Sharing our Stories
After carefully reviewing 109 Rossmoor Scholarship Foundation (RSF) applications from six local high schools and two community colleges, RSF trustees interviewed applicants in late February 2024. As expected, trustees encountered some remarkable stories. Some made them smile, some made them gasp, and a few brought tears.
“Stuttering had severe negative impacts on my academic achievement, my social life, and my mental well-being,” wrote Deer Valley High School Senior Chima. Reading aloud was particularly difficult. “Spit it out,” his classmates sometimes taunted. Teachers often left him behind because he was “too slow.” His school even recommended he be placed in special education. “My parents were livid at the suggestion,” and fiercely resisted. But ten years of speech therapy ultimately paid off. In high school Chima deliberately chose activities “that required immense amounts of speaking.” He emceed rallies in front of thousands of kids and competed in debate, placing among the top three in one state competition. In college Chima will major in Political Science and Public Affairs at UCLA.
Chima
Ingridt
When she was six months old Ygnacio Valley High School senior Ingridt’s Mexican-born parents brought her to the US. They were determined she would get a good education, and as she negotiated the sometimes arcane American educational system (about which they knew little) they constantly reminded her about getting good grades. “I didn’t understand why my parents were so hard on me.” Then, at age twelve, they told her she was undocumented. Although that news shook her profoundly, she determined to push forward. “Because my parents put their lives on pause to bring me here for better opportunities, I will work as hard as I can to make the most of their sacrifices.” Because of her love of sports, Ingridt will become a Kinesiology major.
“This is it, prepare,” doctors told Loyrisha “Love” when they diagnosed her mother with stage-4 lung cancer in 2021. Besides caring for her own children and working full-time, for the next two years Love assumed care of her mother, took her twice a week for chemotherapy sessions and watched her suffer when she twice coded with near-death experiences. “Watching my mother passing … was extremely difficult,” she admitted, “but I used her memory as a motivator to continue forward with my goals.” After her mother’s death Love re-enrolled at Los Medanos College. “Now two years later I am positioned to graduate in May and transfer … and go after my dreams.” In the Fall Love will be a Business Administration major.
Loyrisha
Xinitli
When she was in third grade, Xintli was diagnosed with an audio/visual processing disorder and high-functioning anxiety. “Having a learning disability and mental health disorder not only made me feel helpless” during grade school, it also “caused a lot of insecurities that were hard to overcome.” And because she also had homecare responsibilities for her three younger siblings and was the daughter of immigrants, she had no one at home to turn to for advice on a higher education. But she pushed forward, and after high school enrolled at Diablo Valley College, where she “obtained amazing grades.” Her career goal? “I would like to be a high school counselor, a field that educates and nourishes young people’s minds, especially those who feel their goals are too out of reach.”
After evacuations were announced on the fifth day of the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Afghanistan, Adila’s mother managed to get herself and her daughters to the Kabul airport. While waiting in line, however, Adila fainted, and in the confusion that followed US soldiers separated her from her family and placed her on a plane. She landed in the US not knowing if anyone in her family made it out (they did not), not knowing English, or anyone in the country. She was initially placed in two foster shelters (more like “prisons,” she recounts) and subsequently two foster homes. Two years ago, however, she was moved to a very supportive Concord foster home and enrolled at Ygnacio Valley High School. While improving her English and taking classes, she also worked 20-25 hours a week, sending her earnings back to her mother and sisters, still in Afghanistan. It was because she wanted her daughters to get an education that Adila’s mother had taken them to the airport that fateful morning in 2021. Three months ago refugee agencies managed to bring her mother and sisters to Concord.
