The Chula Vista Police Activities League annually raises money through donations and fund raisers to fund scholarships for at-risk students seeking a higher education at Southwestern College.
Throughout the years numerous students have been recipients of a CVPAL scholarship. Students like Chula Vista resident Francine Alba have put their scholarship to good use and is making the most out of her life.
But Alba, 23, says her life was headed in the wrong direction as a teenager, but the scholarship from CVPAL helped turn her life around because she realized going to college was attainable for someone like her.
The scholarship gave Alba a free ride to SWC where she received an Associate’s degree in Communications in 2013
“The reason why it helped me so much is because instead of worrying how I was going to pay for school, all I had to do is go to school,” she said.
Alba said she could not do it without the help CVPAL.
Alba grew up in a rough neighborhood in Los Angeles. When she was 10, her mother moved the family to Chula Vista in hopes of raising her five children in a better environment that was away from gang activity and high crime rates.
Initially Alba had no problem adjusting to life in Chula Vista. She made friends easily at school and maintained good grades as an elementary and junior high student.
Then came high school.
Alba’s mother got approved for low-income housing in Eastlake and moved the family to east Chula Vista. That’s when Alba’s struggles began.
Leaving the home to attend Eastlake High School every day became a struggle because she did not have the lifestyle that most of the Eastlake students had.
She did not have the name brand clothing like Hollister or Abercrombie.
The pressure of fitting in with the “upper class kids” and being bullied every day for not having the finer things lead her to hang out with the wrong crowd.
“Just to fit in I started being friends with people who were doing bad stuff,” she said.
Alba eventually started dabbling in drugs. She was always getting into fights with other girls, leading her to being suspended twice.
She said she hit bottom when she got caught stealing a shirt at Wal-Mart.
Alba was not arrested for the crime. She said a Chula Vista police officer gave her a stern warning and lectured her about how she was going down the wrong road and how he wanted to see her change her path in life.
Recognizing that she needed a change, Alba pleaded with her mother to transfer her to Palomar High School, despite the school’s bad reputation as being the school where the bad kids go.
She said she wanted to attend Palomar because she felt she belonged. She did not have to go to school wearing the latest fashion trends instead she could just be herself.
“I felt like I belonged (at Palomar), and it’s not because bad kids went there but I feel like everyone there had their own unique story,” she said. “Those kids shared my struggle and at Eastlake I felt like I couldn’t fit in because those kids never struggled.”
At Palomar, where she belonged, she got back on the right track. Her grades were superior and she ultimately graduated a year earlier.
But when it came to decide her future away from high school that was a challenge.
A teacher recommended for Alba to attend college, but Alba thought that was immediately out of the picture because her family couldn’t even afford for her to attend SWC. The teacher convinced her to apply for scholarships, including one from CVPAL. After an extensive interview, CVPAL selected Alba as a scholarship recipient.
“That scholarship gave me encouragement,” she said. “It told me, ‘You know what? People are actually rooting for you. They gave me a lot of opportunities that a lot of people can’t get.”
Alba used the scholarship and completed her associate’s degree at SWC. However, her college education was not complete. She signed up for the U.S. Army Reserves to pay for school where she transferred to UC San Diego and became the first in her family to receive a bachelor’s degree.
Chula Vista Police Capt. Lon Turner, a member of the CVPAL board, said the scholarship program was created for people like Alba.
“Obviously the fact that she is a scholarship recipient and she has gone on to turn her life around and became a success certainly fills us with joy and pride,” Turner said. “That’s the whole reason why we started this scholarship program was to help kids who are off track.”
