PEOPLE : Determination and Scholarship Separate This Man From the Dropouts

Gangs almost got Jerry Orozco. Good sense and school saved him.

As a sophomore in Long Beach, Orozco stopped going to high school. Instead, he would hang out with his friends, “doing nothing and getting really bored,” he said. Orozco, 20, says those friends, who are gang members, “are all doing the same thing now that they were back then.”

But Orozco isn’t. Today, he lives in Huntington Park and is in his second year at a Los Angeles trade school, where he is working on an undergraduate degree in electronic engineering. He also works full time in a warehouse to help support his family.

The main differences between Orozco and his former friends are his determination to succeed and a full scholarship from the Herb Alpert Foundation, established by the band leader. Orozco won the scholarship because of his hard work and participation in a special dropout prevention program called Cities in Schools at Jordan High School in Long Beach.

Teachers in the program “show students they can be successful,” said Louis Zucker, program administrator at Jordan High. At first, Orozco needed a lot of showing.

“I didn’t go much to school in 10th and 11th grade,” he said, mostly because he felt out of place and uninterested. Even so, Orozco, whose family immigrated to the United States from Mexico, had learned the importance of education from his parents.

“They always said, ‘Stay in school; try your best.’ My older brothers never did. So I guess when I got older, I decided I better learn from their mistakes.” Children in the Orozco family range from age 10 to 23. Three of the five are high school dropouts, Orozco said.

“I got into the CIS program and started going regularly,” he said. “That’s when I realized I wanted to do something with my life after school.”

Cities in Schools teachers “treated us with more attention,” he said. “They took us to basketball games and Knott’s Berry Farm. They helped me see that I wanted to do more with my life than hang around with my friends. That was the first step.”

At the end of the year, Orozco applied for the Herb Alpert scholarship and was one of five accepted. “He’s the only one of the original five making it big,” Zucker said. “The others dropped out (of school.) It’s really very hard to make the transition from being a failure in high school to being a success in college. But Jerry’s different. Jerry will make it big.”

Orozco works eight hours a day at the warehouse, earning a little more than $200 a week before taxes, to help his mother, he said. He also goes to school four hours a day, leaving him no time for anything but work and studies.

“Before I started work, I had a B average,” he said. “Since I’ve been working, my grades went down. In my third year, I’m devoting myself to school so I don’t have any distractions. But right now, I need to work for my mom. She’s the sole support of the family.”

His father lost his job after an extended strike by his union. His mother, a machine operator, barely makes ends meet, he said.

“Seeing what’s happened to others and my brothers, I know I don’t want to just get by. I want to have a family and get what I never had. That’s why I’m sure I’ll finish school. If I didn’t have school, I’d probably never get more than the job I have now. Which isn’t much.”

Art Redfox was named this year’s “Business Person of the Year” by the Huntington Park Chamber of Commerce. Redfox, who owns Redfox Camera Center, was honored for his service to the city’s business community.

His volunteer efforts include helping with the Christmas parade, the local beauty pageant, Salvation Army, Boy Scouts and Rotary Club.

Louis Galindo of Pico Rivera has been elected president of the Rio Hondo Symphony Assn. Galindo is the first resident of Pico Rivera to hold the position. The community orchestra, sponsored by Whittier, Pico Rivera and Santa Fe Springs, Rio Hondo College, and individuals and businesses throughout the area, presents four free concerts each season in the Whittier High School auditorium.

The Women’s Council of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce recently installed new officers. They are: Christine Frumen, president; Colette Steele, vice president of programs; Mary Gorman, vice president of membership; Tammy Newland, vice president of communications; Sandi Lockhart, secretary, and Kathy Fishkin, treasurer.

Armin Zehtabchi was appointed coordinator of the minority business program at Cal State Long Beach extension services. The program plans to award scholarships to minority entrepreneurs, develop management courses for minority business owners and create a directory of local business services for the minority community.

The Long Beach Museum of Art has elected 12 new members to serve three-year terms on the museum’s foundation board of trustees. They are: Brad Balen, Sandy Blankenship, Michael Elmore, Doug Garland, Kweesook Garrison, Lovetta Kramer, Frank McNellis, Anne Munitz, Michael Murtaugh, Frani Ridder, Doris Robinson and Julia Takahashi.