Bay Area Teens Overcome Poverty, Hardship On Way College Education

Antonio Gonzales was nine years old when he made a promise to his grandfather."Prometo que voy a ser el primero en ir al universidad para darle una mejor vida a mi mama y mi familia." (I promise I will be the first one to go to college and give a better life to my mom and my family). He made this promise outside a hospital room as his grandfather was dying of lung cancer.

Antonio's grandfather always told him that education was the key to a better life and, took an active role in his education. He was his father figure. Eight years later Antonio still holds that promise close. He has little else.

He lives in his grandmother's house in Richmond along with 16 other people. Resources are stretched thin. Antonio says in a house of 17, "it's actually hard to supply everybody with food and sometimes there's days when there's actually nothing to eat."

For a serious student there's another problem - finding a quiet place to study. Antonio always starts with math. It's his best subject so easy for him to tune out the background noise. When he needs to really concentrate, on reading assignments for example, he waits until his mother and sister are asleep; then he uses the flashlight app on his cellphone to read in their bedroom at night. He stays up until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. to finish his work.

The poverty is evident to Antonio's teachers. Angel Ponce-Larsen tutors him after school. When he shows up he asks Ponce-Larsen if he has any food to spare. If not, Antonio says, "usually what I do is I wait until the next day so I can go to school and actually eat breakfast. They have a free breakfast."

He has no functioning computer at home. He has to use the school computers in the library or the college center at Richmond High. Ponce notes Antonio's work ethic. "When there's projects or research, a lot of teachers assign that, he has to essentially work at lunch, work after school, that's his only option." It's earned him a 4.0 GPA.

It's all for the promise he made to his grandfather nine years ago. This fall, he'll take the next step towards keeping it. Antonio is going to University of California, Davis. He's the first in his family to go to college.
Sharit Cardenas-Lopez helps her mother clean houses in the Oakland Hills on weekends. Her mom has had multiple operations for carpal tunnel syndrome so working at all is difficult. As a single mom she must work even when in pain. Sharit says her mom, "just keeps pushing and it scares me to know that her necessity is so big that she takes that pain." Job opportunities are limited for her mom. She doesn't speak English, though she is learning, but her health is her biggest limitation.

Sharit's mother has had appendicitis, ovarian cancer and now, diabetes. Seeing her mother survive all this has taught her something important, "She's taught me strength … to set priorities to set goals." Sharit has a heart condition as well.

She shares the burden of breadwinner with her mom. On top of housekeeping, she works at a summer tutoring center. It helps, but Sharit says even when both of them work, money is month-to-month, "It's really terrifying … not knowing if you're going to have food next month."

When she isn't working or going to school Sharit spends her evenings taking care of her family. She cooks, cleans, and helps take care of her mom. Her history teacher, Natalie Lizardo, is well aware of her responsibilities, "Sharit is functioning as an adult at home," said Lizardo. "Making sure that little sister is ready for the next school day, making sure she has her own assignments done."

Despite her responsibilities, Sharit never lost sight of how important education was for her future, and her family, "I'm gonna go to school and graduate high school, go to college and we will not have to struggle through this."

At Envision Academy, a charter college-prep school in Oakland, Sharit stands out. Lizardo describes her with words like "dependable" and "reliable." She says when Sharit enters the classroom, "you feel her presence. You'll hear her voice."

Sharit graduated from Envision Academy with a 4.33 GPA. She got accepted to 15 colleges and this fall she'll got to Wesleyan University.

Inside their small apartment on International Boulevard in Oakland, Abraham Wordsworth can hear his grandmother singing prayers as he does his homework. She is blind. He lives here with her and his aunt.

Abraham attends Head Royce School. It's one of the most rigorous private schools in California. The tuition is $35,000 a year. Abraham was in public middle school in East Oakland when he first heard about Head Royce. He says he wanted more from his education, "I was looking for something bigger in life and I was looking for a richer experience." As a middle-school student, he applied for an academic scholarship on his own. He had some help from mentors but it was his own agency that got him to the exclusive school.

There, he has a 3.6 GPA. For an African American teenage boy living in Oakland, that's rare. Teacher Paul Scott from Head Royce says he is one of the most impressive students he's ever had, "Abraham is the kind of kid you read about in a book. He's that incredible," said Scott. "It's supposed to happen in Hollywood or something like that."

The daily struggles of life in East Oakland weren't the first in Abraham's life. He was born in Liberia in 1996, during a series of civil wars. 250,000 people were killed, including his father and several uncles. His mother was young and couldn't care for him. He lived with his grandmother. A parasite had already taken her sight.

In 1999 a second civil war broke out. Abraham's aunt, Theresa Lamatine, sacrificed her entire life to lead their escape. She took Abraham and his grandmother to a refugee camp in the Ivory Coast. Food was scarce. Abraham remembers going up to a week without it. His aunt would work at nearby farms to scrounge what she could. After 4 years he and his family made it to the United States.

Abraham was 7 when they landed at JFK airport in New York. His family settled in Oakland. Before he turned 8 he enrolled in elementary school. He took 2 buses each way, daily, to get there. The other children alienated him because of his background.

Abraham has adjusted since then. He has lots of friends at school. He's a peer counselor for the freshman at Head Royce. Lamatine said she instilled in him the importance of scholarly success, "I always told him that education was the only way of life," said Lamatine. "In order to prosper, in order to succeed."

Abraham has certainly succeeded. He graduated with a 3.6 GPA without forgetting where he comes from, "every hill, every mountain, every valley, every river that I had to cross have led me to this place." The place is Tufts University. He starts there this fall.