[opening audio logo]

Narrator: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

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Melina Bezada: I, unfortunately, dropped out at 18. I didn't finish my high school. I did get married. Unfortunately, you know marriage was more important at that time and I wasn't able to continue my education. Unfortunately 13 years after my marriage, I got a divorce.

I didn't continue my high school, unfortunately, because all they offered there was a GED and to me having the high school diploma was super important. So when I left Mississippi, I arrived back to my roots, to Apple Valley. And I found Apple Valley Adult school.

Adele McClain: She is a single parent of two children. She had multiple struggles to get where she was and she really wanted to have a better life for herself, to make a better life for her children.

Melina Bezada: I was very nervous. I want everybody to know that it's not an easy step when you're an adult to go back to school because you have the world and you feel that everybody is judging you. But it's just you against yourself. And when you decide that you want to change and be super different for yourself first, so you can make a difference for your children, you have to begin somewhere.

Adele McClain: Additionally, she was a welfare-to-work mom. And we gave her an opportunity to volunteer those hours in our office because she had indicated that her long-term goal was to become a school employee.

Melina Bezada: I became a volunteer through welfare-to-work, excuse me. And my choices were volunteer or get a high school diploma. But I'm super determined. So I said, why not do both?

Adele McClain: As a welfare-to-work volunteer, she improved our program tremendously by the knowledge we gained from having someone that was an insider in multiple systems.

Micheal Wilkes: She needed help with some math. So we helped her with the math. And then upon her graduating, she wanted to get a job with the school District. So the school District requires you to take also a math and English test. I believe she took that test with the school District, probably like a total of like five times. And she just kept having little issues here and there.

And then now, currently, she is employed in the Apple Valley School District. So she eventually got the job. So that right there shows me that she's very driven, and any goals she set for herself, she's willing to go the full throttle way to try to get there.

Melina Bezada: I did get hired on by Apple Valley Unified School District. I'm so proud. I love being back home to my roots. So where I went to school-- [giggles] and finished. Thank you.

Claudia Escobar: Melina is going to see a student maybe having difficulties, just doing an application, Melina is the one that sits right there with that student. Goes step by step until the student fills out the application. And if she doesn't know something, she will find the help that person needs.

Adele McClain: Melina has been very instrumental in getting many students that would have otherwise quit or left our programs to come back into school, particularly with young mothers or people that felt like college and higher education or Technical programs weren't for them.

Melina Bezada: I'm also titled as a Resource Navigator. So I go around and provide our flyers and see what other services for the community there are. And that's how I just kind of recruit people. Let them know who we are, and what we're about, and who we want them to become just better people in our society.

Martha Mendez: That she has overcome many challenges and obstacles to be where she's at as a mother, as a student, as an employee. And so oftentimes, we only get to see one part of the person that we're working with. But in our experience with Melina, we've gotten to see all of those different aspects, which makes her that much more remarkable.

Adele McClain: She continually has supported her children in their academic endeavors. Both of them have maintained honorable status, and her eldest daughter is now in Chico State with multiple scholarships to support her journey as a marriage and family counselor.

Melina Bezada: I have been from a welfare recipient to a graduate, to a worker now, to entering college. So I've had a great journey through the journey of Melina.