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May 30, 2015

Kids of LaPorte Alum Receives Masters

Donalyn Allen, a former student of the K.L.A.S after school program at St. John’s, LaPorte, received a master’s degree from Stephen F. Austin on May 16, 2015. She attended St. John’s after school program from the age of seven, when she was in the second grade.

 

When she was four years old, Allen came to LaPorte to live with her grandmother, Brenda Jerrell, following her mother’s death. Jerrell said had it not been for the after school program at St. John’s, she doesn’t know what she would have done. Jerrell needed to work and didn’t want her granddaughter being left with different people every day. “One of the biggest helps I could ever receive was when Donalyn was accepted into the after school. Since it was a free program I was able to work and support both of us,” Jerrell said.

 

Allen agrees. ““K.L.A.S. changed my life,” she said. “I was tutored by Bill Stout in math. I really needed help and he was there for me. I was able to take piano lessons, had help with my homework, learned about the computer and gained social skills.” Allen said she had never played with other children previously because she was an only child. In her senior year at LaPorte High School, Allen worked with younger children in the after school program.

 

“I thought I wanted to major in journalism, but once I worked with the children in the K.L.A.S. program, I knew that children had my heart. That’s one of the reasons I became a speech-language pathologist,” Allen added. She had a speech problem as a young child and was able to correct the problem working with a speech and language pathologist.

 

Allen received a Dell scholarship and a grant from Kids Count Foundation (which gives scholarships to previous students of the program) to help with college expenses after graduating high school in 2009. She earned a bachelor of science from Stephen F. Austin in 2012, moved to Waco and worked at Hillsboro ISD as an assistant to the speech-language pathologist there before returning to SFA for her masters. The program accepts only 20-22 students annually from more than 100 applicants.

 

Allen is a member of Zion Hill Praise Center in La Porte and she and her grandmother agree that her success would not have been possible “without God and the K.L.A.S. Program.” Allen will continue her work in La Porte through the La Porte Community Civic Club. She helps with the annual Juneteenth celebration and pageant and works with La Porte’s AVID alumni association.

 

Allen wants to work with pediatric/geriatric patients but children still have her heart. She said in 10 years she wants to have her own private practice in La Porte or surrounding area. The K.L.A.S. program is proud of Allen. “Her resolve to be all she can be is an inspiration to all children that face obstacles in life,” said Kathy Buskirk, director of the after school program.