From skipping class to setting an example

MONROEVILLE — There was a time when school was the last thing on Tristen Clevenger's mind. Freshman year came and went without a single credit to show for it. Homework went unfinished. Classes had to be repeated. For a while, it seemed like high school was just something happening around him, not something he was a part of. "I would describe myself as someone who didn't care and was a troublemaker," Clevenger said. "I am not that person anymore." The turning point came during his junior year when he found out he was going to be a father. In that moment, everything shifted. The skipping stopped. He picked up a job. He started taking care of his girlfriend and his growing family — all while walking back through the school doors every single day. "I wanted little man to have a good dad and graduate high school," Clevenger said. And graduate he did. Senior year told a completely different story. He earned a spot on the merit roll and was awarded an academic black card, an academic award based on service hours, attendance, grades and missing assignments recognitions that would have seemed unimaginable just two years earlier. He didn't just show up. He showed out. Ask him about his favorite memories, and he doesn't list awards or grades. He lights up talking about conversations with the lunch ladies, laughing with friends and the classroom of Caroline Gessling, a teacher who clearly left a mark. "Because Mrs. Gessling is amazing, smart and supported me, she is admirable," Clevenger said. "I still wish she had played the movie 'Nacho Libre.'" After graduation, Clevenger plans to keep working and recently had an interview at Berry Global, a factory in Monroeville. But his eyes are set on something bigger — the police academy and, eventually, becoming a state trooper. The same kid who once couldn't collect a credit is now planning a career in public service. He's quick to credit the people who changed him. His girlfriend and his son, "little man," gave him a reason to care when nothing else had. "I didn't care about anything," Clevenger said, "until I met her and had a child." I have had a front row seat to all of it. Over the past four years, we have built a real working relationship, and I don't hesitate when asked to describe him: He's creative, entertaining, hilarious and a kid who has always marched to the beat of his own drum. What he's accomplished isn't just academic: It's personal. He made a decision to change the trajectory of his life and followed through on it every single day. Going from no credits freshman year to earning merit roll recognition as a senior isn't luck. That's a young man who decided his story wasn't finished and rewrote it himself. His future goals are a natural extension of who he has become. The fact that he wants to serve his community as a state trooper makes complete sense to me. He understands what it means to make hard choices and turn your life around, and that will make him an exceptional officer." I am so incredibly proud of the person Tristen has become and was ecstatic to watch him walk across that stage at graduation. He has earned every single step of it. Along with 48 other students, Clevenger walked the stage and was handed his diploma on May 31. Some people find their reason early, some find it late, and some find it in the face of a child who hasn't even arrived yet and decide, right then, to become someone worth looking up to. Tristen found his reason, and he never let it go.