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LaVallee enrolls after Haitian visit

Photo provided by Robert LaVallee NIACC student Robert LaVallee (inset) shot this photo of his daughter Megan with Haitian children while visiting Haiti during the time of the aftermath of the earthquake there last January. As a result of his visit, LaValle decided to attend NIACC and pursue a career in nursing.

Corey Smith
For the Logos

Life is impossible to predict. It’s good to have plans, but things happen, life happens.

Roadblocks that were impossible to see coming continually pop up in people’s lives, causing one dream to end but opening the door for something entirely different.

Robert LaVallee would certainly attest to that.

“If I had not gone to Haiti, I would have had no interest in going to college,” LaVallee said.

LaVallee, 39, attended North Iowa Area Community College for the first time last summer, and hopes to enter the RN program.

He attended Christian Heritage, a small private high school in Cedar Falls from 1987 to 1989, and then was home schooled for the next two years.

He has spent the last 15 years working for Iowa Select Farms and raising his daughter Megan.

“From the time I graduated high school, I never had a desire to go back to school,” he said. “This will be my first college experience.”

LaVallee was in Haiti last January, being invited as a photographer by a friend who runs orphanages in Haiti and other countries around the world.

Actually, he arrived in Haiti with his daughter not even an hour before the major earthquake hit the country on January 12.

There is always a motive behind a decision, and LaVallee certainly has a large source of motivation behind him as he begins a new chapter of his life.

“Seeing the devastation and the need and not being able to do anything to help was a horrible feeling,” he said. “I came home wanting to have a skill that I could use to help others in need.”

With NIACC being so close and convenient to his Mason City home, LaVallee decided to apply. This also allows him to continue to work full-time.

One night while he was in Haiti, LaVallee said a crowd of Haitian people singing woke him up with a rendition of “How Great Thou Art.”

“These people had lost their homes and loved ones, had no access to medical care and no idea where their next meal was coming from and yet they could praise God,” LaVallee said. “I was forced to look at my faith and ask whether I would have been able to praise God if I had lost everything.”

LaVallee didn’t have to lose everything to show his faith. He is taking a huge step of faith by walking through the open door of opportunity and going back to school.

“I plan on going back to Haiti and doing more mission trips in the future, and going as an RN will bring more opportunities to go and bring needed care to those who cannot afford it,” LaVallee said.

If you had asked LaVallee on January 11 what he thought he would be doing this summer, his answer would most likely not have been anything close to beginning college for the first time.

That is exactly why life is impossible to predict.