Who Have We Helped?
Yousef Fotovat
Yousef Fotovat, an Iranian native, moved to the United States when he was a Sophomore, with only minimal and basic English speaking skills. Because of this, he performed poorly in school, and many tasks that might have seemed “basic” to other students were much more difficult for Yousef. He soon realized that in order to be successful in life, he would have to push himself to overcome the language struggle and do well in school. Through practice, Yousef did just that, and after the first year of school in the United States, his English skills improved and there was no longer a decisive language gap and Yousef was able to successfully compete in his classes and boost his knowledge and credibility. Now, having graduated from Calabasas High School with the class of 2018, he will attend Pierce College in the fall of 2018. Yousef hopes to study business after transferring from Pierce to a University and have a successful career in the field. We hope that our contribution to Yousef will inspire other students to reach out to us in order to make sure they receive the help they need.
Suraj Srivats
Suraj Srivats hails from a middle-class family of Asian immigrants, which may not seem like a very unique background, but everyone has their hardships. Unlike many of her fellow students and companions, Suraj has dedicated much of his time and effort to benefit those who deserve it the most, the elderly. What started as a passion for music turned into a desire to share it with those who would appreciate it more. This ideology was turned into a reality when Suraj created the club at Calabasas High School “A Harmonic Remedy,” focused on providing musical therapy to the elderly as a form of comfort. As the club grew in size, more and more students contributed to the club as a whole, and it eventually became registered as a non-profit organization and expanded to multiple schools with multiple branches. Suraj’s efforts in school, as well as his academic intelligence, honestly, and superiority allowed him to succeed as a student and graduated Calabasas High School in the class of 2018. Suraj was accepted into Dartmouth College and will be a member of the 2022 graduating class.
Mackenzie Eddy
Homeschooled all her life until 9th grade, Mackenzie Eddy started her freshman year with enough troubles on her plate already. Coupled with the stress of starting high school, as well as the social side of life, Mackenzie’s life was hard. But, when her dad lost his job, that was the final nail in the coffin. The whole situation brought more stress to Mackenzie, her grades fell and her stress levels shot up, but instead of falling apart, she used this experience to mature and become stronger. Using this newfound strength, Mackenzie was able to bring her grades up and become a successful student and person overall during her years in high school, with greatly improved time management skills. Due to her superior skills and the great lengths of time spent improving her grades and time management skills, Mackenzie will attend the Illinois Institute of Technology in the fall of 2018 to study physics, which is just another challenge she can take advantage of to improve herself. The support we at Partners have given to Mackenzie gives her the chance to reach her goals even faster, and we aim to provide this to everyone. Since then Mackenzie Eddy has transferred from the Illinois Institute of Technology to the United States Air Force Academy.
Phillip Prince Te
Phillip Te was born from a family of first-generation immigrants who escaped from a war involving the Khmer Rouge communist regime. After moving to America, most of Phillips siblings did not receive a proper education. Philip grew up in a low-income community where a few residents did not even graduate from high school. Philip witnessed firsthand the consequences of educational disparity. His parents did not want to see their son attend local schools where a low-income community has developed a culture of unmotivated students and dispassionate teachers. Instead, Philip Te took advantage of all the opportunities he had access to commuting over an hour to play music at a top high school. Philip Te never let anything stop him from achieving his dream of attending the University of California at Irvine.
Sindhu Srivats
One in 10,000. The chances of being born with Stage III Microtia, an underdeveloped external ear, were minuscule. As an elementary school student with a heavy speech impediment, Sindhu was instantly made a target for other students to pick on. Having this condition led to speech problems, an asymmetric face, and a deformed ear, resulting in much harassment from her classmates. Sindhu’s parents were contacted by the school’s speech pathologist shortly after enrolling me, which didn’t help my self-confidence at that young age.
As an extremely active child, she despised being pulled out of P.E. each week only to sit in a room surrounded by light blue walls and told to read out the same words she had been reading for months. Days turned into weeks, which turned into months, and soon many years had passed by. She underwent one hospitalized surgery and two surgeries as an outpatient as part of my rib cartilage ear reconstruction process. Instead of feeling bad for herself she decided to make a change, she refused to miss more fun activities and class time for speech. Two years later, after being told she could possibly graduate from this dreaded program prior to entering high school, my spirits finally picked up. She worked harder than ever that year, constantly standing in front of my mirror, repeating the same words until she mastered them. Finally in 2019 Sindhu got her chance to pursue it further. she met with highly accredited doctors globally and has started her own research under the world-renowned Dr. John Reinisch (Dartmouth alumnus), the main developer of the innovative Medpor ear reconstruction technique instead of the regular rib-cartilage option.
Her mindset over the past few years has gone from doubting myself to believing that she can accomplish anything she set her mind to. While she continues to face hardships, pushing past her personal hardships has led her decision to attend California Polytechnic State University.