Former Student Rising Above Comes Full Circle To Lead Others In Helping Those In Need

(KPIX 5) -- For Lorna Contreras-Townsend working for Students Rising Above is much more than a job. Ten years ago, she was a student rising above herself. Now, she is the "Student Programs and Community Success Manager" in charge of other advisors and contributing to a program that holds a special place in her heart. "It feels awesome to be able to give what was given me right. It's that give back moment of being able to pass along the same experiences that were given to me," she says.

Lorna's supervisor, Barb Hendricks had been actively trying to hire an alumna when she offered Lorna the job. "She's lived these student's lives," says Hendricks. "She understands the alcoholism. She understands the drug abuse. She understands the low income. She understands the dangerous neighborhoods." It was a hire that made perfect, full-circle sense.

We first profiled Lorna for a television story in 2004, when she was an honors student at El Cerrito High. Both her parents had disabilities and she would work after school and on weekends helping them clean houses to support themselves. One of their clients, Mary Gray became a friend over time. She was struck with how hard Lorna worked, telling us, "this young girl wakes up at 7am on Saturday and goes and works with her parents and she works all her summer vacations, since she was seven."

Lorna's father was a lawyer in Guatemala but was kidnapped and tortured during the civil war there. He was never the same and suffered from depression and alcoholism.
Then, when Lorna was in third grade, her mother collapsed from a major stroke. Lorna remembers it vividly," she came back from the hospital in a wheelchair. The doctor told us she'd never walk again."

There was no money for physical therapy so Lorna and her father helped her mother heal. She had to learn to talk again. They would help her exercise her legs in the bathtub.
In two years it paid off with a miracle: Lorna and her father taught her mother how to walk. "It was such a heart feeling joy," says Lorna. "We had worked so hard and after three or four doctors telling us, she is never going to walk again, it was like wow. We did it."

But Lorna still had major responsibilities after her mother's stroke and during her recovery. "She was cooking, taking care of her mom, house-cleaning," remembers Mary Cook. Overnight, Lorna had become an adult. "I was never expecting to go from playing with Barbie to holding a bill in my hand and wondering how we are going to pay for this, this month."

In stepped Mary Gray to help out. She began giving the family financial support until they could get back on their feet. " I was overwhelmed with what Lorna was facing. The enormity," she explains. " And here was this little girl who had to continue to help, continue to work and no doubt will worry about how they will do without her when she goes away to school". Mary Gray was right on all counts.

The problems don't stop for high achieving low-income kids when they go to college, as the staff of Students Rising Above has learned. In Lorna's case, her parent's health problems got worse while she was at St Mary's College. Her father's mental health problems grew so serious that in her junior year, Lorna considered dropping out and moving back home to care for them.

Her SRA advisor, Barb Hendricks talked her through it. She spelled out the choice- did she want to make caring for her parents her life's work? And Barb would tell Lorna, "the reason that she's getting her education is so she has a better ability to help them when she graduates."

But most of all, she gave Lorna hope, and an adult she could talk with and rely on during a very scary time. "She was definitely that light at the end of the tunnel that I needed to see again because my light had become very dark in those years. She'd tell me I can't quit."

And she didn't. After graduating from St. Mary's College, Lorna got her Masters degree in Psychology from The Wright Institute in Berkeley, and then came the job offer from SRA. Recently she got married!

Looking back now, Lorna says the single most important thing Students Rising Above did for her, was to provide her with an advisor – specifically Barb Hendricks who cared about her and was willing to work through anything. That relationship has only grown richer with time since they now work together. "She's like a daughter to me," says Barb.

Lorna's parents now live with Mary Gray, the kind woman who helped them for more than 20 years. But Lorna is their primary caretaker, making sure they are okay, getting them to doctor's appointments and supporting them financially. Her father now has dementia so the task is as daunting as ever.

But there has never been a moment of doubt that Lorna would be there for them. I asked her how she handled it, for all these many years? " Because, I had to," she answers first, then with tears in her eyes she adds, "Because I wanted to. Because regardless of all the struggles they've been through, I am a product of the way they raised me."

And now, Lorna advises students and other advisors, the way Barb Hendricks supported her. And she is developing a virtual platform that will help share SRA's advice and resources with students beyond those in the core program.

Full circle. Still rising.