Keith Buschjost was born in Wardsville, Missouri.  His family moved from Missouri to Colorado to Tennessee and after his parents divorced, Keith was raised by his grandparents in St. Thomas, Missouri.  His grandparents live on a farm and taught Keith about hard work, manners, honesty and trust.  He credits them with teaching him the importance of family and relationships.  He says he's always wanted to share that with others.

After high school, Keith joined the Navy and spent three years traveling extensively.  His favorite travels took him to Venice where he felt the history and peacefulness of the culture was a wonderful experience.  After serving three years actively in the Navy, Keith returned to the states.  He soon went to work for Cole County Juvenile Office and spent nine years supervising and working with youth.

Keith has three daughters, Autumn 9, Cali 4, and Jacoby 2.  He talks about how beautiful his daughters are and shows great pride in being a single father to Autumn since the age of 6 months.  He has two brothers, one younger who serves in the Marine Corps and one older.  Other family members live in Jefferson City and include 12 aunts and uncles.

In June of 2009 Keith moved to Lake of the Ozarks and found CALO.  He says that CALO teaches students and staff about real relationships, about the importance of family environment and he feels it has given him the opportunity to give back.   Keith says, "CALO is an amazing facility and I love my work".

With CALO's steady growth there was a pressing need for another therapist on the clinical team.  After an exhaustive and careful nationwide search, CALO's clinical and leadership teams believe Evan Page was the best person for the job. Evan rose to the top of the hiring pool due to his integrity, thoroughness, work ethic, skills and passion of making positive differences in the lives of young people and their families. 

Evan joins CALO after relocating from Colorado where he completed his undergraduate and graduate work and launched his professional career. After completing his Bachelors of Arts in Counseling Psychology with a minor in Sociology, Evan worked at Doulos, a residential treatment center for teens in Colorado. There Evan mentored students struggling with depression, anger, self-destructive tendencies, and manipulation. This opportunity cemented Evan’s desire to counsel teens and from there he went on to received his Masters degree in Counseling from Denver Seminary. Evan is skilled in a myriad of therapies and specialties including group therapy, gang violence, family systems, couple counseling, parent-child counseling, substance use/abuse, addictions, grief and loss, social and peer influences, life skills and more.  Evan is also a member of the American Counseling Association and is Prepare and Enrich Certified.  In his free time he enjoys reading, hiking, skiing, and the guitar.

CALO welcomes Evan and we all look forward to learning more from him!

Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks has an Employee Assistance Fund (EAF) which was established to help members of staff in times of emergency financial need, such as accidents, illnesses, loss of household income or any other economic emergency. 

Any employee may apply for assistance provided they meet requirements outlined in the policy.  An eligible employee completes and submits an EAF application request for financial assistance to Human Resources who verifies eligibility, removes the employee's name from the application and submits the request to the Leadership Team.  Employees submitting requests for assistance remain anonymous except to the HR director.  The employee submits receipts, invoices and other information that will help with the decision.

The leadership team may approve assistance for housing, utilities (except telephone), car repair, medical bills, and related needs.  Other emergencies may be considered on an individual basis.  Requests can be approved for other than the full amount of the request. 

If the request is approved, a check will be written.  When possible, the check is made payable to the creditor or company not the employee.  An employee receiving assistance may not apply again the the EAF for 12 months.

The Employee Assistance Fund is funded entirely by donations and will remain active as long as funds are available.  

Mike grew up spending plenty of time with his grandfather who was one the founders and owners of the Bagnell Dam Strip. As a child he would set up small stands on the strip and enjoyed meeting new people more than selling his trinkets. As a young adult he learned of a church sponsored program, The Masters Commission. At 19, Mike traveled to Japan with several other members of the Masters Commission and spent 3 months volunteering in orphanages and studying Japanese culture and religion. After returning home, he began preparing for his second trip. Mike went to Thailand for the following nine months. He spent these months teaching English to Hill Tribes and Thai children grades 4-6 while studying Thai, Japanese and Chinese.

At 21, Mike returned to the Lake and met Rebecca. They were married in 2004 and today have four children ranging in age from 3 years to 8 weeks old. After working as an insurance broker, Mike joined CALO in April of 2009 as a Residential Coach and says that he loves the positive lifestyle, the changes that he sees in students as they learn about trust and communication. He admires his co-workers and feels that CALO is a “living and breathing” company.

Mike was recently promoted to Team Lead and his peers chose him to represent all coaches on the newly created staff council.

Amanda Byler traveled to 9 European countries in three months with a pixie haircut and a backpack.  She visited Ireland, Scotland, England, Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Greece.  She was in Paris on Bastille Day and in Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls.  She also visited the Normandy Beaches, the Vatican, and the Dachau concentration camp.

Although born and raised in the city, she prefers the country and small towns.  "Big cities all look alike to me no matter where they are and it is only in a small town that I feel I can really experience the culture and appreciate the people in them".  "This is why I moved back to Lake Ozark, Missouri from Kansas City".

Mr. Fred Rogers was a very influential person in Amanda's life.  She says he helped her overcome many obstacles as a child and she always felt loved when she heard his voice.  Amanda explained that he was always able to ease her fear whether about nervousness on the first day of school or being scared about halloween. 

Amanda keeps a picture of her grandfather’s B-29 Bomber plane above her desk in her office.  Her grandfather suffered from post traumatic stress disorder due to his experiences as a pilot in World War II.  She says he never received a diagnosis or treatment and was frequency misunderstood, especially by his family.  As a result, two generations were negatively impacted for many years. The picture helps remind her that one individual’s struggle with mental illness always affects an entire family.  She also collects Sigmund Freud action figures.  A family that she worked with began giving them to her as a joke and they soon began to accumulate around her office.

Amanda came to CALO as a therapist in June of 2008.  It was at CALO that she met James Gregory.  They were recently engaged and will be married April 24, 2010.  They are motorcycle enthusiasts, own a Harley, and enjoy long sightseeing trips together.  Amanda will have 2 step children, Gabe 9 and Ava 3.  Gabe likes to ride dirt bikes and says he wants to be spy. Ava is 3 and loves animals of all kinds.  She is looking forward to new adventures together with her growing family. 

Abby was born and raised in Kirksville, Missouri and has one brother, Ira.  She was a cheerleader, a dancer, and served on student council in high school.  As a teenager she worked in a hair salon as a receptionist, at a gas station, and at a snack bar at the local golf course.  She attended Central Methodist College having aspirations of becoming a lawyer but changed that to education.  She graduated from CMC in December of 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science. She holds two teaching certificates in high school social studies and elementary education, and is also a certified preschool director.  During college she met Morgan who played football and Abby cheered him on. 

Abby got married to Morgan three weeks after graduation and has been married for seven years.  Morgan is an assistant parts manager for Marine Max and grew up in Four Seasons.  Abby and Morgan have two daughters, Scout and Molly.  The Mayer's spent a couple of years living in St. Louis and have now made the lake their home. 

When Abby is not running after her children, she enjoys traveling, reading and watching movies.  In her spare time, she crochets blankets for the “Layne Grace Project” that delivers care packages to hospitals for families of still born babies. 

Abby says that “CALO is the place for me.  I have never been so happy in my life knowing that I am making a difference in the lives of our kids”.

In November of 2007 I saw an ad in the newspaper for a residential coach at CALO.  Ken interviewed me and the next thing I know I was doing a trial shift.  Shellie Gavette worked with me that day.  I didn’t think I would get the job because I got choked up and began to cry in a caseload group with Rob.  One of Rob’s students and her family were sharing stories.  One of the family members began to cry and so did I.  On my way home I remember thinking that I wouldn’t be hired because I was a wimp.  Shellie called it empathetic and I was offered the job. 

It was a rough first day.  The female students were pretty hard on me.  One of the girls asked me if I was going to quit.  I answered her by saying, no.  I’ll never forget that she said, “good, because I’m worth it”!  She was worth it and I never looked back. 

I’m a mom so I enjoyed learning about Trust of Care. More...

Throughout the residential treatment world, including CALO, one of the top concerns of parents and administrative staff is managing, and, when possible, slowing down staff turnover.  Justifiably, this reality is frustrating to parents, students, and fellow staff yet it remains a fact of life when working in an intense helping profession such as ours. 

So that frustration regarding staff turnover may swing to understanding, I would like to explain a few of the reasons it occurs (in no particular order):

Front Line – In any company, not just in the helping professions, front-end staff experience high turnover.  Most of the turnover at CALO is in fact with our front-line/residential coaching position staff.  In fact, CALO has had very little turnover in administration, clinical, and academic departments.

Burnout – Front-line or direct care staff usually experience the highest rates of burn-out or “compassion fatique” More...

CALO recently changed from having one Registered Nurse on-site during business hours, to 24 hour nursing seven days per week.  Nurses are an integral part of providing care to our students.  Our nurses cumulatively have 133 years of experience.  This experience covers a broad range of expertise including Oncology, Cardiac, Pulmonary, Asthma and Diabetes care, to name a few.  They have worked from Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, New Jersey, to as far away as Hawaii and even Africa.  One of our nurses assisted in pre-natal and immunization clinics during an African Christian Mission in Zaire and traveled the desert of Northern Kenya performing height-for-weight assessments on children, talking with the village elders and chiefs during a Food for the Hungry Mission.

CALO nurses are responsible for meeting the day-to-day medical needs of our students, dispensing medication, dispensary oversight, securing doctor, dentist and specialty appointments and keeping parents informed of their child’s health, medical and psychiatric needs and provided care. 

CALO also has a contracted dietician who works directly with our kitchen manager/head chef to assure that our students nutritional and any special dietary needs are being met. Our dietician also meets monthly with our students to provide nutritional education highlighting specific areas of concern for adolescents.

Stop by to meet our Nurses:  Karen Harris, Maryanne Murray, Mary Ann Duckworth, Janet Graham, Tara Johnson and Caran Shen.