Juvenile offenders' graduation is beginning of hope

Like most high school graduations, the ceremony Thursday at the Zebulon Pike Youth Services Center featured a performance of “Pomp and Circumstance.”

But the winter graduation at the state-run juvenile detention facility in Colorado Springs also included a different and apt tune.

Vincent — one of 18 juvenile offenders to get their high school diplomas or GEDs — played an electric keyboard version of “Anxious Hearts” by Nobuo Uematsu, composer of the score for the video game Final Fantasy.

 The 17-year-old sex offender, felt the haunting but elegant score was an appropriate choice for him and his fellow graduates, who are moving forward with their lives — albeit a bit anxiously.

“It’s a huge step for me,” said Vincent, who was allowed to be interviewed only if he was not identified by his last name.

“When I started getting into trouble, I never thought I’d be able to complete my education,” Vincent said. “Now I’ll be able to get a job and go to college.”

After his release from the center this spring, Vincent said he plans to move to Portland, Ore., where his father lives and study music theory.

Thursday’s graduation was one of the largest in the center’s history, said Zeb Pike Director Dan Beilfuss. The 18 graduates represent nearly half of the 40 residents.

“In the past, if we got one or two kids, we were ecstatic,” he said. “To get 18 is just unheard of.” Beilfuss credited an increased emphasis on education and cooperation from several local high schools for the greater numbers.

Thursday’s keynote speaker, author and ex-convict Weldon Long, warmly congratulated the graduates, but told them an education alone won’t be enough without making good choices.

 Each of the graduates got a copy of Long’s memoir, “The Upside of Fear – How one man broke the cycle of prison, poverty and addiction.”

Long talked about how his sister got her law degree while he spent time in prison on three felony convictions. His sister, however, lapsed back into drugs and alcohol and died nearly five years ago, he said.

He asked the graduates to stand and turn around to look at the crowd of about 90 friends, family and staff member who were seated behind them in the gymnasium.

“I want you to know how proud and how much I respect what you’ve done,” Long told them. “Today is about you. But tomorrow is about them.”

Samuel, who played electric guitar with Vincent — “He’s ivory, I’m steel” —  plans to live up to that advice.

He told his mom that graduation was like a dream he had recently.

“It’s like I’m stepping though a doorway into a new life,” he said. “And when I turn back to look at what my life used to be, that door closes.”