Lorena Ortega-Guerrero

When Oakland’s Lorena Ortega-Guerrero starts Yale University this fall, she is looking forward to breaking out of her comfort zone. “I grew up in the Bay Area and I’ve spent the majority of my life with other Latinos,” she said, “so I’m excited to push my comfort zone and get perspectives from people who have lived very different lives from myself.”

While Yale is quickly approaching, just two years ago, the 18-year-old graduate of Holy Names High School wasn’t sure she’d be able to attend college. Ortega-Guerrero’s parents, who were in the country illegally at the time, were facing deportation.

• Read more: A passion for community activism propels this LA senior to UCLA

Ortega-Guerrero knew that if they left, she’d go with them to be able to stay with her family.

Luckily, an immigration lawyer was able to stop the deportation and keep her parents in the U.S., now legally.

Growing up in Oakland, education was always a priority for Ortega-Guerrero’s family. “I’ve lived behind Oakland High School my entire life and I knew it wasn’t the life I wanted” Ortega-Guerrero says. “We always pushed and strived to get whatever help we could to go to private school.”

With the help of the Children’s Scholarship Fund, Ortega-Guerrero was connected to the BASIC Fund, a privately funded organization that allocates partial tuition funds to allow students to go to the private school of their choice.

Ortega-Guerrero’s parents enrolled her and her younger sister in a number of extracurriculars, including karate for self-defense, music lessons, and swimming.

“[My extracurriculars] were expensive, and people always asked my parents, why they were wasting their money on these classes,” she says, but the loaded schedule taught her discipline which she could then apply to her studies. “I’m so grateful to my parents because discipline and time management has been something I’ve known since I was a kid.”

Ortega-Guerrero says she pushes herself academically to show appreciation to her parents, for all they have sacrificed on her behalf. Her father is a handyman and her mother a house cleaner, so for Ortega-Guerrero, presenting her parents with a flawless transcript is her way “to pay them back. To show them their sacrifices are worth it.”

The sacrifices paid off.

Now, despite her family’s previous legal struggles, college isn’t just an option, it’s a reality. And after college? Giving back and helping others is on the agenda. “I want to do something I’m passionate about,” she says, noting that it might include a career as a civil rights lawyer, inspired by the immigration attorney who kept her family together and in the United States years ago, and kept her dream of higher education alive.

Like The 74’s Facebook page to see other notable graduates this month.

This article was published in partnership with The74Million.org. 

LA Unified began the new year facing a formidable challenge, as only 54 percent of its senior class was projected to be on track for passing all their A through G standards, a series of courses required for acceptance into California’s public universities. The new, higher graduation standards went into effect for the first time this year.

But an “all hands on deck” call from the district’s superintendent, Michelle King, along with aggressive implementation of a $15 million credit recovery program, may have saved the district from a sizable drop-off in its graduation rate. District officials have actually predicted the rate will now rise this year to 80 percent, although preliminary estimates won’t be available until November.

Check out the above graphic to see how the district’s graduation rate has looked since the 2009-10 school year, which is the first year the state started using four-year cohort graduation rates as the official measuring stick.

The prediction of an 80 percent graduation rate made by the district was not official, but more anecdotal and based on the high number of students enrolled in credit recovery programs to complete their A through G courses. The last official projection was 68 percent, but the district won’t be doing any more projections until the preliminary rate is announced in November.

Here’s how the LA Unified projections for A through G completion have looked since the fall:

As of April, with 68 percent on track for A-G completion and poised to graduate, a large number of students may still be left behind, whether the district achieves 80 percent or not. There are also graduation requirements beyond A-G, which could impact the numbers. Dropout rates are not yet available for this year’s class, but the class of 2014-15 experienced 6,095 dropouts. One of the district’s five official goals is “100 percent graduation,” and even if the district reaches a new record of 80 percent of its 31,808 seniors graduating, that means more than 6,000 students won’t graduate. And those are in addition to thousands of students who have dropped out of the class over the last four years.

When it comes to this year’s graduating class, there was still a lot of work the district needed to do upon the last projection. Within the 68 percent “on track” to meet their A-G standards was a significant portion failing at least one class after 10 weeks. Here’s how things looked at the last projection on April 4 for the district’s 31,808 seniors:

If LA Unified is able to get to an 80 percent graduation rate this year, it also would represent a significant jump in A-G completion. Here’s how the A-G completion rates have looked since 2010:

Even if LA Unified does reach 80 percent, or simply surpasses last year’s record of 72 percent, it still is behind the state as a whole:

Boyle Heights College Track graduates, from left, Mariano Bonilla, Edson Orozco, Clemente Rojo and Ismael Soto. (Photo: Lucas Oswald)

A small after-school program, branded i.am College Track in homage to founding partner musician will.i.am and his i.am angel foundation, launched in Boyle Heights four years ago with 45 students. Last week it graduated all 45 of them.

At a ceremony and reception hosted by College Track Los Angeles’ Advisory Board last Thursday, local leaders Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Councilman Jose Huizar, together with celebrity guest will.i.am, gathered with students, parents and College Track leadership to celebrate the class of 2016.

Fully half of students from Boyle Heights never complete high school, and only 5 percent of Boyle Heights residents hold a four-year college degree. But with a dedicated staff and program model that blends comprehensive academic support and leadership training with college counseling and financial aid advising, 100 percent of i.am College Track’s inaugural class of Roosevelt High School students are bound for college in the fall.

“When I was in the eighth grade, I was ready to drop out of school,” said College Track graduating senior Adela Lopez. “Life at home made it difficult to connect with my peers at school. I couldn’t relate to their version of ‘home’ so I kept to myself. By middle school, I began thinking about dropping out. Around that time, College Track came to my eighth-grade class to recruit students. They had faith that things could be different for me.  They saw the potential in me that I couldn’t yet see in myself. I signed up.”

Adela is headed to Whittier College this fall with a $28,000 annual scholarship.

The Boyle Heights college-bound graduates from the College Track program. (Photo: Lucas Oswald)

Laurene Powell Jobs and Carlos Watson founded College Track in 1997, after discovering that many students aspiring to be the first in their families to attend college had a hard time getting the support and guidance they needed to get there.

Beginning in the summer before ninth grade, College Track sets promising students from underserved communities on a 10-year path toward college graduation. Today, 93 percent of College Track’s high school students are accepted to four-year colleges. Moreover, College Track students graduate from college at a rate that is 2.5 times the national average of low-income students.

“You guys did this! We would have been happy with 20 percent graduation, but all 45 of you guys? That’s freakin’ awesome,” quipped will.i.am while accepting the award for Hero of the Year. “It’s proof that with the right environment, the right teachers, the right motivations and inspiration, underdog kids from Boyle Heights can go to school and succeed.”

i.am College Track Boyle Heights is one of eight sites College Track operates nationwide, and one of two in Los Angeles — a second center launched in Watts in November. To date, College Track has helped more than 2,400 students in eight communities nationwide, and this summer the program will open its ninth center in Denver.

An open letter from four members of the Community Coalition Youth Leaders to the LA Unified school board, which is considering a resolution tomorrow from Mónica García and Steve Zimmer to enhance support for improving the district’s college-ready graduation rate. 

Dear Board Members:

On behalf of the thousands of students in South Los Angeles, we are frustrated and angry. We can’t believe adults are still debating whether or not we should be college-ready.

We can’t believe adults are still saying that “A-G” college-prep classes are too much for us to handle.

We are writing to let the district know, that our “Equity on A-G” resolution, is a step forward towards bringing quality education for all.

Ten years ago the LAUSD school board took a bold step forward by agreeing that all students should be prepared for college. The members’ decision helped move the school district in the right direction, and there has been progress towards this goal. But we shouldn’t give up now, just because the task seems challenging.

You have the opportunity to reaffirm this goal and can implement solutions to accomplish it. Students in school districts across the country receive this college prep curriculum, and there is no reason why we can’t also receive these same opportunities! We strongly urge you to make the right choice on this resolution and allow L.A. Unified to continue moving forward on a path towards equity.

We look at our stories and reflect on how our path towards college has been a fight for justice.

Timothy is a senior at Crenshaw High School. He grew up in a single parent household, and at times his family was homeless, trying to make ends meet. His mother always taught him that education would be the key to his success. But unfortunately, he failed his Algebra 1 class in the 9th grade. When he received his 10th grade schedule, his counselor placed him in geometry with no plan to retake Algebra 1.

Instead of giving him an A-G course, his counselor placed him in Choir, for the second year in the row. An elective course, he did not need.

Luckily for Timothy, he went to the Community Coalition’s after-school program, where he received one-on-one academic counseling. With a counselor, he created a personalized action plan to ensure that he could pass his “A-G” courses. Once he retook his failed course, he received the extra tutoring and coaching to pass.

These are the types of supports we need to see in our schools. Timothy is now on the path to college. But his story is not unique. Timothy’s story teaches us that when we are given the right support, we can succeed.

It’s not fair to say that we are failing to pass these courses. It’s that our schools are failing to prepare us to succeed in them. It’s time that the district takes another bold step by investing in our schools, by providing the resources to pass “A-G” classes. 

We believe the “Equity is Justice Resolution” that was passed last year goes hand-in-hand with this new resolution because it directs more resources to the highest need schools. And it’s in the highest need schools where students are struggling the most to become college-ready graduates.

Tomorrow, we expect a unanimous vote. We need the district leadership to know, that college-readiness is a priority for Los Angles Unified. Our future is at stake. We need adults to believe in us again, and it starts with leadership. 

Thank you to board member Monica Garcia and board member Steve Zimmer for your support and for taking action on our needs.

We call on board members McKenna, Galatzan, Ratliff, Kayser and Vladovic to believe in our potential and vote yes. We will be there with hundreds of our peers, parents and community allies in support. We refuse to wait another decade.

With hope,

Erika Gonzalez, 12th Grader at Fremont High

Christian Moton, 12th Grader at Dorsey High

Timothy Walker, 12th Grader at Crenshaw High

Jathan Melendez, 11th Grader at Manual High