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CASA Volunteers
Alex Clark

Once an educator, always an educator, is a saying especially true of Alex Clark, September Volunteer of the Month.

This former acting president of the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) who spent 17 years at the school as Vice President of Academic Affairs, said he felt "guilty with nothing to do" after his retirement. He was tutoring at a local school when his wife read him an article about CASA.

"I applied immediately," he said, "and the more I went through the program, the more sold I was.

"I think kids respond to me. I rarely talk down to them. I treat them the way I want them to treat me. I find CASA very rewarding," he said.

He has had two memorable cases in his five years as a volunteer; the first involved a seven-year-old who had been moved five times during his first year of care under CPS. "When I first met him, I gave him a probability of ten percent of making it," Alex said.

"I promised myself I would do two things for him. Number one was to be there when I said I would to teach him adults could be reliable and the second was to teach him to read."

Even though the boy was in a placement 108 miles round trip from Alex's home, the educator met with him every two weeks to work on the child's reading. The effort has paid off, as the boy, now 12, is doing well in school and has been adopted by a family with 4 children.

"I learned as much from him as he learned from me," the CASA said.

His second memorable case involved a 12-year-old whose father was in prison and his mother decided she no longer wanted him.

He was placed with four other boys in a foster home where he began having problems with theft and ultimately ended up in the juvenile justice system. His foster father gave him three strikes, with removal happening on the third strike. The boy took the threat seriously and is now "a marvelous kid" according to Alex, and maintains good grades and plays football. The family has adopted the youth.

Joanna Halteman, Alex's casework supervisor, said "Alex always works his cases with great respect for everyone involved in the case and always has a keen sense of what is best for the children. When one child told Alex he had always wanted to go fishing, Alex rented a guide and boat and took him and another child from the home fishing."

Joanna received a note from a former foster mother expressing her sorrow that children placed with her who had Alex as their CASA were not with her any longer. She said "Nonetheless, my life was blessed just by knowing Alex."

Although Alex works in a quiet way, he has a powerful voice in and out of court for the children on his cases, his supervisor said.


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