Olympic High School seniors graduate today
OCEAN PARK One of the lost kids of Santa Monica High School, Jennifer Garcia will proudly walk to the tune of “Pomp and Circumstance,” reflecting on a journey that has seen her go from a student in danger of not graduating to taking the stage with the rest of her class to recieve a diploma.
She is among the group of seniors graduating from the district’s only continuation school — Olympic High, a place with a bad reputation amongst students at Samohi.
Many of the seniors graduating tonight ended up at Olympic for the same reasons, whether it be falling behind in credits or getting into trouble. But every student at Olympic has a different story behind how they lost focus and their faith in education.
“Some students do well as being a big fish in a small pond,” said Marcia Gecht, a criminal justice teacher at Olympic High School. “But some do better in a nurturing environment.”
Cesar Berben was a junior at Santa Monica High School in 2005 when racial tension erupted between the African- American and Latino students. A Latino himself, Berben said he became angry at the relations between the two racial groups, disillusioned and started ditching classes to avoid facing the situation.
“I wanted to leave,” Berben said.“It’s a lot of BS and I didn’t want to deal with it.”
He slowly started falling behind in his credits, failing English and science classes. Concerned, Berben’s mother took action, enrolling her son at Olympic High School.
Transferring wasn’t something that Berben welcomed, hearing stories from his friends of fights breaking out everyday at Olympic High School and of students getting beat up in the hallway. Upon starting Olympic, Berben realized the stories might have been a bit embellished.
It was around the middle of last year when things finally clicked for Berben. He was sitting in his class and looked around, seeing his peers in a new light, some whom he described as “not going anywhere.”
“I didn’t want to be like that,” he said. The focus once lost has returned with the help of his teachers. With a little mentoring, Berben began excelling in his studies.
Yet, near end of his senior year, Berben was still short of the 220 units required to graduate from high school. Though he walked in the graduation ceremony in June 2006, Berben still had to continue taking extra classes this year in order to attain his diploma.
Now with 270 total units, Berben is ready to move on to post-secondary studies and a possible career in filmmaking.
This summer, Berben plans to participate in the Inner-City Filmmakers Summer Program at the University of Southern California, learning first-hand the different aspects of filmmaking, from screenwriting to directing.
It took Berben two weeks to complete the application process for the summer program, which included an autobiography and a rough draft for a film storyline.
This fall, Berben plans to attend Santa Monica College, majoring in animation with the hopes of one day transferring to USC.
Looking at his own evolution, from a teenager angry at the system to an aspiring filmmaker, Berben credits his teachers with helping him regain focus.
“Back then, I thought I knew the world, but I didn’t,” Berben said. “When you go to one school and then another, you see stuff. It changes you.”
SECOND CHANCES Olympic’s Gecht was always amazed at Garcia’s initiative, asking for business cards whenever a law enforcement officer would come to speak to the class.
Little did she know that Garcia was pondering a career in law enforcement.
It’s a long way from where Garcia was more than a year ago. A student in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School district growing up, Garcia and her family moved to Canoga Park when she was in middle school, attending Canoga Park High School until her sophomore year.
Because of issues at Canoga Park High, Garcia said she came to Santa Monica High School with little motivation and didn’t focus on her studies. She eventually fell short on her credits and during her junior year, Garcia was told by her counselor that Olympic was her only shot at graduating on time.
She wasn’t receptive to the idea of attending Olympic initially, a place she had known as having a bad reputation. But she quickly saw the benefits of attending a smaller school that offered her more individualized attention from teachers. The school also offered more elective courses than Samohi, such as yoga, Garcia said.
For Garcia, the class that really served as the turning point was criminal justice with Gecht.
She was intrigued by the field of law enforcement, her curiosity being fed through class visits by SMPD officers. It is because of the criminal justice class that Garcia is now considering becoming a police officer.
“At Samo, the teachers tell you how to do things,” said Garcia, who will attend SMC in the fall.“Here, it’s on you. It’s up to you how much work you get done.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 19, 2007. Read the original PDF.