Stories Of Safe Harbor: Jeff Finegan

Jeff Finegan was involved in some theft at his former university, "which," he says, "started out as a fraternity prank" but then got out of hand. He was expelled, but according to Finegan, it was a "watershed event" which propelled him into benefiting the community rather than continue on his destructive path. 

"I got myself into some criminal trouble at Bucknell University and now I'm a student at Lafayette College. In the interim, I spent about a year and a half here as a volunteer, and eventually as a member of staff and now I'm actually on the board of directors of the shelter. I sort of like to describe my story as making a mistake, certainly, but being removed from an environment which hindsight revealed was not suitable at all to either my intellectual or social growth, and being placed by larger-than-life forces, for lack of a better term, in a place that I have an impact on people. It's a very sobering thing, and I think the most sobering aspect of it is the idea that you're able to use your personal gifts and talents that God or a higher power gave you, and sort of channel that into a positive direction." 

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