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BRIGHT FUTURES
BigDreams CSUF’S NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED GUARDIAN SCHOLARS PROGRAM GUIDES FORMER FOSTER YOUTH TO SUCCESS
Story by Cathi Douglas ’80 / Images by Matt Gush ’12
arlos Zelaya has big dreams. Now entering his senior year, Zelaya wants to be a college sociology professor someday after spending time working in student services. But his future didn’t always look so bright. To say that he had a rocky start would be an understatement. Zelaya lived in foster care from age 8 to 13, missed much of high school and was emancipated even before he was 18. At one point, his mother and stepfather sent him to a rehabilitation center in Mexico – though he had no history of drug or alcohol use – where he lost nearly two years of his life. He swiped his birth certificate, escaped and got a ride to the border, hitchhiking and riding buses back to Orange County. u
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TITAN
I WINTER 2014