Jesse Ray Beard was a member of Jena six, a gang of 6 black students of Jena High school, Louisiana, US. They were convicted of beating Justin Barker, a white student in the same school in December4, 2006. in 2008, Alan Howard, a lawyer, started representing Jesse Ray Beard and taken him to live with Howard. Now Beard is an intern in a New York law firm and he is going to be in the final year in Canterbury School, a Connecticut prep academy.

Jesse Ray Beard said he was constantly in trouble, even when he behaved. It took being accused of the racially charged attempted murder of a white classmate in the Deep South to turn his life around.

Living with attorney Alan Howard has afforded Jesse Ray Beard a bevy of new experiences.

1 of 3 Beard, 18, now interns at a New York law firm as he prepares for his senior year next month at Canterbury School, a Connecticut prep academy where Beard is highly regarded among peers and teachers.

"I didn't change the way I act. I didn't do nothing different. It was just that I was at Canterbury instead of Jena," he said. "It was like Jena was out to get me -- and not just me, but other people, too."

If not for the controversy surrounding the Jena Six and the palpable racial tension in the Louisiana town, Beard never would have met the attorney who changed the course of Beard's life by removing him from everything he knew.