Now more than ever, high school has become pressure packed
with extracurricular activities, grades, interviews, jobs, internships, and
those dreaded admission tests. From this point on, the SAT now goes on a 2400
scale (instead of the old 1600 scale) by adding an essay portion to the exam
which accounts for the added 800 points.
Let’s be honest: many college students get accepted based highly on wealth
and not so much merit. However, many people including the webmaster have to
work very hard on their own merit especially by working their way up by having
a hard work ethic.
The following articles are two stories published in the San Francisco Chronicle
and transcribed into my webpage. Both articles follow high school seniors going
through school trying to get into college. These people represent role models
to the webmaster.
For his senior exhibition, a written and oral presentation required
of all graduating students from Pacifica's Oceana High School, Ron Noche posed
the
question, "To
what extent does one really know reality through empirical means?"
His 26-page paper, which exceeded the minimum requirement by 11 pages, asked
whether reality exists as an absolute shared by all people, or rather is determined
individually through experiences. Ron cited such philosophers as Rene Descartes,
David Hume and Thomas Kuhn, as well as the movie script for "The Matrix."
"The level at which he's thinking isn't typical of high school students," Dusty
Jermier, Ron's science teacher for the past 21/2 years, said. "The questions
he asks won't be answered at a four-year university."
Ron's own reality hasn't always been kind. The 17-year-old from South San Francisco
is an asthmatic whose frequent attacks during his junior year had his mother
fearing for his life.
His father abandoned the family 10 years ago, leaving his wife, Lynn Sevilla,
to raise Ron and a younger sister, Celeste, 16, as well as two older daughters
from a previous marriage.
Sevilla supported her family as a seamstress and real estate agent. They got
by with few amenities, sometimes not knowing whether they could pay the next
month's rent.
"Sometimes the sewing brought in more money, sometimes the real estate work
did," she said. "You do what you can to get through the day."
Despite the hardships, Ron has excelled as a student. He accumulated a 3. 9
grade point average and seemed on his way to achieving his goal of studying
at a four-year
university, possibly majoring in philosophy.
But his chronic illness derailed his plans, at least temporarily. He missed
so many days of school during the spring semester of his junior year that his
classmates
thought he had transferred out of some of his classes.
He was in and out of the hospital. He struggled to breathe at night as he fought
off dizziness and "super wheeziness," as he referred to it, and woke
up exhausted from the battle.
His mother worried that he would stop breathing in the middle of the night
and fretted over him as he slept. She placed her hand on his chest to check
for a
heartbeat, or to his nostrils to check for breathing.
At his weakest, Ron had trouble standing.
"He would stand up and like a candle melt down to the floor," Sevilla
said. "If he had to walk anywhere in the house, I had to hold him up."
When he felt good enough to attend school, he often missed his early classes,
including math, because it took him hours to recover in the morning from the
nighttime episodes.
"He looked terrible," math teacher John Magee said. "He was trying
to come in as much as possible, but his body wouldn't allow it."
And the asthma couldn't be properly treated because his family couldn't afford
medical insurance. Ron saw doctors only during emergency room drop-ins as he
experienced his worst episodes.
It was no surprise that his grades slipped. Through his first five semesters,
Ron earned 31 As, three Bs and a D-plus for freshman geometry -- the lone anomaly
on his transcript to that point.
He picked up two more D-pluses and an incomplete in math analysis in his last
semester as a junior and also lost study time for college entrance tests.
"It wasn't that Ron screwed up," Magee said. "Something happened
that was out of his control."
After his asthma problems subsided following his junior year, Ron made separate
deals with his teachers to make up assignments. He gave up his summer vacation
and continued to work through the fall to improve his grades. He raised the
two D-plusses to B-minuses and, heeding Magee's advice, retook the math analysis
class this semester.
"Sometimes I didn't get any sleep," he said. "It was insane, but
I wanted to boost my grades."
His asthma no longer poses a threat. Through a low-cost county program, Sevilla
has been able to afford medical insurance for the family. Late last year, Ron
was prescribed new medication that has controlled his attacks.
"He worked really hard," Magee said. "I've had other students
in similar situations who didn't do as well because they were resentful. They
became depressed that they had to take the class over. But Ron had a great
work ethic. "
Ron began filing applications at various four-year universities, including his
dream school -- the University of Southern California.
Compared with his junior year, Ron's final semester has been a breeze.
He arrived at school almost every day at 7:15 a.m. to meet with classmates
at the library, the computer lab or Magee's classroom. They came to socialize,
but
they also arrived early to assist each other on homework that they didn't fully
comprehend.
"I'm not afraid to ask for help," Ron said in a soft-spoken voice that
reveals both nervous energy and a touch of shyness. But when it came to math,
his classmates mostly sought Ron's assistance.
"Ron's really confident about math, and he's willing to help," said
Tyler Robbins, who has been friends with Ron since they attended Sharp Park Elementary
together. "We often have study groups at his house on Sundays, and for
the most part he would help everybody out."
That includes tutoring elementary school kids as part of a community service
program. He accumulated more than 250 hours of community service, although
Oceana High requires only 100 hours as part of its graduation requirement.
Ron spent most of the hours at the after-school child care program at Sunset
Ridge Elementary in Pacifica, where he patiently assisted kids with their homework.
He lacked such help growing up.
Ron's paternal grandfather died in 1995, and Ron's father brought the body
back to their native Philippines for burial. He never returned, leaving Ron
without
a father figure. At a church function a few years ago, Ron recalled, congregation
members revealed their favorite memories of their fathers. Ron said he was
hard-pressed to think of one.
"I always wished that I grew up with my dad," he said. "I never
had a male role model."
He finally found his role models two years ago in Darren Hom and Tuese Ahkiong,
teachers at the Church of the Highlands in San Bruno, which Ron and his family
have attended since 1989.
They introduced Ron to philosophy. About once a week, he joins them and other
congregation members at Skyline College for "coffee talks" about
religion, philosophy, science and other matters.
"We've lent him books on some really difficult subjects," Hom said. "Some
of it is graduate-level reading. It's difficult for him but he actually understands
what he reads. He goes through it slowly because he really wants to understand
what he's reading."
Earlier this year, during spring break, Ron started hearing back from the colleges
to which he'd applied.
First came a rejection letter from UC Davis, followed by another from UCLA.
But the one that stung most was from USC, Ron's first choice.
For about a week, he could not reason away or hide his disappointment.
"I felt really down," he said. "I cried. I had so much hope and
excitement about going there."
He didn't bother to open the last letter to arrive. He said he knew he had
no chance at UC Berkeley since it had the toughest admission standards.
But Ron quickly put the rejections behind him. He again relied on his faith
to get him through a difficult time.
"God has a plan for me," he said. "Maybe I wasn't ready to go
away to a university. Maybe I'm needed here by my family."
Ron said he doesn't like to think about why he couldn't get into his schools
of choice. When pressed, however, he looked to the illness of his junior year.
Although he was able to make up his grades, Ron said his frequent asthma attacks
didn't allow him to properly study for the standardized college admission tests,
and he didn't do as well as he hoped.
He could have picked a safety school, perhaps a state university in the area.
But he was determined to attend USC or a UC school and knew it was easier to
transfer units from a junior college than a state college.
He'll graduate with his classmates on June 16 and has already enrolled for
summer classes at Skyline College. Although still interested in philosophy,
Ron is now
pondering a major in business, engineering or medicine.
"I know the path to a better life is getting an education," he said.
Delida Wong walked up Pacific Avenue, past the tourists who
clog the streets, shops and restaurants of San Francisco's Chinatown. She took
a key out of her backpack and unlocked the gate to a place that is not in any
guidebook.
Her home is in a low-income housing project in Chinatown. She stopped briefly
to check the mailbox before heading up dimly lit stairs bordered by grimy, scuffed
walls. Inside her apartment, her mother prepared dinner in a small kitchen separated
from the main room by a cloth curtain.
Delida had left her Chinatown apartment nearly 12 hours earlier to board a bus
to school, then went from school to work at a law firm downtown, and then returned
back home. She had hours of homework ahead of her and a test the next morning.
She was worried about college and paying for college.
But on this night and every night, Delida, 18, spent one hour just visiting with
her mother, Winnie Wong. The tiny apartment with linoleum floors and bars on
the windows motivates this high school senior. She is motivated to create a better
life for herself, and her mother. Motivated to do well in school, make it into
a good college, and then to law school.
All so she and her mother can leave this life behind.
"I know I need to make enough money to live a good life and to take care
of my mom," Delida said. "I'm all she has. And, I'm not one to ask
people for things. I have a lot of pride."
As the young woman navigated her final semester at Lowell High, the hyper- competitive
school in the Sunset District, she faced challenges similar to those of graduating
seniors everywhere. She struggled to make it to all her classes when the warm
weather beckoned; pass exam after exam; find a dress for prom; devise a plan
for college.
But she also was met with other serious hurdles, including making and saving
enough money to pay for her everyday expenses and cover what might not be provided
by financial aid. She applied to seven colleges, but had her heart set on UC
Berkeley. She knew that wherever she ended up, it would not be far from her mother.
"I need to be somewhere close, in case my mom needs me," she said.
Delida was 4 years old when her father died at age 42 of lung cancer.
"I think the only memory of my father is someone telling me not to cry on
his body at his funeral," Delida said. After her father's death, her mother's
only recourse was to apply for public housing.
"My mom wasn't even supposed to have children," Delida continued. Two
years before Delida was conceived, Winnie was nearly killed in a freak accident.
Her clothing was somehow caught on the edge of a car and she was dragged for
several blocks.
"I'm lucky," Winnie said, flashing a smile that lights up her face. "I
survived. And, I have a baby. The doctor had told me I wouldn't be able to have
children."
Delida navigated life at home, school and work with unwavering resolve. She was
the first to say she has no time for the teenage traditions of partying, shopping
and hanging out.
"I know many people my age have it a lot easier," Delida said. "I
have no one but me. I don't have rich parents who will take care of me. I think
in the end this probably makes me a better person or a more independent person."
In college application essays, Delida wrote of the inspiration she has found
in her relationship with her mother and with her economic reality.
"I grew up without a father and with my mother speaking limited English," Delida
wrote. "I did not understand why I had to wear hand-me-downs or why I couldn't
have toys that other kids have. While I have been poor financially, I have never
felt poor in spirit. Reflecting on my past and my future, I vow to succeed and
provide my mother with everything she would ever want, for I want her to know
her sacrifices are well worth it."
Delida is keenly watchful and protective of her mother, who was born in the Canton
province of China. Winnie has a quick laugh and a natural graciousness but speaks
little English and has had a hard time finding steady work. Delida interprets
for her. She helps with her mother's job applications. She reassures her. She
tries to spoil her and recently saved up enough money to buy her a clothes dryer
at Sears.
"She's a hard worker," Winnie said of her daughter. "She goes
to school. To work. She does her homework. I try to tell her not to work so much."
After dinner and conversation, Delida retreated to her room, which shares a wall
with her mother's. Still early in the semester, she had eight weeks to read a
400-page biography of Angela Davis, and faced her nightly battle with calculus.
She always excelled in math but found herself struggling in the final semester
of her senior year.
She was ready to be out of high school, she said.
"Four years is enough. It's been really hard. It feels like it's been too
much competition. Lowell is a very good school, but it's really tough. College
seems like it's going to be a lot easier than what I do now."
Delida began hearing about Lowell in the seventh grade. Relatives spoke of the
school with respect. At the time, Delida was a high-achieving student at the
low-performing Benjamin Franklin Middle School. She earned straight A's.
Lowell, with more than 2,500 students, is considered one of the top college preparatory
public schools in California. Delida's school day started at 7:30 a.m. and ended
about 12:30 p.m. Her classes included advanced placement calculus, American democracy,
advanced placement economics, advanced composition and Mandarin. She always sat
in the front of class. She raised her hand, was engaged, and had an easy dialogue
with teachers and classmates.
She had little interest in the boys at her school, saying most are "not
much fun. They're the nerdy, booky guys or are the gamers who spend 24/7 on the
Internet." She has a boyfriend, a freshman at UC Santa Cruz. The two met
at Lowell.
"I can't afford to do things like party or drink or do drugs," Delida
said. "Not in my high school years. It's too important."
Delida's steady determination earned her the respect of Lowell faculty.
School counselor Joan Catelli called Delida "quite remarkable."
"I find her so pleasant and positive," Catelli said. "A lot of
kids can endure a lot of things. But I see Delida going beyond endurance. She
is both practical and hopeful. If she has a setback, she tries to understand
why and she moves forward."
Catelli nominated Delida for UC Berkeley's Incentive Award, a $30,000 scholarship
given to students applying to Cal who have persevered through hardship. It was
one of more than a dozen scholarships Delida applied for.
In her essays, she wrote of challenges that ranged from academic to personal,
from how she found a tutor to help her improve a faltering grade in advanced
algebra to the leadership roles she assumed at work. Before starting her job
at the law firm, she worked for two years at Zeum, a nonprofit children's arts
and technology museum. Over time, she earned the trust of staff members, who
often came to her to help resolve problems.
Her job at the law firm took away what little free time she had. But it also
taught her to be a more "efficient and accurate person" and heightened
her interest in becoming an attorney. She decided on a career in law as a sophomore.
Her English teacher liked to engage students in debate. He praised Delida for
her natural critical thinking skills and asked if she'd ever considered becoming
a lawyer.
"That kind of started me thinking about it," Delida said.
She works on the eighth floor of One Embarcadero Center. The lobby is elegant
and offers sweeping views. It is a dozen blocks from her home in Chinatown, but
a world away. Here, Delida earns $9 an hour working as a clerk for Anthony P.
David, a lawyer specializing in civil litigation.
When she started at the firm a year ago, she mostly filed papers. She soon was
responsible for helping to pay bills, balance books and track payments. She summarized
depositions, analyzed wage-loss documents, and drafted letters for attorneys.
"Delida showed a natural ability to pay attention to details and to work
with numbers and be precise," said attorney Anja Chan, who works with Anthony
David.
Delida has the ability to remain undeterred by temporary setbacks.
When Delida learned in late March that she had been accepted at five colleges
and turned down at two, she responded in a characteristic way: She assimilated
the information and then quickly moved forward. She did not get into her school
of choice -- UC Berkeley.
"I wanted to go to Berkeley, but it's not the end of the world," Delida
said. "There are other really good schools."
By May 1, she had accepted the offer of admission from UC Davis.
The decision brought relief. One of her major goals, for as long as she could
remember, was finally within reach. She beamed with new ideas and possibilities.
She decided on a major in managerial economics and a minor in winemaking.
The minor in winemaking came across as uncharacteristically whimsical. With Delida,
it was almost wild.
"I thought it just sounded really fun," Delida said, flashing a smile
as she took a break from her law office work. "And, Davis is one of the
only schools to offer this."
In late May, Delida learned she had been named a Meritus Scholar. She will receive
$12,000 during the course of her college career. With most of her school expenses
covered, Delida said she will try to find a job to pay for extras. She hopes
to land a job working for a law firm in Sacramento.
As graduation drew nearer, Delida lost none of her focus. On a balmy night, Delida
trudged up the stairs to her Chinatown apartment. Over dinner with her mother,
the two talked about what it will be like when Delida is away at college.
"I'll call you every day," Winnie said.
"I just won't answer the phone," Delida responded. Her moment of rebellion
gave way to a smile. "I'm kidding, mom."
When Delida graduates on Thursday, she knows that her mother will celebrate that
day like few others. For Delida, it is but one of the critical steps she needs
to take.
"I know I will have to cover myself and my future," she said. "I
know it's not going to be easy. But I know I can make it, somehow."