Caleb is 14 years old, and a freshman at Bishop Maginn High School. Last year, after periods of vomiting, hallucinating, nausea, savage hot flashes, and light-headedness, he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, (he calls it Diabetes One).

He decided to be open about the disease, even though it has radically changed his life. He thought it might help other children with diabetes. Caleb lives in Schenctady with his brothers and sisters, he travels to Albany every day to attend Bishop Maginn.

He came to Bishop Maginn because he and his family like Catholic schools and  heard that the school is sympathetic to students who have serious issues to deal with.

Caleb seems to embody the idea that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, something I find in many students at Bishop Magunn, which has many refugees and inner-city kids from the hard streets of South Albany.

Again and again, the students I talk to tell of sympathetic teachers and supporters students, there are few, if any stories of ridicule or bullying. Last year, I was present when one student with severe autism got up in front of h is home room class and explained the disease, and how it sometimes made him angry and uncommunicative.

His classmates gave him a standing ovation, and he was invited to every event any of them participated in or sponsored. It’s in the DNA of the school, as many parents and kids are finding out.

I’m learning that children are extraordinarily resilient, especially if they can be in a safe and supportive environment. Caleb was impressive, he struck me as honest, thoughtful and empathic.

Children can heal rapidly from trauma given encouragement and support. I see this often at Bishop Maginn.

The support of his friends at the school has been very important to him, he says. They helped teach him that his diabetes didn’t need to hold him back or isolate him. And that he needn’t be ashamed of it, as he first was.

He said when he was first diagnosed, it threw him off track for several months. He doesn’t intend to lose any more time.

I got to watch Caleb in a class room with his friends, and I heard them ask him four or five times if he had taken his insulin or had checked his blood which he needs to do several times a day risk fainting or seizures.

(With Type I Diabetes, the pancreas doesn’t make insulin or very little insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps blood sugar enter the cells in the body where it can be stored and used for energy. Without insulin, blood sugar can’t get into the cells and builds up in the bloodstream. I have type 2 diabetes, which is a milder form of the disease, but which also causes major health complications, especially in the small blood vessels in my kidneysm nerves and eyes. Type 2 also increases the risk of heat disease and stroke.)

“My friends take care of me here,” he said, “they are right on me, making sure I to my checks and have my medicine handy.”

Caleb said he has decided to be an endochrinologist, he’s aiming for medical school when he graduates and is working hard on his grades. He wants to be a doctor so he can help prevent the disease in other children.

He says he decided the disease would not define him. And it obviously hasn’t. He says he can do whateverybody else can do, he just hast to pay attention to his insulin and what he eats.

“Caleb told me once that he was at first embarrassed by his disease,” Said Sue SIlverstein, the school’s art and theology teacher – Caleb is in her class. “Navigating high school can be difficult for many kids, managing a chronic illness as well can make life much harder. I told Caleb that he is a rock star. I am awed by his spirit.”

Caleb’s philosophy, she said, is to manage his disease and not let his disease manage him.

I got an insight into Caleb’s challenge the day I interviewed.  He might have forgotten a shot, or eaten the wrong thing, but he began to feel sick and was rushed home. He  was back the next day. The thing about Diabetes 1, he says, is that you can’t ever forget about

“My mother sat down with me when I was diagnosed,” he said. “She said this was not going to stop me, and she’s right. It hasn’t and it won’t.”

His advice to other children diagnosed with Type 1: “Just don’t let it become you.”

As always when I interview a student, I ask them if there is anything we – the Army Of Good – can get them that will help enrich their cultural or academic life.

Caleb he said he began a music lover when he had hours of bed rest when he first got sick.  Music is a huge part of his life now. He said he’d love a Beat earphone made by Apple. The earphone arrived at the school on Monday and he has it now.

When we think of heroes, we often think of brave soldiers rushing into gunfire. They are heroes, of course, but at Bishop Maginn I’ve learned that there are many other kinds of heroes. Lots of them are children, helpless in the face of the awful things adults do to one another.

The heroes there are filled with hope and courage, they don’t let their troubles become them, as Caleb hasn’t. I’m writing a series of pieces about the heroes of Bishoop Maginn. I can’t think of a more meaningful thing to write about.

They inspire me and fill me with hope.