"I can certainly relate to a kid in the school system—maybe because they’re bored, maybe because they’re not engaged in the right way—being labeled as having behavior issues, because I was,” says Matthew Zarba. “Though I prefer to think that’s just being a kid with a big personality.”

Zarba is today director of the Upbeat Academy, a nascent New Orleans nonprofit blossoming in its full academic year in operation. The school operates with a mission of “providing underprivileged at-risk child...