HS Dropout Chooses Law School Over Gangs
Jose Orozco was trying to figure out how to make the jump at his local Jack in the Box from cashier to shift leader, all the while fending off the lure of local gangs, when a an ex-police officer recognized his potential.
Kevin LaChapelle, a former police officer and youth mentor, nurtured Orozco and convinced him to shoot higher than fast-food management, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
“I had that strong, strong feeling that this guy wanted to change,” LaChapelle tells the paper. “When I worked with gang members, we would have to beg them to change. Jose was different.”
Different indeed. Orozco, whose parents died of cancer when he was 8 and 13, is now president of the Student Bar Association at California Western School of Law in San Diego. He hopes to eventually practice as an employment lawyer.
Before Orozco could go to law school, he had yet another hurdle to overcome: citizenship.
He was in the U.S. illegally, even though his father was born in the states. In order to get citizenship status, Orozco, who was born in Tijuana, had to prove, over a seven-year process, that he qualified to obtain a legit Social Security card and an ID card.
See also, “An Unexpected Mentor Changes Orozco’s Career and Life Path”
