Alumni

“How PACT impacted my life!!”

“I was not important to anyone.  No one valued my life, no one treated me special, and no one cared about me. My mother had a mental problem and my father was an alcoholic. From the age of 8 to 12 years old, I was responsible for my four younger brothers and sisters.  I would get up in the morning, give Tena a bath, get Tracy dressed, fix breakfast for everyone, take Tena to the baby sitter across the street, drop Tracy off at daycare about 10 blocks away then Phillip and I would go to Douglass Stone Elementary school.  This was my life until the age of 12 years old.”

“My brother, John, was arrested for selling drugs and my father got custody of him.  Phillip and I also went to live with my alcoholic father. My brother, John, was already living with my dad when Phillip and I joined him.  My father had a second wife, Ola.  She could not have kids.  She was not mean to us.  She was just another person who did not care about us.  Our own parents did not care, so why would she?  We would have one bowl of cereal for breakfast every day, we got free lunch at school, and for dinner, Ola would purchase 10 chicken wings.  Everyone got two chicken wings with vegetables and a starch.  She did the best she could with the resources she had.  We never had snacks. My father cheated on my stepmom repeatedly.  She was as much a victim as we were.  She did not have a job and was at the mercy of my father.  My father was a nasty drunk who did not like women. He did not hit my stepmom, but he brutalized her mentally.  I knew I wanted a different life and I knew education was my ticket out.  I worked hard in school, and I was determining not to have a bunch of kids like my mother.”  

“Ms. Henry, my 8^th grade counsel had filled out the paperwork for me to attend Lowell High School.  I had never heard of Lowell High School.  I was walking in the hallway at Everett Junior High and people were congratulating me for getting in Lowell.  I did not understand.  Later that day Ms. Henry called me into the office and gave me the paper work to attend Lowell High School.  My first encounter with PACT was my junior year at Lowell.  They were there to help students’ complete college admission paperwork.  I wanted to attend college, but I had no ideal how to apply.  They helped as many students as they could that day and then made appointments with other students.  A couple of days later I went to the PACT office on Hayes Street to complete my college admission process. Once I was in college, I made sure all my brothers and sisters attended college. I would take them to PACT during their junior year in high school.  Usually around September to complete their college admission applications.  Everyone has a degree except my sister, Tena.  I have a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from San Francisco State University and so does my brother, Phillip.  My brother Billy graduated from Williams and Mary College in Boston and then got a Law Degree from University of Washington.  My brother, John has an Engineering Degree from Laney College in Oakland and my sister, Tracy is a registered nurse.  Without the PACT program, I do not know what would have happened to us.  Thank God for this program.  It changed the lives of six kids that no cared about or knew how to navigate the educational system.”