{"id":1631,"date":"2015-06-30T11:54:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T15:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=1631"},"modified":"2025-01-28T09:18:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:18:54","slug":"one-powerful-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2015\/06\/one-powerful-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"One Powerful Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laquan Ford \u201913 needed a helping hand. Nick Scalera \u201963 was there to offer it. The bond they formed has made a profound difference \u2014 for them both.<\/em><\/p>\n

For an inner-city Newark teenager, the son of a father who sold drugs and a mother who was addicted to heroin, life at Seton Hall University was once unimaginable.<\/p>\n

\"Laquan_Ford\"<\/a>\u201cAs a very young boy, I wondered what Seton Hall was,\u201d recalls Laquan Ford \u201913, who used to earn money raking leaves in the lush nearby neighborhoods of South Orange. \u201cI never knew it was a college because I didn\u2019t know what a college was then.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Ford did know about was parental absence. He grew up in the care of an ailing great aunt \u2014 whom he calls his grandmother \u2014 until she died, when Ford was still in high school. Afterward, he found shelter with friends.<\/p>\n

There was another thing that was unfathomable to Ford growing up: Accustomed to abandonment and discord, he was \u201cnot comfortable with love and caring.\u201d<\/p>\n

But time has changed Ford\u2019s perspective. Seton Hall gave him a fundamental lesson in the value of both education and loving commitment. And for this, Ford \u2014 now seeking a graduate degree in social work at Loyola University Chicago \u2014 credits the supportive environment of the University community and the efforts of one man in particular: Nick Scalera \u201963.<\/p>\n

Scalera arrived in Ford\u2019s life by happenstance. After the recession of 2007\u201309, scholarship money had become scarce, and Ford was facing the prospect of having to drop out of Seton Hall during his sophomore year.<\/p>\n

By then, Ford had established a stable life on campus.<\/p>\n

He was involved in numerous organizations, even helping to found the campus group Black Men of Standard, a support organization whose motto is \u201cAs we rise, so does the standard.\u201d But his association with Seton Hall, which dated back to his enrollment in a University-sponsored program at Newark\u2019s West Side High School, looked perilous.<\/p>\n

Meantime, Nick Scalera was in the process of establishing a scholarship designed to provide assistance to Seton Hall students in need. In 2011, Ford became one of the Nicholas R. Scalera \u201963 Scholarship\u2019s first recipients, awarded to academically proficient students from Essex County who demonstrate \u201csubstantial financial and social need.\u201d It is a strictly needs-based scholarship, which is critical to the University, and is designed to \u201cbridge the gap\u201d between aid, loans and other scholarships.<\/p>\n

For Laquan Ford, it was the monetary equivalent of the cavalry arriving. That first year, two of the scholarship recipients were officially homeless, but Ford\u2019s needs \u201cwere truly overwhelming,\u201d Scalera says. The scholarship kept Ford in school.<\/p>\n

Over time, Scalera\u2019s donation has worked to transform both their lives. In fact, Scalera had an ability to understand the young man in a way few adults could. He once headed up New Jersey\u2019s child protection and welfare agency, an organization Ford had encountered multiple times growing up.<\/p>\n

Today, Ford sees Nick as a father figure who has not only helped shape his future, but also gave him his first real understanding of family. Scalera sees a version of himself, growing up as he did in an Italian working-class family that struggled to put him (the first member of his family to enter and graduate from college) through Seton Hall.<\/p>\n

After the two met at the scholarship\u2019s induction luncheon, they saw a basketball game and later met for coffee. \u201cI wound up becoming his mentor,\u201d Scalera says. \u201cIt was not by design. But when I saw how hard he was struggling, I just had to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one of their get-togethers, Scalera handed Ford his business card. \u201cI said, \u2018Feel free to call me. Don\u2019t just sit there waiting for the sky to fall.\u2019\u2009\u201d It was an outreach, he explains, to \u201csomeone hurt many times by adults who promised things and never delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Respect and trust deepened as their relationship developed over time. Last Christmas, since Ford had no family to come home to from Chicago, he was welcomed by Scalera\u2019s extended family. \u201cIt seemed like their entire focus was on me,\u201d Ford says of the holiday. \u201cIt was unbelievable. It was the first time I ever had a gift under a Christmas tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, getting to know Scalera has inspired Ford to find his life\u2019s purpose. Today, his goal is to become either a high-school superintendent, college dean or the head of New Jersey\u2019s child protection agency, as Scalera once was.<\/p>\n

Will he succeed? Scalera\u2019s prediction is a resounding yes: \u201cHere\u2019s a young man who went through an incredible amount of adversity, yet he never gave up. He\u2019s not bitter, he\u2019s not angry. All he does is look forward and set his eyes on his goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob Gilbert is a writer based in Connecticut.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laquan Ford \u201913 needed a helping hand. Nick Scalera \u201963 was there to offer it. The bond they formed has made a profound difference \u2014 for them both.<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingOne Powerful Connection<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":1667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,258,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-articles-2015-2019","category-features","entry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3696,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions\/3696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}