If you read our spring newsletter, you heard about teens stepping up at Los Medanos Village in Pittsburg and preparing their college applications. Well, we have good news; they all got into four-year colleges! Congratulations Michael, Sunali, and Theophilia on your success.
Sunali is leaving for UC Davis in August. A year ago, she would have never thought this possible. “I was going straight to LMC [Los Medanos College] and wasn’t even thinking about going to a big school until my teachers started encouraging me to apply.” Sunali was born in India, moved to Italy with her family at the age of 3, and then the US at 11. She speaks Punjabi, Italian, English, some Hindi and is now learning Spanish. “No one in my family has gone to college, I’m the first. They weren’t able to help me apply because they didn’t know how to write the essays, upload financial information, or how to prepare for all the tests. Rosemary (Youth Enrichment Coordinator at Los Medanos Village) and the volunteers helped me a lot in the Homework Club.” Sunali is nervous about being away from her family, but very excited to be going off to college and plans to study business.
It wasn’t until this past February that a four-year college was even a consideration for Michael. At Homework Club, he was told that it wasn’t too late to apply and that he had the grades to be accepted. He took one shot at the SAT and received an excellent score. Soon thereafter, his essays and applications were completed. During spring break, acceptance letters started rolling in. He received admission letters to several colleges throughout the country, but with some urging from his mom, he decided to stay closer to home and attend Holy Names in Oakland. “This will definitely be out of my comfort zone,” he says, “I usually stay home in order to keep out of trouble and so I don’t socialize a lot. I’m a little nervous, but definitely stoked.” He’s excited to study criminal justice with an emphasis on computer science.
Theophilia will attend UC Santa Barbara. Unfortunately, we couldn’t catch up with her because she was busy trying to keep up her 4.3 GPA. Congratulations to these high school seniors!
Now recruiting homework club volunteers for all sites for the 2014-15 school year: Apply Here