Despite every disadvantage -- poverty, immigrant status, even gang affiliations -- public school children do make it through the system and attend college. But students with physical disabilities are less likely to do so.
For many youth in the under-resourced neighborhoods of Los Angeles, like other depressed areas in the nation, there aren't many ways out. Luckily, the nonprofit organization Fulfillment Fund helped show a young man named Christian Alvarado the way to fulfill his dreams.
Emigrating at the age of four from war-torn El Salvador with his father and older brothers, Christian was diagnosed with Type I diabetes just months after he arrived. By age nine, he was so visually impaired that he was placed in special education. Almost blind by middle school, Christian learned about the Fulfillment Fund and asked someone from the Braille Institute to help him complete the application.
By eighth grade, Christian was attending workshops where older Fulfillment Fund students -- some with disabilities -- shared their stories of struggles and successes. This gave him the hope that he too might one day attend college, though no one in his family had ever gone.
Powered by his belief in this goal, as a legally blind graduating middle school student, Christian asked to attend his neighborhood high school and be placed in mainstream classrooms. Once he passed a rigorous English class with a B, the administrators relented. In 11th grade, Christian met his Fulfillment Fund mentor, Tony, a successful lawyer who motivates and supports him both academically and emotionally. As 12th grade approached, Christian learned that he would not have the credits to graduate on time. He asked to stay another year to become college-eligible.
Christian then decided to run for student body president. He visited each homeroom, plastered posters everywhere, and brought an old-fashioned megaphone to school so everyone could hear him. Christian won by 200 votes.
Christian decided to run a marathon during his senior year. Marathon veterans told him that he would never make it by just training in his bedroom, running in place, but the Fulfillment Fund and the Latino and disability communities encouraged his dream. Tony cheered him on, and has continued this support through all nine marathons Christian has since run: seven in California, two in New York. This past year, Tony helped Christian acquire a tandem bicycle to ride with a friend and 24 other bikers for 540 miles from UC Berkeley to UCLA in support of the DREAM Act.
As his college counselor, I suggested in Christian's senior year that he apply to Marymount College, a private two-year institution offering the kind of support he had throughout his involvement with the Fulfillment Fund. Delivering his application directly to the admissions dean, Christian impressed her.
Despite doubts Christian's family had expressed about his prospects, Tony drove him to college and moved him into campus housing.
The first college term went well, but early the following year, Christian's brother was stabbed in a local nightclub and doctors put him on a respirator. Christian contacted the founder of the Fulfillment Fund, a noted physician, who helped him understand the gravity of his brother's situation.
When his brother died, Christian traveled to El Salvador to bury him. Having missed several weeks of school and feeling depressed on his return, Christian went to the college president. He also was having trouble getting his books and class materials transcribed in a timely fashion. The disabilities department sped up the process. In two and a half years, Christian graduated with his AA Degree.
For his community studies major, Christian is currently doing his field study at the Junior Blind of America and at his former middle school, inspiring young people to believe that they, too, can fulfill their academic dreams. His plan is to pursue a graduate degree in education, focusing on visually impaired students. Christian hopes to become a spokesperson, someone who can inspire young people with disabilities to get educated, so they can become valuable contributors to their own communities.
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