Oakland Engineer, Rising Star Overcomes Lack Of Parental, Financial Support

(KPIX 5) -- The first video we shot of Alsidneo Bell was at daybreak. He was a senior at the Oakland Military Academy and an officer, leading the other students in their morning formations. He commanded with authority, with shoes shined and wearing a crisp uniform.  "It taught me a lot," he said about the academy. "How to be a leader."

Eight years later, I go to pick up Alsidneo at the airport from Everett, Washington, where he is a design engineer at Boeing. He has been selected to be the keynote speaker for the Students Rising Above Gala. I see him waving in the distance but barely recognize him. He is a man now, a little heavier, and instead of the short hair he had in the academy, he now has a full head of dreadlocks.

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He also has two college degrees under his belt, Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering. I am too embarrassed to tell him I don't even know what applied physics really means.

And he carries himself with a new presence - still commanding, but with a deeper maturity.

He did not seem nervous at all before his speech, though I suspect he was. The Gala is a big event at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco now, with 600 people and an ambitious goal of raising a million dollars. He was the star.

Before he spoke, we showed a clip from the news story we did on him back in 2008. It shows a picture of him as a little boy, his face full of mischief. His mom stands off to the side, looking a little tired. You can see a kindness in her face. She died of breast cancer when Alsidneo was only seven.

When he was 10, his father was sent to prison and sentenced to 30 years to life. Alsidneo would not see him again for 8 years.

The children became wards of the court, throwing them in a world of questions and insecurities. "Where would I be staying? What school would I go to? … I did not want to go in the foster system. I did not want to go in the foster system," remembered Alsidneo, emphasizing his feelings about foster care.

The children were separated and he was placed with an aunt, who loved him dearly. She also died of cancer.  There was sadness in his voice as he talked about it, "To lose all of the adults … I had no one to lean on," he said. Alsidneo's mentor at the time, guidance counselor Linh Xuan Le, sympathized. "I can't imagine being this young and not having parents," said Linh. "Mother, father, or even aunt or anybody to tell you what's right or what's wrong."

He was placed with relatives but by high school, he was largely on his own. The video shows him riding his bike to the supermarket, where he worked bagging and sweeping. He had to work to pay his own expenses, transportation, clothes, even food. "He is definitely on his own in so many ways," his counselor confirmed.

School was his haven and his ticket. He is seen in class raising his hand wildly to read out loud a part from the play, Rosencranz and Guildenstern.  After the teacher allowed his request, he read it with joy.

At the time, his counselor pointed out, he had no parents to help him with his homework. "He does it all by himself," she said. "That's why he's amazing … I admire him for that, for being so motivated … He has special qualities but you just cannot put into real words what it is."

The video from 2008 ends, and a very grown-up Alsidneo walks up to the podium.

"Man, oh man, oh man," he said smiling, as he looked out over the crowd. "I can't believe they let me speak." The crowd responded with laughter.

He told them about his childhood and the hard realities of being a ward of the court, even if you are placed with family. "When your relatives don't love you, living with relatives can be as bad as the foster system. In large part, we were seen as income and nothing more. I was frequently told, 'If the state wasn't paying me to take care of you, you'd be out on the street, hungry and homeless.'"

He talked about school as the place he thrived. And he told a precious story about his interview for Students Rising Above.

"I remember I had about one thousand rubber bands on my wrist, and one interviewer, Sidney Griffin, asked, 'Why do you have all the rubber bands on?' I told him, 'I'm wearing them as a place holder until I can get a watch.'  Then he proceeds to take the watch off his wrist, and hand it to me. I was so astounded that I almost forgot to say 'thank you.' Then I couldn't stop saying it."

Historic Morehouse College in Atlanta was where Alsidneo says he found himself. There he saw African-American business owners, professors, intellectuals, playwrights, everything. "These people weren't just doing their jobs. They were the best at it, and they looked like me," said Alsidneo. "It gave me the confidence that I could do anything and everything."

College is never easy for first-generation students. In Alsidneo's case, he wasn't just the first in his family to go to college, he did not have parents to support him. He remembered lugging his heavy luggage into the dorm on his own and watching parents help other kids settle in.

Even buying books is an issue for low-income kids trying to get through college. Alsidneo explained how he helped some of his friends get around that. "For every book SRA helped me buy, they also helped about three other students.  Because for most of my classmates, it was a choice between buying a textbook or paying rent, or eating for the next week.  So when I got the book, we all gathered around; and studied for tests. So by touching the lives of one, SRA touched the lives of many more."

Alsidneo ended up going to two colleges, Morehouse and Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York, to get his two degrees. But it was Morehouse that changed him, teaching him to expect more of himself and instilling a sense of responsibility for his community. "I could see my sense of purpose with clarity," he said. "That purpose was to make life better for people like me."

Alsidneo Bell is precisely the type of student SRA is trying to reach - someone with the character to rise above, the intelligence to achieve, and the heart to give back.

He said it best: "Donors, if you wonder if your donation made a difference, I stand before you, a man with a background that would normally qualify me as a prison statistic by the age of 21. I am now a design engineer for Boeing."

I remember clearly one thing he said in high school. I asked him what he learned from his mother and aunt, the two adults with the biggest effect on him. He answered without hesitation, "Discipline. Discipline. Just stay on track. Stay focused."

He ended his speech with a similar theme: "I leave you guys with a quote (from Thomas Edison). 'Opportunity is often overlooked because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.' So to me, that leaves only one choice, work! "

Alsidneo got a standing ovation, and the audience got something more than that - a window into all things possible if we can help more young people like him.