Alfred Pérez: One Man’s Triumph

Alfred Pérez was the surprise speaker at Tuesday morning’s breakfast session. He shared his personal story of triumph over difficult odds, which inspired everyone to strive a bit harder to reach every child through their work.

Pérez grew up in the California foster care system. Being placed in 14 different “homes” and centers in 11 years, he became adept at moving with all of his worldly possessions in a plastic garbage bag. One day, while he was sitting in a high school class, the police appeared at the door. He knew all too well that they were there to take him, yet again, to a new placement — this time to a foster care center.

When he appeared at the principal’s office, he was astonished to see that his principal and two counselors refused to let them take him. Eventually, the judge who had signed the order appeared at the school. The principal explained that Pérez was thriving at his school, and he did not want him taken out of it. It was agreed that he would move to the center, but he could continue to attend Middle College High School if the principal and teachers provided Pérez’s transportation to and from school. He completed his homework at school each day, and he spent holidays with teachers and their families. For the first time, Pérez experienced someone truly advocating for him, and his high school provided the first real stability and lasting structured environment he had ever known.

MCHS was located on the campus of Contra Costa College, and Pérez was able to take college courses and earn college units through concurrent enrollment. He worked hard, motivated by the desire to please those who had invested their faith in him. By the time he graduated from high school, he had earned a year of college credit, which allowed him to save thousands of dollars in loans.

Before he left high school, Pérez was required to attend the county’s Independent Living Program, which was intended to teach him how to live on his own when he was released from the foster care program at age 18. There he met a man of color who had been to college. This man, Timothy Hamp — the husband of Sandra Williams-Hamp, senior director for K-12 in the College Board’s Western Regional Office — was the first real role model Pérez remembers having, and he became Pérez’s mentor. When Pérez went off to San Jose State University, a four-year college hundreds of miles away, he said that Hamp drove him and even stayed for a few days, showing him around campus and helping him get oriented, just as
any parent would.

College life was strange at first, because this was his first exposure to a predominantly white, middle-class culture. He felt a bit intimidated and afraid of losing his true identity while trying to adapt to his new environment, but he soon realized that he was every bit as smart as the other students and better prepared than most.

While in his first year at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1999, Pérez was invited to speak at the White House when President Bill Clinton signed the Foster Care Independence Act into law, giving young adults greater support for the transition from foster care to independent living. After finishing his master of social work degree at Michigan, and working with organizations to reform the children's welfare program through federal funds and family courts, Pérez is now pursuing his doctorate at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, where he teaches at the Chapin Hall Center for Children. His research focuses on child welfare practice and policy and, more specifically, on how to help thousands more children in the foster care system beat the odds and succeed in higher education.

 

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