Time will tell if Jason Warrior’s celebrity status will be long-lived.
But when the contestant on the reality show “The Voice” returned to his alma mater Richards High School in Oak Lawn last week, Warrior did not waste his 15 minutes of fame bragging about himself.
Instead, the 23-year-old former Chicago Ridge resident spent the entire day telling students not much younger than himself that they can achieve anything they want.
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“What inspires you, bro?,” he said to a teen in the school’s auditorium. “I’m putting you on the spot because I see the potential that you have.”
With messages of “respect your teachers,” and “have each other’s backs,” and “it starts right here,” Warrior spoke to various classes.
Warrior also made it clear he wasn’t there to promote himself.
He did, however, perform his signature “Mack the Knife” during an assembly.
“I could be talking to you about ‘The Voice,’ but honestly, that’s not why I came,” he said. “I came because I want to pour something into you.”
Warrior told the students, “Make up in your mind that you will be the change that you will want to see.”
Richards High School has several students who live with families with low incomes, according to the Illinois State Report Card.
That is something Warrior knows all too well. In an earlier interview with the Daily Southtown, Warrior described a life growing up with a father in prison.
He also discussed his mother who worried about where their next meal would come from for herself and her three sons.
Jareke Salter, 16, a junior from Calumet Park, said what he heard from Warrior was not to become another statistic.
“You just got to stay positive with your life,” Salter said. “I understand exactly what he was saying.”
Julia Baker, a junior from Oak Lawn, said Warrior is “trying to tell us what he thought he needed to hear when he was in high school.”
“”He started from where we are, going through all the same struggles and still ended up on ‘The Voice,'” Baker said. “That’s inspiring.”
Warrior’s messages hit close to home, some students said, many saying they changed because of what they heard.
“I learned that whatever you put your mind to, you can do it, you can break through and you can do it,” said Marquis Hall, 16, of Chicago.
Some teachers and coaches raved about Warrior, one calling him “a great kid.”
Richards security officer Mary Jo O’Leary called Warrior “one of my favorites.”
“I used to say, ‘Yep, here comes Jason’ because he’d be singing,” O’Leary said.
“The cool thing about him from about junior year on, he figured out what he wanted to do and he worked at it,” said Warrior’s former band director, Charles Martin.
As Warrior continues to compete on “The Voice,” he has switched from Alicia Keys as his first coach, to Adam Levine, then during an energetic knock out round, he was stolen by Blake Shelton.
He advances to the live playoffs with Team Blake, which is scheduled to air on NBC on Tuesday.
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Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.