PROVIDENCE —When Isaac Reyes was growing up on Smith Hill, a successful day could be measured by not getting pummeled to the ground or going to bed hungry.
Reyes, now 23, was born to a single mother who was addicted to drugs for the first five years of the young man’s life, causing him to be born prematurely and without fully developed lungs.
“I spent my first eight months at Women and Infants Hospital,” he began, adding that when he finally went home, his oldest brother, then age 13, cared for the infant and two other younger siblings.
“He had to look out for his brothers,” Reyes continued. “He’s an inspiration in my life and I adore him to the fullest.”
Eventually the three youngest boys were removed from their home – two were placed in foster care for a year while the third was placed in the custody of his grandparents. The oldest son, by then a young adult, moved out of the house.
“We went from one foster home to another,” Reyes recalled. “It was pretty intense.”
Eventually the family was reunited, and the young mother worked three jobs to feed and clothe her sons. Her mother’s boyfriend at the time, a recovering addict who later died of cancer, didn’t want the children to end up on the street in gangs and introduced Isaac and his brother to the De La Salle Christian Brothers at San Miguel School, where the siblings attended middle school.
“Everyone there was caring,” Reyes recalled. “Sometimes we went to school without breakfast and they fed us. They did it out of the kindness of the heart.”
At San Miguel, Reyes encountered teachers whose lessons challenged the young man and made him aware of his many gifts and talents.
“I never had a tougher or more intense teacher than Brother Michael,” Reyes remembered. “He pushed us to our limits.”
A visit to Reyes’ sixth grade class by Father Marcel Taillon, then chaplain at Bishop Hendricken High School, piqued his interest and encouraged him to study.
“I knew right then and there that is where I wanted to go to high school,” Reyes said, adding that he took the Catholic High School Exam in Grade 8 and was accepted at three high schools, including Bishop Hendricken, which was his first choice.
There was, however, one problem. His mother, although gainfully employed, was already struggling to pay a small percentage of another son’s tuition at La Salle Academy, and could not afford to help with Reyes’ tuition at Bishop Hendricken High School.
Ten years ago, Father Taillon spearheaded the Hendricken Inner-city Scholarship Fund with the help of a few laymen who support Catholic education. Proceeds from an annual cigar dinner benefit a four-year, full tuition scholarship that is awarded annually to a deserving young man living in an urban area.
While Reyes was not the first choice to receive the award, he convinced Father Taillon that he would prove to be a worthy investment and also received a scholarship.
“He made his point,” Father Taillon observed. “He was feisty and committed.”
However, despite good intentions, Reyes’ first year at Bishop Hendricken was rocky.
“I was an inner-city kid,” he recalled. “I was a one out of 15 minority students in the school. It was tough on me and tough on the teachers.”
Reyes noted that he was “always on the defense” and unaccustomed to being treated with respect. “I kept asking myself why everyone was being so nice,” he said. “I didn’t understand their motives.”
He recalled being invited to a classmate’s home for dinner during his freshman year.
“That was the first time I sat down for a family dinner,” he said, noting that he would warm meals left for him by a mother who was working three jobs and trying to stay sober.
Faced with behavioral issues and poor grades, the young man faced dismissal at the end of his freshman year from the all-boys school.
“I just wasn’t putting in the effort,” Reyes admitted, adding that Father Taillon convinced school officials to allow him to return that fall.
“I say that Father Taillon put his collar on the line for me,” he emphasized. “I came back by the skin of my teeth.”
Donna Lynch, who was Reyes’ history teacher at Hendricken, said she was one of many members of the school community who saw a young man who just needed someone to believe in him.
“It’s easy to see yourself in less than a favorable light when you are constantly told you fall short of expectations,” she acknowledged. “From my very first day meeting Isaac, I always told him, as well as his classmates, that I was holding them to the same standards as any student at Hendricken and that I expected their best at all times, no matter what that was.”
Lynch said she offered the often-troubled student “unconditional acceptance.”
“He always knew that he could come to me no matter what,” the educator said. “It didn’t mean I wouldn’t have a tongue lashing for him. It meant that no matter what, he would always be accepted and cared for.”
Reyes’ experience at Bishop Hendricken changed dramatically when he published a poem entitled “Dad” in the school’s literary magazine during his junior year.
“I spilled my heart out through my pen,” he said, adding that his peers and many faculty members who were unaware of his tumultuous background embraced him when they read the poem about the pain of not knowing a father’s love.
“There was no excuse for me to be on the defensive and push people away,” he said.
Reyes recalled that the Hendricken community rallied behind him later that year when he became homeless after his mother remarried and he couldn’t get along with his new stepfather. Staff members helped him obtain an apartment in Providence, where he lived after being placed in the custody of an older brother.
“I worked 40 hours a week at Burger King and maintained a 3.5 GPA during my junior and senior years,” he said, proudly.
“I got a wonderful education and I am blessed with so many friends, and so many parents,” Reyes reflected. “Hendricken taught me how to be a man, taught me values and how to be compassionate. It also taught me how to present myself and to be a respectable young man.”
After graduating from Hendricken in 2006, Reyes attended Johnson and Wales University, where he also received a scholarship after meeting university President Dr. John Bowen at a cigar dinner. He graduated last month with a Bachelor of Science degree in hospitality management and has accepted a management training position with a restaurant chain in New York.
“I could have taken the easy way out but I kept pushing,” he said. “I wanted to make it. According to statistics, I should be in jail or dead. My experience has taught me to trust in God and other people.”
“Isaac’s story is a sure sign of God’s grace and a testament to the sacrifices made by many people for him,” Father Taillon said.
