Shenekah Cayetano
Hi, my name is Shenekah Cayetano and I am 17 years old. Growing up in South Central, I found it very hard to succeed. I am labeled as another statistic. Being a black child I am told it is impossible to achieve anything. When I hit the 11th grade, I took a different outlook on where I could be. I stopped believing in what I was seeing and made a change in what was best for me. I am currently in the 12th grade making A’s and B’s, striving for what I know I can achieve and beat the statistics.
July of 2009 was the first time I attended Community Coalition. My expectations were to benefit, and learn about new things such as the economy, politics, etc. The first week my sister and I came to support, we were welcomed into loving arms. We participated in an event called “CoCo Idol” for fundraising and had a great time. Many people came out to support and help sponsor the program. We did a praise dance from a well-known Gospel song “Encourage Yourself.” We tried to reach out to the youth that through whatever you face, you always have to make that effort and encourage yourself. The judges rated us on a scale from 1-10 and we took lead in first place with a high 29, one step behind the winning number 30. We went home winning third place, but we were not defeated. Just to have the chance to participate and minister to the audience made us feel like we were first place winners.
The Community Coalition has inspired me throughout the two months I’ve been attending to be a positive leader in life. Even though I have not been here long enough to talk about a big step I have overcome, like participating in a strike, etc., I feel that I have taken a big step in joining a program that is not required for me to do so and making an attempt to come to every meeting. I’ve learned to be more responsible and think like a community organizer. I have a chance to go to college and become something. I am preparing for this Bay Area trip and hope to help someone understand that they can succeed to.
Jesus Garcia
My name is Jesus Garcia Ruiz, as you can tell I am Hispanic, son of immigrants from Mexico.
We have always been broke. So broke our couch was on cinder blocks.
My dad went to the third grade, and then he had to work raising cows and farming. My mom dropped out in the eleventh grade so that she could work in a factory, so no one has gone to college.
Tylo White
Ever since I was a little girl I’ve always known I was going to college, it was getting past the money part. I don’t come from a wealthy family. I was never fed with a silver spoon, but college has always been my destination after high school.
Growing up, it was me, my mom, my older sister and my brother, my grandmother and my aunt. My mom wasn’t there all the time, she was working a part-time job. My grandmother was bedridden, so my aunt was basically our mother. Dad? Dad was always heard of and never seen. Then when mom and dad got together again, the drama came.
I know what it’s like to struggle, to be poor. I know what it’s like to be abused and neglected. I’ve experienced racism, but I refuse to become a statistic. I want far too much out of life to let anything hold me back. Times are better now and my relationship with my dad has evolved, in fact, we’re real close.
Everyone has a story. Everyone wants something. It’s just a matter of how bad and what they’re willing to do for it. Me? I’m going to a university, I’m going to study abroad, come back and help my community. I’m going to enlighten and empower myself, because with God there is nothing I can’t do!
Jesse Jacquez
My personal thoughts on college are that I want to go to college and have something to do with my life. I do think about going to college. That way, when I apply for a job I won’t be turned down or embarrassed and all because I didn’t go to school. I am going to study mathematics because I want to be a mechanic and be an auto body repairman.
I receive the support from my family because I have both parents (mom and step dad) and they support me to go to college.
My school doesn’t really help. They actually make the work harder to understand and when the students want the help, the teachers are too busy. Some teachers are willing to help but others are just there to get that check.
My community is always against people of color and it’s always the police, the drugs, and the money. My school does want kids to go college but they don’t really help.
I’d say that when South L.A. students don’t go to college it’s because it gets to hard or they get lazy and don’t do the work or simply because they don’t have money.
The thing that I would have to do to get into college is to get good grades, pass the required classes, and have money by the time I try to apply for college.
Juana Gonzalez
I’ve lived in South LA most of my life. My mom had me at 18 years old (I have an older sister) and my mom was a single parent most of my life so we really didn’t have money. So this resulted in moving from house to house because of the eviction notices that we got so that meant going to different schools. So this was very difficult to keep up with the schools, so I learned stuff that maybe I already knew of that was farther ahead.
I had a difficult time learning how to read so I didn’t learn how to read ’til the second half of second grade. And I didn’t get help at home because my mom had two jobs to try and keep food on the table and pay the rent. So we would be alone when we were little. I learned how to cook when I was about 7-9 years old and my older sister cleaned and took care of us and she was only two years older than me.
I was constantly alone at home at night when we went to sleep. I went to sleep late just waiting for my mommy to come home. I would sleep in my mom’s bed and hug her pillow and it would remind me of her.
Now I’m in high school and I’m a junior and there are difficulties that come up like not having $24 a month for my bus pass to get to and from school and if I do public transportation, it is very difficult because I have to take two buses to get to school. Most of the time I go late to school and it results in me not passing or being absent from 1st period and I really try but it’s hard and now that I’m a junior, it reminds me that I don’t have time to be failing classes because come next year, I’ll be a senior and it becomes difficult to get those classes done on time to graduate. But I won’t give up and I will graduate on time and go to college. I will not become a statistic.
Chrystina Spight
Hi everyone, my name is Christina Spight. I am 15 years old and I attend Manual Arts High School.
My childhood was crazy. I live with my mom and dad and my 2 sisters and my 2 brothers and now we’ll have a baby boy living with us, because my mother is pregnant with a baby boy.
I hate living poor and with no money and sometimes no food in the refrigerator. We used to have a house with 4 bedrooms and a front and back yard with a garage. And everything was going good. Then my dad got hurt on his job and my mom was never working. So then they started to do drugs and crazy stuff, like selling the cars until we didn’t have any cars and then they sold our house.
Now we just moved back in with our parents. It is still rough but we are together again.
Then I had met the CoCo and that is when I started hearing a lot more about college. I would like to go to college and study in business/cosmetology. I will like to grow up and be a hair designer and have my own business. I don’t have a lot of support from my family and teachers. The only ones that I have a lot of support from is the CoCo staff. That is one of the reasons why I love coming to the CoCo cause they push us to be something in life. I’m just going to stay in the game at school so I can graduate high school and go to college.
Erik Maultsby
My name is Erik Maultsby, I go to Manual Arts and I would like to go to a good college.
Interview with Erik on the bus:
Why did you join SCYEA?
To better myself in life. I need to stay on the right track and not go on the wrong track again.
What made you change to get on the right track?
Me going to SCYEA and going to New York [COIN Scholar] and seeing the opportunities to go to college. SCYEA made me see that I had to change.
You went to Playa, what is it?
Playa is like a continuation school. It’s just you and a teacher. I was there a whole semester but now I’m at Manual.
Describe your community.
The good thing about my community is that I have a good home. The bad thing is that I can’t walk outside my house unless I’m getting in a car.
Explain.
The gangbangers I can’t be around.
What are your dreams and goals in life?
I want to be a veterinarian cause I like animals. My mom, she buys me animals that I want. I have two dogs and three snakes. I have a bull terrier and a pitbull.
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[...] by Shenekah Cayetano, senior at Manual Arts High [...]