Alliance College-Ready Public Schools Foundation celebrates 20 years of helping scholars in Los Angeles to build the necessary skills to succeed through college and beyond. We shine the spotlight on just a few of our successful alumni who prove that the circumstances you begin with do not have the power to define your path. Meet Marquis, Marlen, and Martín, all proud college graduates creating a powerful future for themselves.
Fueling Foster Care Dreams
Marquis Williams overcame overwhelming odds to graduate from college. He spent his youth in the foster care system. There, he lived in 10 different homes and attended a dozen schools before joining Alliance in his junior year without even thinking of the possibility of college in his future. Marquis had a 1.9 GPA during his senior year at Alliance, but with the encouragement of his Alliance community, he began to see college as a possibility. While building his educational foundation, he worked with mentors to apply to colleges that could see the potential in scholars like him.
Without a solid educational history, most foster care youth do not have the support and skills in place to graduate from college. Foster youth have three times the dropout rate of other high schoolers, and only 3-4% of foster youth graduate with four-year degrees. Marquis beat the odds. Not only did he graduate from Alliance Judy Ivie Burton Technology High School, but he continued on to graduate from California State University Northridge. Marquis is now a successful Program Manager and published author. He wrote the book Beating the System: My Life in Foster Care about his journey to inspire other foster youth to dream big for themselves.
Passing All Expectations
Marlen Quintero Pérez praises the personal connection from her teachers at Alliance Collins Family College-Ready High School that empowered her to prepare for and apply to her dream school, UCLA. Once she was accepted, she didn’t stop until she was at the top; Marlen has her B.A., Master’s, and Ph.D. from UCLA. She blew past all statistical educational expectations for a woman of color graduating from an underserved community graduating with a PhD.
Alliance teachers made her feel comfortable asking for help and believing in the achievability of her dreams. Now, she is giving that personalized attention to the next generation of college students at California State University Northridge (CSUN) as an Assistant Professor in Child and Adolescent Development.
Leading in the Lab
Martín Alcaraz is not only the first in his family to go to college, he is also the first in his school’s history to be accepted to Stanford. Martín credits his teachers at Alliance Marc & Eva Stern Math and Science School (Stern MASS) with giving him a competitive foundation in STEM that prepared him for Stanford. After he completed all of the highest-level classes at Stern MASS, his teachers helped him enroll in Cal State LA’s Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra classes. There, he was stretched as a scholar and exposed to working scientific research labs far earlier than his peers.
Martín completed a two-year Cancer Biology Training Program at Yale and is back in Los Angeles, pursuing his PhD in Molecular Biology at UCLA. He is not only a success story of a Los Angeles scholar excelling in college and beyond, but he embodies pride in his identity, representing Alliance and our community in STEM labs across the country.
Transcending Historic Limitations
Alliance prepares scholars with the educational and life skills to succeed in college and beyond. Martín, Marquis, and Marlen’s stories prove that college success is more than possible for our Los Angeles scholars by learning to identify as lifelong learners and leaders. Through the support of Alliance educators who saw their potential and believed in the possibility of their dreams, these scholars are creating a legacy of possibility for all of the Alliance Scholars rising behind them.