Gutierrez
Perseverance and grit are essential for anyone to graduate from college in four years. But, for the first alumni from San Jose’s Downtown College Prep to get their bachelor’s degrees, a sense of guilt and obligation kept them on task. And some well-timed encouragement from their former counselor and teachers at the largely Latino charter high school pushed them through moments of self-doubt.
Gloria Medina didn’t want to disappoint her mother, an office cleaner who always had faith in her.
Juan Gutierrez didn’t want to take any more money from his older brother, who helped with the financial aid he couldn’t get as a non-citizen.
They and others were reassured by e-mails and calls at key moments during their college years from Downtown College Prep’s school counselor, Vicki Evans, and dean of students, Jill Case.
Earlier this month, Downtown College Prep honored those trailblazing graduates of ’04, its inaugural class, at a reception at the Tech Museum of Innovation. A dozen graduates – a quarter of the first class – got their bachelor’s degrees this spring, from nine colleges and universities, including Saint Mary’s College, Santa Clara University, San Jose State, Cal State-Monterey Bay, UC-Santa Cruz and Mount Holyoke College. An additional 50 percent are working toward a degree in the next year or two, and a quarter have dropped out.
That’s not a bad ratio for low-income kids, many of whom had struggled to get through high school. It’s become harder to get a college degree in four years these days, especially from a state school, while holding jobs and fighting your way through wait lists for courses. Most students, including many from Downtown Prep, have to take remedial courses, which don’t count toward graduation.
I had gotten to know some of the students when they were at Downtown Prep, and I watched them and their school go through growing pains. The determination that they showed as young teens and the study habits they acquired sustained many of them when they left the security of their close-knit families and school and found themselves, like Gloria Medina at UC-Santa Cruz, for the first time surrounded by self-confident children of privilege.
Medina had entered Downtown College Prep in ninth grade with a below-D average. But in her sophomore year, she grew tired of failure and disappointing her mother. Case, the dean of students, who has known Medina since sixth grade, says she “caught fire” as a student and never looked back.
Now, with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, she plans to seek a master’s in social work from San Jose State. Meanwhile, she wants to help the next generation of students at Downtown Prep’s second high school, which will open in San Jose’s Alviso district in the fall.
Many of Downtown College Prep’s grads have fragile home lives. A family illness can easily consume a semester’s tuition, derailing plans for a degree.
Gutierrez, the first in his family to graduate from college, arrived in America in seventh grade, the 11th of 12 children. His parents stayed in Mexico; he spoke no English. Last week, looking natty with a black-and-white striped tie and a white carnation, he spoke self-confidently about his goal to become a school psychologist. At Cal State-Monterey Bay, he squeezed in classes while working. Stressed out, worried about the financial burden on his brother, he thought about giving up – but didn’t.
Last week, throughout the valley, high schools held their graduation ceremonies. It’s a time when many seniors will cut ties and move on. Big high schools have neither the staff nor the resources to stay in touch.
As a small public school with bonds forged through adversity, Downtown College Prep remained a safe harbor for the first graduates. The school hired an alumni services coordinator; it held biannual reunions and raised tens of thousands of dollars in college financial aid. Evans and others reassured them when they were down, guided them through the financial aid bureaucracy, offered practical advice that their own immigrant parents couldn’t give them.
They, in return, have something to offer: tangible proof that there is a payoff for hard work. Their message to their successors at Downtown College Prep: If we can do it, so can you.
JOHN FENSTERWALD is a Mercury News editorial writer.
