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May 22, 2008

Jonathan Lausell started dealing drugs at 14. The next year he was using them. By the time he turned 21, Bronx-native Lausell was a full-blown heroin addict who had dropped out of high school and was in trouble with the law.

Jonathan Lausell at his graduation from Columbia’s School of Social Work on May 19 Photograph by Jane Haffer

Two decades later, the 43-year-old Lausell is clean and a graduate from Columbia University’s School of Social Work. The committed student credits three things for his success: God, family and a New York Yellow Cab license that has helped him out of life’s more difficult obstacles.

Lausell, who earned his “hack” license at age 19 through his father, also a cabbie, says he began driving a taxi as a way to support his drug habit.

“I was an active addict, and I used the cab for some fast money,” he said. “For a long time the cab was a trigger,” he added, noting his refusal to drive it during his early months of rehab. Only later did Lausell choose to “go back to what he knew best,” relying on his cab license to support his family while in graduate school.

After being arrested for a drug-related offense in his early 20s, Lausell served some jail time, and later checked himself into an “alternative to incarceration” rehab program. At age 23, married and with a baby on the way, Lausell was newly clean and feeling good—so good, in fact, that he decided he wanted to help other young New Yorkers with drug problems.

He began his professional career as a substance-abuse counselor in the same South Bronx treatment center where he had been a patient, and shortly after he became a counselor for Hunter College, helping juvenile delinquents transition out of Riker’s Island prison. In between jobs and caring for his family, Lausell earned a G.E.D. and received his bachelor’s degree online from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J.

When he applied to Columbia’s School of Social Work at age 40, Lausell was working in the New Jersey court system as a substance-abuse evaluator, assessing and monitoring the treatment of younger individuals brought to trial for drug-related crimes.

There were times when Lausell questioned his decision to invest in a graduate-level education as an adult, knowing it would prevent him from earning a decent salary and force him to work night shifts behind the wheel of a cab. But he did it, he says, to set a positive example for his young clients in the Jersey courts.

“I wanted to be able to fight for them,” he said, acknowledging that the last few years have put a financial strain on his family. “Prosecutors and probation officers were treating them poorly, and I discovered that without a degree, my voice wasn’t loud enough.”

With his master’s degree, his voice is resonant, but humble. “God has brought me this far,” said Lausell.  

On Monday, with his proud family looking on, Lausell participated in the School of Social Work’s graduation ceremony held in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. Lausell also has another achievement to celebrate: his son Jonathan Lausell Jr. will graduate from high school—fulfilling an unrealized dream for his father.

— Story by John Tucker