For Daniel Lavelle, the calculation was easy. Had he not turned his life around—a life of drug dealing and use—“I would be dead or in prison,” he said.
Lavelle’s story, though, is not about a sad end but a new beginning, as the 31-year-old graduated from George Mason University in May with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and will pursue a master’s degree at Johns Hopkins.
“I give credit to this institution,” Lavelle said of George Mason. “What they taught here is what gave me the knowledge to present myself to an institution like Hopkins.”
“Daniel is a great young adult,” said Mark Ginsberg, dean of Mason’s College of Education and Human Development. “He learned from his experiences and the challenges he faced to become an outstanding student.”
Adopted at 8 months from his native Colombia by Timothy and Cristina Lavelle of Reston, Va., Daniel said he lived with self-esteem issues sparked by thoughts of rejection by his biological parents.
“A negative identity formed and this rebellious attitude came out,” Lavelle said. “I put my parents through a lot.”
That included discipline problems and dealing with addictions to marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy, Lavelle said, which escalated when he settled in Tampa, Fla., after graduating from a Maine boarding school.
By the time Lavelle was 24, he was serving 37 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. That, he said, was the wakeup call.
First, Lavelle said, he got clean. By chance he picked up a book about psychology, which helped him understand his antisocial behavior. He read about Sigmund Freud. He was fascinated.
Determined to get his life on track, Lavelle said he took Spanish and marketing correspondence courses in prison.
Out of prison in August 2011, he enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College and then transferred to Mason. Psychology, he decided, would be his career.
“He’s climbed a seven-story mountain,” Timothy said of his son.
From there, Lavelle sees his future, which includes caring for his girlfriend, Rocio Molina, and their son Gabriel, 3, and practicing what he calls positive psychology.
“It’s just something I’ve learned to incorporate into my life, to give a new perspective toward life, so I can see myself and the people I deal with in a positive light,” Lavelle said. “I’m just beginning this path.”