By Carlos Pantoja
Battling Bulletin Student Writer
After graduating from the Glen Mills Schools in 1989, former student Lloyd Gardner has served in the United States military and has worked his way into a great career with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
While at Glen Mills from 1988-89, the Erie native was an all around student. Gardener was in the Four Woods unit, which is now Madison Hall, and earned a Glen Mills diploma.
“My highest level of education is a Glen Mills high school diploma. I take pride in that,” Gardener explained. “I would not be who I am today without Glen Mills. I firmly believe that.”
He was also on the track and field and powerlifting teams and placed sixth in the national meet in Texas in the 198 lbs. weight class.
With a Glen Mills diploma in hand, Gardner moved his life in a positive direction and joined the United States Marine Corps. He served in the first Gulf War and later as a Staff Sergeant in Cuba as a combat engineer. There, he cleared live mine fields before ending his 13 year military career.
“After that, I’m not afraid of anything,” Gardner said.
Looking for a new challenge, Gardner began his career with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 2003 at the United States Penitentiary Big Sandy located in Inez, Kentucky. After working there for five years, Gardner earned a promotion and went to work as a First Lieutenant GS 11 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton, Ohio in 2009. He is now working at the FCI in Loretto, Pennsylvania, where he has worked for the past eight years.
He now makes his home in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania with his wife Kim and daughter Genevieve and is grateful for the life lessons he took from Glen Mills.
“Everything I learned at Glen Mills, I implement in every facet of my life,” Gardner, who is also a certified Special Operations Response Team sniper (SORT), explained. SORT is the federal version of a SWAT operation.
Gardner has returned to his alma mater several times and was a guest speaker at Educational Awards Ceremonies in 2001 and 2009 and came back this summer to meet with about 75 students in our Drug and Alcohol program. Coleman Evans and Larry Gold from the Horsham Clinic also met with the Drug and Alcohol class on July 20th.
“When you get out of prison as an adult, your choices become smaller. Make good decisions now so you don’t end up seeing us in a clinic or Lloyd in prison,” Evans said.
Gardner also wants Glen Mills students to make good decisions and mirror what he has done.
“Hopefully, current students can see me as a role model for what they can do,” Gardner said. “There will come a day when you come to a fork in the road and you’ll need to make good decisions. Every day, I see the results of not making the right decisions in life.”
Gardner encouraged students to really think about who they look up to.
“Think about who you idolize,” Gardner said. “Think about your actions and make the right choices because later on in life, those choices will have greater impact. Every day, I see families who are destroyed by the fact that they have to come visit their sons in prison.”
If students need a role model, they don’t have to look any further than to Gardner.