A Commitment to Helping Others

Several months ago, Kevin Alex got a telephone call from a sobbing classmate. Increasingly frustrated with learning difficulties and sure that everyone in her family was “better,” the girl had just left school and was thinking of suicide.

Alex kept her on the phone, urging her to get help, assuring her over and over that she is a good and worthy person. “There is a place on this Earth for you . . . it’s a beautiful world, and nothing is worth killing yourself over,” he told the girl, who today is back in school and working out her problems.

For Alex, 18, a bright, energetic Fairfax High School senior who has worked hard to overcome a learning disability, the advice reflected his own philosophy of life.

Keenly interested in politics and human relations, Alex wants to be a priest and help others.

Last summer, he attended the Brotherhood/Sisterhood U.S.A. camp sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District and the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

“One of the things I love about L.A. is all the different groups. I like to learn about different cultures, languages, religions. I think it’s very important that we all learn to understand each other,” said Alex, who plans to attend another, school-sponsored program on race relations this month.

Right after that, he will spend a week in Washington as part of the school’s and the Close-Up Foundation’s program to familiarize students with the workings of the federal government.

In addition, he will appear on a Washington-based cable television show about youths involved in community work, and end the month with a church retreat.

The fast pace is something Alex is used to.

After school is out each day, he rides the bus downtown to City Hall, where he works in the mayor’s Office for the Disabled from 3 until at least 5 p.m. He studies on the bus as well as every evening at home to keep up with his schoolwork.

On Sundays, he sings in the choir at St. Columbkille Church in South-Central Los Angeles, and then serves as an altar boy at St. Vincent de Paul Church in the West Adams district.

During Christmas vacation he worked at Universal Studios to help raise money for the trip to Washington.

“I am just amazed at the drive and determination Kevin has--I wish some of the other kids had even just half as much,” said Zane Meckler, community liaison representative at Fairfax High. “But what is even more outstanding is his caring and commitment to others,” Meckler added. “This is a kid with such enthusiasm for life and such concern for others . . . he really wants to make a difference.”

Alex credits his family--especially his mother, father, grandmother and aunt--for instilling in him a need for persisting in the face of adversity and for caring about others.

“They taught me that you have to work for what you want,” Alex said. “They also taught me not to dislike anybody because of race or religion but to accept them for who they are.”

At City Hall, Alex has plastered the shelves above his desk with pictures of his family and of himself with Mayor Tom Bradley, one of his heroes, “because he shows he cares about all the different groups of people in the city.”

Betty Wilson, director of the Office for the Disabled, praised Alex as “committed, reliable and responsible.”

“In the two years he’s been here, we have watched him grow from someone who was not always sure of himself to someone with a lot of confidence and who knows what he wants out of life,” Wilson said.