How My Mentoring Is Making a Difference

My View

When I became superintendent in 2013, one of my first goals was to visit all 45 elementary schools in the district to ensure that students, especially at our highest-poverty schools, knew and understood their path to college.

Whether in one-on-one mentoring or during assemblies to larger groups, I would reveal my journey of growing up in economically disadvantaged South Los Angeles, about being one of six children with a mother who had emigrated from Mexico as an adult, and later becoming a first-generation college student.

I hoped that students hearing my life experiences in school would realize not all the adults they interact with were born with advantages in life and that, with hard work and grit, their futures were boundless. I routinely ended my presentations by asking students whether they want to attend college someday. Unanimously, they would raise their hands. Following one school assembly, I was approached by a few students who wanted to know how it was even an option for me to attend college if I grew up economically disadvantaged. They had internalized misconceptions about college being too expensive for low-income families to afford.