Amanda Arvizo: Student Finds Success with Helping Hands

A year ago, Amanda Arvizo was a senior at Banning High within the International Trade Education Program (ITEP) Global Safety and Security Academy. Her grades were slipping, college was about the furthest thing from her mind, and it seemed she had nowhere to turn for help. Forced to leave her home, she has lived in five places in the past 12 months, but thanks to a support network pulled together from Banning, ITEP, the College of Business Administration and Public Policy (CBAPP) at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and the Port of Los Angeles, she is now into her second semester at the university with a very clear goal in front of her: become the first in her family to graduate from college. Her story is proof positive of what a network of caring individuals can do when coupled together with a healthy dose of individual persistence.

Trouble at home forced Arvizo to move out in December 2007. She spent the first few months crashing at a friend’s house. But she was then forced to move again when her friend and dad began to disagree, casting Arvizo out once more. She bounced around from couch to couch. Battling with being on her own, she was missing lots of school and her grades reflected her diverted attention. Eventually, one of her teachers pulled her aside, noticing her different demeanor, and urged her to go see Christy Sinazzo, the school’s social worker. After Arvizo told Sinazzo her situation, Sinazzo began working tirelessly to help Arvizo. Yet, there was only so much Sinazzo could do; eventually the social worker called Carol Rowen, ITEP CEO and CBAPP Advisory Board member.

“She was a big deal to us in high school,” says Arvizo of Rowen. “So I was really surprised when she personally called me. And then she kept calling. She sincerely cared.”

Beyond calling Arvizo, Rowen picked up the phone to see what she could do to help this ITEP student in need. She called Jim Morgan and CSUDH alumnus Martin Chavez at the Port of Los Angeles to try to set up a job for Arvizo. Then she called CBAPP Dean Jim Strong to see what could be done to get her on the track to college.

The Port job was put in place – Arvizo started as a student worker in Morgan’s Construction and Management Division in the fall. Strong got the wheels turning at CSUDH, calling on the housing staff to get Arvizo a place to live in the dorms for the summer and fall. Associate Vice President Randy Zarn at CSUDH let her move in to the dorms even though she could not take classes because financial aid wouldn’t cover summer school. Strong then reached out to James Howard in the CSUDH Office of Financial Aid, who helped Arvizo navigate the financial aid process and get accepted to the university. Throughout this process, Sinazzo spent hours driving Arvizo to appointments and meetings to help solidify her standing with the university.

Arvizo insists Rowen was the driving force to get her where she is today, but Rowen demures. First, she credits Arvizo, and follows quickly, “Frankly, my job was to make the phone calls. Everyone else did the heavy lifting – the Dean, Jim [Morgan] and Martin [Chavez] at the Port. I would love to say it was Amanda in particular, but it’s a policy of this office. We want our students to succeed and if they hit a bump, we’re going to help if there’s any way we can,” says Rowen.

What kind of impact has this outpouring of help had on Arvizo herself? “The biggest lesson I’ve learned in this whole crazy year is that there really are people out there to help those who are willing to help themselves. I mean, people I didn’t even know were helping me out!” she says. “It all was like a trigger. It’s hard to fail when you have so many people pushing you to succeed.”

That success will come first and foremost by continuing to study hard. Graduating is Arvizo’s primary goal – one that for a young woman who had a hard time thinking a month out last year, let alone four years, is almost tangible. A criminal justice major, she hopes to then become a Port police officer. But for now, school and her part-time job at the Port is enough.

Arvizo is no extrovert. As Rowen jokes, “she takes my calls and for that I’m grateful, but she doesn’t say much.” Yet for this quiet 19-year-old, a touch of personal pride eventually comes through after describing her volatile year.

“I guess I have to say that I am proud of myself too. At my weakest point, I asked for help and a lot of people aren’t able to do that,” she says. “And asking not only helped me get where I am today, it showed me how many people helped me get here. I will never forget what they’ve done.”

- Ryan Brandt, reprinted from The Report