Coming back to St. Charles Parish was an easy call for Kyle Anderson, and particularly so when he had the opportunity to help people.
“I love to help. I learned about how to be a lawyer and care for people,” said the Norco native of his summer internship. “I didn’t just want to accomplish this for me and my family, but for those who helped me along the way.”
A second-year law student at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, Anderson eagerly jumped on the opportunity to return to the area with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services.
Although much of his legal work was at the nonprofit organization’s Hammond office, he also worked in the parish from mid-June to early August. His efforts focused primarily on pooling resources to help make the programs happen in St. Charles Parish.
“We began to seek donations and just help to plant the foundation to service the community,” Anderson said of his work here.
In Hammond, he learned law in property and discovered he liked doing …. It’s where he learned about how law applies to people and the role it plays in the lives of everyday people.
“I learned how to fight for people who are emotionally destroyed and have no hope,” he said. “I learned to give them hope.”
The experience inspired Anderson, who has always wanted to be a lawyer.
“Being from St. Charles Parish, I saw a need for all the services available,” he said. “I learned the role that community plays in establishing programs like this,” he said of the parish’s C.A.R.E. Center and the nonprofits operating there.
Anderson believes his strong sense of community comes from growing up in Norco on East Street and later moving to Diamond Street.
He is grateful for the support he got that contributed to his success, as well as that of his siblings who went on to become a psychologist, engineer and Marine, as well as a linguist going to law school.
Anderson also credits his mother, who was a teacher at Carver Early Head Start Program in Luling, for instilling discipline.
A graduate of Destrehan High School, Anderson went on to get a bachelor’s of arts degree in history with concentrations in Spanish and English at McNeese State University in Lake Charles. From there, he returned to DHS as a substitute teacher, where he stayed five years and then took time off to get his master’s degree in linguistics with a focus on English as a second language from the University of South Florida in Tampa.
The stability of Anderson’s future has definitely maintained by his connections from the past.
“I never lost contact with my roots back,” he said. “It’s the people of St. Charles Parish who I really hope have grown me to be who I am today.”
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