: I can definitely appreciate from a journalistic perspective your concern with the various issues and vocations of people around the country who are doing positive things in the community, to help uplift the community. I definitely think that’s good. A lot of the newspapers today and media focus on the sensationalism and all the negativity. It’s refreshing to have another perspective—one that’s more positive and in line with trying to build up. It’s always like that—there are so many things that go on in neighborhoods and communities that you don’t hear about, because they don’t sell papers.
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