Fred Konopasek was 13 years old when his parents sent him to Elan, one of the youngest students ever enrolled in the school. He was one of about 160 students in 1995, and remained at the school until 1997.

He was transferred to Elan from a teen psychiatric ward at Lakeshore Hospital in Chicago, transported to the airport against his will and without knowing where he was going.

That fear soon evolved into happiness as Konopasek learned to follow school rules, glad to be living in a structured environment with clear expectations.

Konopasek now lives and works in Boston because he wants to be close to the Elan School so he can visit often. He intends to travel to Poland on Friday to speak to students and staff about the importance of embracing and maintaining the self-control skills they’re learning there.

As a child, Konopasek was smoking in the fourth grade, drinking in the sixth grade, breaking into cars and houses and stealing whatever he wanted. “I was a little thief and was running rampant around the Chicago area,” he said, adding that he needed the kind of direction Elan was able to deliver.

“It was the best experience I ever went through,” he said. “When I was at Elan, I was able to reshape the framework of my life. I was able to learn the values that brought me to where I’m at today.”

Elan’s first MAISAD track champ, Konopasek said athletics became a big part of his experience at Elan.

He does not remember any abuse on campus or “any type of human rights violations. The point that I try to get across to people when you talk about Elan is that Elan is the last stop for these kids.”

Not everyone graduated and not everyone succeeded there, so Konopasek considers himself fortunate.

He left Elan when he was 17 and enrolled at Kents Hill School in Readfield before going on to college and a career in Boston.

Konopasek said he wishes the wind-down to the school’s closure was more like six months instead of two weeks so current students have a chance to find appropriate placement, but he is adamant that the program is worthy and the staff dedicated to the students.

“The unsung heroes at Elan are the staff, the counselors,” Konopasek said. “I was very lucky to have been sent to Elan.”

The staff there, he said, “instilled the moral code that I did not have. I look at Elan as home.”

To read more stories about The Elan School and from the students who went there, visit sunjournal.com/elan.