Bertha Campos, age 23 Alumni of LACC’s Young Adult Corps program and Russell Kantor Scholarship Recipient
I wanted to be a part of LACC because I was a high school drop out and had no kind of job training. During my experience here, I got the chance to try many specialist positions. Since I’ve been here, I learned that in order for you to succeed in life you need to further your education. I always wanted to go back to school, and as of May 2005 I enrolled in college. It wasn’t easy to do, since I had to leave my 18-month old daughter at my mom’s house every day I go to school.
I also have no car, so I take the bus to work from 6AM to 2:30PM, and then again to attend school from 6PM to 10PM. This means I pick my daughter up at 11PM from my mother’s house. But when, after only one semester, I received my first 4.0 GPA it made me understand that it is up to me to do well in school. I've now completed my freshman year and have not only maintained my grades, but was recently elected Chair of the Criminal Justice Club. When I made my speech on why they should vote for me as their chairperson, I spoke about LACC and how I already worked with at-risk young adults trying to better themselves. I told my peers that if I was elected, I would always make it a team effort any time we made changes to any of our projects. I won the election by a landslide. Now I am obtaining my BA degree in Criminal Justice Science. I plan on going to Law School to become a Defense Lawyer. LACC prepared me professionally in many ways. I grew and learned along the way how to always do your best on what ever position you are in.