By the time Brenda Contreras arrived at her grandmother’s house, there were detectives crawling all over. Just moments before, there had been a gang-related drive-by shooting into the home. Contreras was thankful her grandmother was safe. But, she was also watching the detectives closely.
“From that day, that’s what I’ve wanted to do,” Contreras said. “No doubt about it.”
Contreras decided she would go to college to become a homicide detective. But, there were a couple of issues. She had a bad attitude about school and wasn’t sure she would be able to afford college.
That was two years ago. Since then, Contreras has turned her life around, and people have noticed. Her guidance counselor, Jama Hoffman, helped her submit an application for the Bailey Family Foundation Scholarship. The Simmons Career Center student won the $5,000 scholarship.
“I just want to be able to help people in my situation,” Contreras said.
Contreras’ parents are from Mexico originally. She has three other siblings but will be the first in her family to graduate high school and continue to college.
In middle school and high school, she acted up in class so much so that she got kicked out of Strawberry Crest High School after her sophomore year.
Contreras transitioned into a home-school student, but that didn’t work, either. On a vacation to Texas, Contreras purposely left her laptop at home, so she wouldn’t have had to do her schoolwork — much to her parents’ dismay.
Then, her cousin told her parents about Simmons Career Center. During Contreras’ first year, she didn’t feel like the teachers were there for her. She also missed a lot of school, because she wanted to work and make money rather than learn. But entering her senior year, she knew she decided she wanted to earn her high school diploma and not settle for a GED or drop out.
She was able to catch up 14 credits and plans to attend Hillsborough Community College in the fall.
“Brenda was working so hard and was ahead of the rest of the students, really motivated, so I called her in and gave her the scholarship as soon as I got the application,” Hoffman said. “She turned out to be the first student to finish all requirements for the 18-credit diploma option, so it was fitting that she receive the honor.”
The scholarship has never been offered to career centers before this year. Hoffman knew about the scholarship from working at Riverview High School. Historically, the scholarship is only available to students at traditional high schools. But, Simmons introduced a new 18-credit diploma option this year, which enrolled 70 students.
“Knowing the Bailey Foundation was focused on helping promote more access to secondary education, especially for low-income, first-generation college students, who had the potential to do well in college, I wrote the foundation and asked them to consider our school, telling them that almost every student we had in our 18-credit diploma option fit their qualifications,” Hoffman said. “It took a few months, but I eventually heard back, and not only did they offer the scholarship to our career center, but (also) to the other career centers in the county.”
The Bailey Family Foundation received 2,800 applications and will award nearly 500 scholarships for 2014-2015 college tuition.
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.