Incentive Plan Is Paying Off : Promise of Financial Aid Places Students on Path to College

It began in 1990 with a challenge from the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers to sixth-graders at the school that bears the O’Melveny family name: Graduate from high school with good grades, and we’ll guarantee you $12,000 for college.

Like any other kid at O’Melveny Elementary School, Jenny Jimenez could barely picture high school, much less begin making college plans.

But six years later, Jenny and her fellow O’Melveny scholars are high school seniors, preparing to apply to colleges and grateful to have been chosen for the privately funded scholarship program--the largest of its kind in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The scholarship has given her goals: to stay in school and push herself to get good grades. None of that came easily for Jenny, 17, the oldest of four girls and the first in her family to even consider college.

“Without the scholarship . . . I would’ve just settled for any grade . . . and that wouldn’t have gotten me very far,” she said. “It makes you want to keep on going.”

Attorneys at O’Melveny & Myers established the scholarship program as an incentive to students in this largely blue-collar Latino city to stay in school and ultimately go to college. The law firm had already been assisting the school, which is named for Henry O’Melveny, father of the founder of the prestigious law firm.

Since beginning the program, the firm has pledged $852,000 in scholarships to 71 students who attended O’Melveny Elementary. Most were chosen as sixth-graders on the basis of an essay contest, but some were awarded scholarships as high school seniors.

To be eligible, students must finish high school with grades qualifying them for the Cal State University system, which requires at least a 2.0 grade-point average. For many children and their parents who have never had a family member attend college, the program has created opportunities almost beyond imagining.

“Before we started the program, most of the children didn’t see college as an option because they didn’t have the finances and they didn’t have the knowledge,” said Lurline “Lucky” Hemphill, principal of O’Melveny. “Now, I’m seeing an awareness that college is a possibility.”

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But the program has also been a lesson in the limits of good intentions, teaching the lawyers that students face a variety of problems for which the scholarship is no panacea.

Of this year’s crop of eight scholars, for example, only five remain eligible. One teen dropped out; another has recently fallen out of touch with sponsors. And some kids are struggling to maintain Cs, the minimum average necessary to meet the scholarship requirements.

“Maybe we’ve all underestimated that this is clearly a positive influence on their lives, but it’s not necessarily enough,” said Dick Fisher, an attorney for O’Melveny & Myers and a mentor to one of the scholars.

“If they’ve got other problems, or family problems, it kind of depends on the kid and the family to deal with that,” he added. “The whole idea wasn’t to cherry-pick off the kids who were making it; it was to find them early enough so they could see themselves as making it.

“We were intentional in picking the kids who had promise. So when you do that, you’re taking more chances, and what you may hold out as the carrot may not necessarily make the difference.”

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The firm established a network of mentors who stayed in touch with the students as they progressed from elementary school through high school. The mentors were not intended to act as a big brother or sister, but more as a guide, explained Gordon Krischer, a partner at the firm and head of the scholarship program.

Krischer said the firm assumed that high school advisors and parents would give the students college counseling.

But students didn’t always seek help from school counselors, and parents weren’t always aware of how to coach their children for college. In addition, some students were jostled among so many mentors that they never really talked to anyone about their future.

Lisett Montes, one of this year’s scholars, had seen her mentor once a year, talked to her twice a year and occasionally received postcards from her. If she has questions about college or careers, she goes to her college advisor.

Ricky Coronado had so many mentors over the years that he was never able to get to know them. Only this year, after being assigned Fisher as his mentor, has Ricky spoken to a mentor at length. The Kennedy High School senior is interested in mortuary science.

He said he hopes he can get his lagging grades up to par to receive the scholarship and attend school next year.

Pedro Fuentes has been luckier. Krischer has been his mentor for six years and the two have developed a good relationship, with regular advice-filled phone calls and occasional outings and visits to Krischer’s office.

Pedro, 17, said he occasionally thought about college, but not as seriously as when he started high school and began hearing from Krischer about the advantages of a college degree.

Now a senior at Sylmar High School, Pedro is working to pull his C+ average up to a B to assure acceptance at either Cal State Northridge or Cal State Fullerton. “School is hard,” he said, “but I just gotta pay attention and do my work.”

Despite those few students who have fallen through the cracks, sponsors say the program has been a success. So far, four scholars have graduated from college, including one from Brown University, and nearly 20 students are enrolled in colleges ranging from CSUN and UCLA to Loyola Marymount and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

From the time Adrianna Guerrero was in the third grade, her parents have been drumming college into her head. But there was always the concern of how they would pay for it.

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“Once I got the scholarship, I knew that I had a greater chance to go on,” said Adrianna, 17, a senior at San Fernando High and the oldest of five children.

“I’ve seen the scholars go on to college, and I heard of one who went to a foreign university and it made me think I can do that too,” she said. “With [the scholarship] and financial aid and maybe a loan, I can afford it.”

With a solid B average and a handful of advanced-placement classes to her credit, Adrianna is applying for early admission to several universities in Illinois, a state she visited last summer and liked.

Krischer said he hopes more students go to out-of-state colleges for the added benefit of experiencing a different place. Most of the scholars are apprehensive about going far from home, with some students reluctant to even go as far as Orange County and San Diego.

For the moment, Krischer said, “if most of these kids attend and a good percentage of those finish college, I think that’s pretty good. That’s what we’re shooting for.”

For Jenny Jimenez, the goal is more personal.

“I just think about walking across the stage at college graduation and getting that diploma in my hand and knowing how proud my parents would be and how much this scholarship helped to make it all real.”