Gunpoint To Governor’s Recognition: Jeremiah La’Porte’s Rise To Youth Leadership

It was an ordinary day in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. A 14-year-old named Jeremiah La’Porte was walking to collect school lunch for his siblings. 

Suddenly, a man across the street ran over to La’Porte and grabbed him with a gun. Then, the man dragged La’Porte into an abandoned house. La’Porte survived to tell the tale, but the moment had a big impact on him.

“I was 14 years old; no one (at that age) knows how to navigate something like that,” La’Porte said. “To a certain extent, you just feel petrified. Not only in the moment, but when you think about that moment.”

After this, he was even intimidated to talk to his friends sometimes. But now, La’Porte talks to a lot more than his friends. La’Porte, now 21, is the president and founder of the House of Hearts Network, a multi-time award-winning poet, and soon-to-be multi-time published author. La’Porte even received a birthday card from President Joe Biden. 

About House of Hearts

The House of Hearts Network is a youth and young adult empowerment organization launched by La’Porte in 2023. Via their pillars of health and wellness access, higher education access, youth leadership and civic engagement, and workforce development, House of Hearts creates opportunities for young people to get involved.

“I recognized that there’s a lot of young people who need access to resources and opportunities that can allow them not to be limited by certain things they’ve gone through,” La’Porte said.

One of these youth is Susan Berube. Berube is a rising senior at Kean University, a first-generation college student, and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications & Outreach. 

“I joined the House of Hearts Network because I truly believed in its mission of supporting the youth,” Berube said. “Our future is the generations to come, and if we assist them, educate them, guide them, and set them up well – we will be in great hands!”

House of Hearts was launched in 2023, but was first conceptualized in 2021. The organization actually started as a school project for La’Porte. The at-the-time high schooler faced a lot of discouragement from people he looked up to and was told to wait until he had a degree. This did not stop him; La’Porte went from not entirely knowing what a nonprofit was to staying after with teachers and school staff to create events, and then to a full board of trustees. 

“At times it can be discouraging,” La’Porte said. “As a 16-year-old, you don’t know what paperwork you might need, right? You don’t know if you’ve missed a step.”

Luckily, despite the large cast of doubters, there was a similarly large group of supporters. La’Porte named four people: His mother, his mentor Jerry Jacobs, a teacher from his school Raven Dozer, and a local commissioner Stan Niron. Per La’Porte, it took about three years, but the organization was established as a non-profit. 

For Berube, La’Porte makes the list of supporters, both in and out of the office. In the office, she is always asking him questions for clarity and recommendations. She, meanwhile, is someone he always helps learn. Out of the office, he has jumped into the role of Berube’s wedding planner.

“The most “Jeremiah” thing I’ve experienced is when I recently got engaged, and he was ready to plan my entire wedding,” Berube said. “Firstly, I appreciated and always appreciate him wanting to help. Secondly, he was thinking of things I hadn’t even thought of yet for my wedding, so it was funny to see how quickly he jumped into the role of advisor.”

The network has expanded to the point where they need to look for bigger venues for their marquee event: The Breaking Barriers Conference. This is a full-day free conference for young adults, with attendance as high as 600. 

“This year, our theme was pathways to health and justice. We had a plethora of amazing speakers come out (including the assistant attorney general), but most importantly we had the students come,” La’Porte said. “Being able to have that balance really makes it engaging. Not only are they hearing from a professional point of view, but they’re hearing from a student point of view.”

La’Porte as a Writer

La’Porte not only spreads his values through House of Hearts, but he also spreads them through his poetry. As a poet, La’Porte has been recognized by the NAACP twice, by former Governor Phil Murphy, and was the inaugural poet for Hillside Mayor Dalio Retrice’s inauguration. His first book, The Haze of Poetry, was published in November 2023. 

“A lot of my poetry is based around cultural and personal experiences,” La’Porte said. “That (trying to figure out who I am within my culture) was kind of the centering and theme of my first book.”

La’Porte’s racial identity is Afro-Latino, but as someone who grew up around farms, he was not as exposed to the Latino part of his identity. As he got older and moved to Union County, he learned to re-center himself and embrace his Puerto Rican side.

This leads into his second book, the upcoming Here Lies My Hidden Truth. When asked about the book, La’Porte described it as the answers to the open-ended questions his first book asked. In addition to his second book’s publication, La’Porte’s plans include continuing to advocate and mentor youth for years to come. 

As he put it, “If there is a young person out there who’s ready to get into some good trouble and who’s ready to take those next steps on their journey, feel free to reach out to me.”