James Ockleberry is the security monitor at LASA and knows the halls of LASA like the back of his hand. His role on campus is to ensure that students are going about their proper activities and help people out if they are having trouble with anything in their life. Because of his caring attitude, he’s a beloved person on campus by many students. Outside of school, he is involved with nonprofit organizations and devotes himself to encouraging and teaching young people.

LASA Liberator: Where did you go to school and what did you study? When did you start working at LASA?

Ockleberry: I went to ACC, and I studied child development. I had envisioned owning a daycare, so I took courses into that, and then I went into corporate America. I worked at State Farm for 25 years. I started at LASA six years ago.

LASA Liberator: Why did you choose to work here?

Ockleberry: I love working with young people. I also do a men’s and boy’s conference every year. It entails some of the things that we lack as men; understanding the transition from being a boy to a man, some [of us], we don’t really [get] that. And so even when we [grow up], we lack the responsibility of leadership of getting simple things like insurance. We focus on mental health, and..things in that nature that we don’t really take care of. 

LASA Liberator: Are there any clubs or organizations you’re involved with here at LASA? 

Ockleberry: We used to feed the homeless, [we] adopted a shelter not too far from here, along with Mr. Snyder. We gave them a hundred bottles of detergent and fabric softener, and, wow, it really helped them out!

What we may do is pass judgment on people that are out on the streets that sometimes we look at as less[er]. But then to hear the story of why they’re there, it’s not just dependent on chemicals or alcohol, it’s having a rough child life, or [being] mentally ill. And so to give back something as simple as a breakfast taco, or sandwich, or laundry detergent, it really makes a difference.

It really makes it easy because being in this environment where I would say 98% of the kiddos here are focused on academics.[They] can have a purpose and then not have a plan. Some of the people at LASA will wait until their junior year to decide a major. Sometimes you can declare a major and not go into it, so spend time thinking about your purpose while you’re here. What’s in you that needs to get out? Because your gift is not for you, it’s for someone else.

Once you create that oneness of where you want to go, then you plan. And nothing gets in your way. But if you just wake up and wing it every day, then you get off track… because a lot of times when you finish school, you have no job experience.

So this is my mission, I look at you guys as my kids. Because being a young person, parents don’t always understand. You may struggle with something and share with your parents and they may ground you for it. But you can come and tell me the same thing and I’ll look at it from a different lens and give you a [new] perspective. 

LASA Liberator: So young people have a hard time really processing what their parents tell them. And your goal is you want to help people understand that. 

Ockleberry: When people see me coming or if they approach me, I want them to feel comfortable… I want to give them a different lens on life. One of the things that I’ve learned is to maximize the moment. Sometimes we look so far in the future, we don’t maximize the very moment that we’re living [in].

The point I want to make is that when you are kind to somebody, you can teach people to love you by [the] steps that you take. So even if somebody is bullying you or they’re being mean to you, kill them with kindness and eventually, eventually, you’ll win them over. Because before they come in to the school, you don’t know if they’ve been abused; you don’t know if they had a rough morning; you don’t even know if they have a terminal illness, and sometimes they’ll take it out on you. And so by you being kind, you will be touched threefold; it’ll come back to you, trust me, again threefold. So that’s what I’d like to deposit in you.