Minority Students Learn a Lesson on Transition at Ojai Valley School : Classes: Four-day program helps urban youths from Los Angeles prepare for a shift from public to private education.

Oscar Cabrera is convinced that the chance to leave his urban public school and get a private education kept him off the street and out of gangs.

*

Now the 21-year-old UCLA graduate is helping run a four-day program at Ojai Valley School to help other minority students from Los Angeles follow the same path. Thirty-two urban youths will get a crash course in the academic rigors they can expect at exclusive prep schools back in the big city.

“If not for this program, I’m convinced that I would be a dropout, a gang member or dead,” Cabrera said Wednesday as he helped students settle in at the trimmed, grassy and tree-shaded Ojai Valley School campus.

“If I had stayed at home, I would have gone to Los Angeles High School. There’s too much violence, too many drugs and too many wrong paths to go,” he said. “I think this program opens up a very valuable opportunity to learn. I went through school, achieving a certain amount of success, and graduated from college. I hope to make a difference in my community. If I can do it, so can they.”

Ojai Valley School, a nonprofit private boarding and day school, donates its facilities for the orientation held by the Independent School Alliance for Minority Affairs. The Los Angeles organization recruits and provides assistance to academically talented minority students seeking access to private education.

On Wednesday, the students settled into dorms and went to the beach. But today, the real work begins--complete with homework--as they attend classes in English, math, science and study skills.

“I just came to get a taste of how hard it’s going to be to change from public school to private school,” said Miguel Lopez Jr., 12, a Torrance youth who will be attending Chadwick School on the Palos Verdes peninsula.

Unpacking their beach clothes in the room they will share until Saturday, Erin Liu, 12, of Brentwood, Ashley Atkins, 11, of Westchester, and Jaquita Green, 11, of Mount Washington discovered they will be entering Marlborough School together Sept. 5.

“I’m scared because I won’t know people. I’m so scared,” said Jaquita, a bubbly seventh-grader. “But mostly, I’m just excited. I think it’s going to be really fun.”

A private school veteran, Azizi Williams, 17, coped with uniforms, a heavy homework load and being one of the few African Americans when she entered Westridge School for Girls in Pasadena three years ago.

“I want to make sure these students know they don’t have to give up their heritage to fit in with the schools which are predominantly white,” said Azizi, a Westridge senior and one of eight counselors at the orientation. “There are major differences between private and public schools--the amount of work, the teachers are available if you need extra help and the extracurricular activities are richer. It’s great.”

Nationwide, minority students make up about 25% of students at independent private schools.

“I was so scared going in, but all of these doors have opened to me because of Windward,” said Brenda Chavez, 18, a counselor who graduated from Windward School in Mar Vista and will be attending Stanford University this fall.

“I want these kids to be prepared for private school and to know what to expect,” she said. “Instead of 40 students in a class, there are five to 10. They’re coming into an environment where many of the kids are better off and come from different neighborhoods. They have to have an open mind to experience the new environment. It’s a good experience.”