From Irish Eyes
An Interview with Leona Buckley Thompson
By Finn Thompson
“Creating relationships is so important to everybody's growth.” My mom, Leona Buckley Thompson, is an immigrant from Ireland trying to find success in what she loves. With a tough early life, she understands what many kids go through and how to help them. After raising my brother and me, she graduated from the University of Pittsburgh a few years ago. She still holds dual citizenship and travels back to Ireland once in a while to visit her family.
What childhood experiences shaped you into who you are?
I grew up the youngest of seven children in Ireland. I had to be very self-reliant, adaptable, patient, and resourceful. My dad also dealt with mental health struggles that went untreated for his entire life, and that shaped my career to come.
Who was the most influential person in your life?
Later in my life, after I had you and your brother, I was introduced to a man named Richard Garland. He is a professor of social work at the University of Pittsburgh. He had spent over 20 years in prison. When he got out, he decided to change the way he was living and work with at-risk youth in Pittsburgh. He told me his incredible story, and that inspired me to go back to school to get my master's in social work and become a therapist.
What values are most important to you?
My values are very similar to the core values of social work; the importance of human relationships, dignity and worth of a person, integrity, social justice, and service. I’m motivated by a desire to improve the lives of others and to challenge social injustice. I feel every person should be treated in a caring and respectful way. As a parent, I value kindness, patience, compassion, and honesty.
Who shaped those values?
Growing up, my family shaped my values. Not just my core family, but my extended family, of which I had many. Now it is my kids and colleagues that have shaped and continue to shape those values.
How are things different today from when you were young?
When I was young, we didn't have any cell phones. We didn't have a computer in our home. We had a landline, where the whole family could only get one call at a time. We didn't have access to the same information everyone has now, with the internet and computers and tablets.
What are your concerns for this next generation?
As a therapist, I work with a lot of youth. Although the internet and computers are amazing advances in technology, they also take away from kids socializing with each other – face-to-face, eye-to-eye contact, creating those relationships that are so important to everybody's growth. I worry about people being able to make in-person bonds, because those bonds now don't seem as strong as when I was a kid.
