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Speaker: OTAN-- Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

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Angeline Guzman: My name is Angeline Guzman. I grew up in Wilmington, California, and I went to school until the third grade. Third grade, I dropped out. I dropped out because I had a mother that was an alcoholic.

Janis Gevirtzman: She told me about how she protected her siblings.

Angeline Guzman: And I had to stay home and take care of them, make sure they were going to school. And it was pretty tough growing up with her. And every year, after the third grade, we would get a letter saying that I passed from grade. It went on until pretty much I was 17.

Robert Guzman: She was 18. I was like 22 or 23 years old. And I fell in love with her the minute I saw her.

Angeline Guzman: We started going out for a year. Then I got married, and I have three beautiful kids. My husband, he's a great dad. He's such a great dad. He loves his kids. And he comes from a good family.

Robert Guzman: Our son, being born disabled, dealing with him for 19-plus years in and out of the hospitals.

Angeline Guzman: So I would do my son's care. G-tube fed, suctioning, changing him, bathing him, picking him up, everything.

Robert Guzman: We managed to get through it, obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. But we're still here. We're still going strong.

Angeline Guzman: My first class was with Ms. Gevirtzman. I walked in, and I don't know. I didn't know what she was talking about.

Janis Gevirtzman: I knew if I didn't say something or confront the issue, that she was just going to run out of my classroom. So I let her know that she's safe with me.

Angeline Guzman: That's where everything began. I felt really good every day coming to school, trying not to miss-- not one day, unless it's necessary.

Janis Gevirtzman: She just fit in because she was so willing to do the work, and she had so much enthusiasm.

Angeline Guzman: She taught me how to use a dictionary, how to use the words, put them together, how to put an essay together. That, I have never.

Robert Guzman: As it progressed, now, she didn't need me as much anymore. Now, I'd walk in and she'd be reading her book and writing essays and doing this. So it's been a big change.

Angeline Guzman: Those skills, I gained skills, and I feel really good, very confident. I feel more confident now.

Deanna Gross: I woke up very early to an email that she had sent me in the middle of the night saying--

Angeline Guzman: That's it. I'm done. I'm giving up. It's too hard. I can't do this.

Deanna Gross: I immediately texted our counselor at the school here, Mr Chavarria, and I said, I'm coming in early, be waiting for me. I got to talk to you.

Angeline Guzman: Next thing you know, Mr. Chavarria-- my phone was ringing, ringing and ringing and ringing. And, I mean, he wouldn't stop calling me.

Deanna Gross: My heart just leapt because it was like, all right, she didn't give up on herself.

Angeline Guzman: And after class was over, she says, you know what? I was going to go knock on your door. And that right there, when she said that, I said, she didn't give up on me. I believe in myself. My husband believes in me. But sometimes you need that little push. Norwalk-La Mirada has been great to me. They've been awesome. I don't have nothing bad to say about them.

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