Genesis of a Dream : As 6th-graders, they were offered college money if they stayed in school. Where are they now? : ‘As You Get Older, You Want to Be Somebody’

Name: William Sandoval

Age: 16

School: Verbum Dei

Goal: College. Work in job where he helps people.

William is earning straight A’s with a no-frills class load: Algebra II, Spanish II, biology, American literature, U.S. history and religion.

That puts him right on schedule. William, who lives in South Gate, says he’s already been thinking for several years about college and a better life after graduation.

Why did he start so early?

“First of all, I see myself as Hispanic. Hispanics are minorities. That’s a big thing. (Also,) I don’t want to stay around (this neighborhood). . . . I want to live in a nicer place. A safer place. And come back and help my friends and family. . . . “

He says prompting by his parents, Salvadoran immigrants who reached only the ninth grade, was more important than the I Have a Dream program in motivating him to work toward college.

“In sixth grade I didn’t think much about college,” he says. “As you get older you start to . . . want to be somebody. You start looking into the future to see what you could do now that would help when you finish school.”

Although he’s only a junior, William has visited UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and Loyola Marymount. But, he says, he will probably attend college in another state to gain experience.

William says he’s so comfortable with his studies that he doesn’t need the tutoring offered by the Dream program.

The Verbum Dei faculty agrees. “I respect him quite a bit,” says vice principal Ernie Chavez. “He’s been on honor roll and dean’s list every year since he’s been here in ninth grade.

“He was mature to begin with. But you could see that maturity growing in the way he’s able to respond to people, for example. He can speak in front of a crowd very comfortably now. You can (also) see more confidence in him. The way he carries himself. The way he’s willing to take on responsibilities.”

William says becoming goal-oriented is one reason he has bettered the C-plus average he carried at South Gate Junior High School.

The other reason is the individual attention he gets at Verbum Dei, a small Watts parochial school he attends on a scholarship arranged by the Dream foundation.

William doesn’t spend all his time studying. He’s vice president of the junior class, plays soccer and would like to play baseball.

“If I wanted to go to college, my parents would have tried hard,” says William of his mother, a part-time factory worker, and his father, a carpenter, who arrived in the United States in 1973. “But money-wise, it would have been tough.”

He awards the Dream foundation high marks for providing money for students like him: “For me it was like a miracle.”