Beating the odds and making the grade

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- Somehow, amid daily eight-hour shifts minding a security

kiosk at the Balboa Bay Club, attending high school, doing homework,

taking care of two siblings and perfecting English -- not to mention

Monday night dates with a new girlfriend -- Raul Bejar was able to apply

to a half dozen colleges. And get into some good ones.

“He always worked so hard and wanted to be someone,” said his mother,

Rebeca Ambriz, in her native Spanish. “I didn’t have that opportunity.”

Bejar, 18, will enroll at UC Irvine in September. He was one of eight

seniors in the Save Our Youth Scholarship Program -- which rewards

students for good grades with money for college -- to be accepted to a

four-year university.

Volunteers tutor students each afternoon, take them on college tours,

help fill out applications, and once the letters come back, select a

school. Throughout the process, program organizer Kathy Ochoa keeps

constant communication with the students’ parents, who are mostly new

Latino immigrants.

“They tend to keep their children close,” Ochoa said. “Sometimes it’s

really hard for them to let them go and be independent. It’s very

different from the American tradition, where children leave once they’re

18.”

Bejar -- who moved to the U.S. from Michoacan, Mexico, 10 years ago -- is

the first in his family to go to college. He plans to study mechanical

engineering.

“I used to love to take things apart, like remote control cars,” said

Bejar, a square-shouldered, soft-spoken teen whose wispy mustache makes

him look only slightly older. “The only problem was I didn’t know how to

put them back together.”

“He’s a math whiz,” Ochoa said. “He helps out all the other students with

their math work.”

Bejar said he’ll keep living with his mother, brother and little sister

in their Baker Street home next year. And in order to pay for books,

tuition and dates with his girlfriend, he’ll keep opening the gate to the

parking lot at the Balboa Bay Club.

“Saving money has gotten a little harder recently,” Bejar admitted. “The

prom, Senior Night, the Winter Formal. You have to go to all the dances

and that adds up.”

BOX:

Here’s where the students were accepted:

* Patty Olmedo -- Cal State Fullerton

* Omar Navarette -- Cal State Northridge, Cal Poly Pomona, San Diego

State University

* Helen Flores -- Cal State Northridge, Cal State Fullerton

* Raul Bejar -- UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly

Pomona, Cal State Fullerton

* Claudia Flores -- UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside

* Alex Flores -- UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, San Diego

State

* Jose Sanches -- Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State

Northridge, Cal Poly Pomona

* Regin Vallejo -- Cal Poly San Luis Obispo