MID-WILSHIRE : Youth Center Puts Focus on College

February will be College Focus Month at the P. F. Bresee Foundation, and many high school students who spend time at the youth center have set their sights on higher education.

“The way society is set up, if you don’t go to college you’re not going to go anywhere,” said Jarrett Jones, a sophomore at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies who is signing up for the program.

After a banquet Tuesday, the program will pair 15 to 25 students with volunteers who will help them fill out applications and financial aid forms and study for standardized SAT and ACT tests, said Lisa Harper, Bresee’s educational coordinator.

Fifteen students will be selected by the center’s staff to take a weeklong bus tour, beginning Feb. 27, of colleges in Northern California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The cost for the tour is $60. Students who participate in the program’s other activities, such as the banquet or the application and test-preparation workshops, will pay a reduced price, Harper said.

Francisco Calderon, a senior at Belmont High School, said he wants to become the first member of his family to attend a four-year school. The Bresee staff members “try to get you pumped up for college,” he said, and working with the volunteers “will be a great help to us.”

Financing a college education won’t be easy for most students. Many of the youths who participate in the center’s free daily activities come from low-income families in the Mid-Wilshire area and surrounding communities.

Jose Calderon (no relation to Francisco) said that after he and his family chip in what they can afford, “I’ll be praying for loans and for people to help me out.”

But Calderon, a Belmont High School junior who returned to school after dropping out, is determined to go to college: “I knew I wasn’t going to spend my life gangbanging. I knew there was some way out.”

The Bresee Foundation’s youth center is at 3401 W. 3rd St.

Information: (213) 387-2822.