From the outside looking in, Scott seemed to have an idyllic life. A surgeon father, a stay-at-home mother, and eight siblings, built-in friends for life. But as he grew older, things quickly changed, and he began lashing out for attention.
"I think a lot of it had to do with a desire for attention in the home. At an early age, I realized that negative attention was still attention," Scott said.
Scott's father worked a lot, and despite having his mom at home, Scott said she didn't have a lot of time for him.
"It was more of siblings raising each other in our house. My mom was so busy trying to keep her head above water with the tiny infants or the teenagers, [the kids] in the middle just took care of each other or an older sibling watched after us."
When his negative attention-seeking started moving from home to school, Scott's parents began looking for resources to help him work on coping skills and get his behaviors under control.
"I ended up going to Manchester House; I think I was seven or eight and spent the summer there. And from there, I just kind of snowballed from one place to the next," Scott said. "I tended to do really well when I was in a residential center, but as soon as I went back home, the behaviors would come right back."
Scott was placed at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch when he was 11 years old and spent the better part of three years there. Having been in other residential treatment centers, Scott was no stranger to what would be expected of him at the Ranch. But he did notice something special about it.
"Looking back, I feel like the time I spent at the Ranch was just different than every other residential treatment center I was at," he said. "The Ranch felt like a place I could grow, not just a place to be."
Scott was at the Ranch to learn positive coping skills for dealing with his anger and negative attention-seeking, but it was more than that.
"At the time, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do for a career. There were all kids of programs my [Ranch] therapist was able to put in place, several different job shadows through the Humane Society, a local vet's office. I even spent a summer volunteering at the zoo."
Despite his progress in treatment, Scott struggled to transition from the Ranch back home with his family.
"Every six months or so, they would try to transition me back into the house, but it was really abrupt," Scott said.
Eventually, Scott moved to the Transitional Living Home in Minot where he built independent living skills in a less restrictive environment. Finding success there, Scott again began the transition home. This time he was supported by Ranch staff who went home with him to help ease the transition for both Scott and his family.
"They were there in the moment when I started having behaviors in the house," Scott said. "It wasn't a 'let's go meet with them once a week and talk about how your week was.' We could actually apply some of those coping skills and de-escalate situations in the moment."
The Transitional Living Home closed when the building flooded in 2011. Today, children and their families are supported through the Aftercare Program when they leave treatment at the Ranch. Care Coordinators help children and their families continue to find success by connecting them to community resources, and community-based and in-home services.
Scott attributes his successful transition home to the special care the Ranch took to meet him where he was at.
"It was different from anything else we had tried. I think it's a lot of the reason why my last time home was successful, and I didn't end up going to another center afterward," Scott said.
After leaving the Ranch, Scott graduated from high school at 16 and began taking classes at Bismarck State College (BSC). He found it was a bit more challenging to focus on schoolwork and only finished one semester.
"I spent too much time playing around and not enough time studying," Scott said.
Scott continued to live at home but found the dynamic with his parents to still be a challenge.
"I was still living at home until I was 18 and I was still not 100% independent," Scott said. "But after I moved out of the house, the relationship between me and my parents turned overnight. I think having some space really helped with that."
Scott went back to BSC in 2009 to complete a two-year degree, where he met his wife, Danielle. They both graduated and were married in 2011. Since then, they have added two daughters to their family, Hartley, age 6, and Eleanor, age 4. In addition to family life and working full-time, Scott is also pursuing a four-year degree in Cybersecurity and Information Technology at BSC.
Although he's enrolled in a four-year program, Scott is hoping to finish his degree in just two and a half years, thanks, in large part, to scholarship funds he received from the Ranch.
"I have some federal grants, but the Ranch was able to pick up the tab for pretty much the rest of it," Scott said. "Taking an accelerated course load adds to the cost of tuition, so the Ranch scholarship really allowed me to speed up the process rather than having to take just the bare minimum course load. I can take extra courses and overload my schedule without having to worry about the additional tuition cost." 
When he's not busy with schoolwork, Scott and his family enjoy being outside, camping, and fishing.
Scott also sits on the System of Care Board for the Department of Human Services, serving as a voice for individuals served in the juvenile justice system.
"The majority of people at that table are program administrators or juvenile court administrators," Scott said. "It's nice to be able to voice my opinion and be a sounding board for them when they're trying to figure out what to fund and where we can put some of these system of care dollars."
Scott is grateful for all the Ranch has given him.
"The [Knutson Family] scholarship has been huge because it'll allow me to continue to grow and support not just myself, but my family as well. But even the program in the first place," Scott said. "I wouldn't be where I am today without the time I spent at the Ranch, because it's more than just a place to be. Sometimes you don't see that until years later."
This article was originally published in Ranch Voice: Summer 2024.
Read more stories like this and explore other issues of Ranch Voice here.