She went straight from Newport Harbor High to UC Santa Barbara. From there she got a job at Univision and now the 26 year old works as a TV ad representative.
Life was even starker for Javier Diaz when he joined the center at 13.
"I was tired of doing nothing," he said.
He said he was going to school but not focusing, and he was watching a lot of his friends drop out.
Much of Diaz's family was wrapped up in gangs. That led to him transferring out of Estancia to avoid members of his uncles' rival gang. He attended Newport Harbor High School where he said it was an eye-opening experience.
He said the students were primarily white and wealthy and they had parents who were pushing them to do well in school.
He said at Estancia it felt like people thought as long as you graduate it was fine.
After high school he said he still didn't know what he wanted and which direction to turn so he joined the military. After the Marines, Diaz attended Orange Coast College and then Cal State Fullerton.
He said he wanted to be a probation officer to help youths. But when he was hired at a THINK Together program in Orange he found he wanted to help the kids before they were facing the probation officer. Now he's on the path to becoming a high school history teacher.
He said he'd like to be the teacher who is willing to help students, to create a bond.
"I didn't like school," he said "I thought it was boring, I still think it's boring. I want to show them it doesn't have to be like that."
Now Diaz is headed toward a life of getting to the kids before life brings them down — not a bad lesson to take away from the Shalimar Learning Center.
ALICIA LOPEZ teaches journalism at Orange Coast College and lives in Costa Mesa. She can be reached at lopezinthemix@gmail.com.
