Joaquin Saavedra MacCarthy Thin, grew up in Oakland California. Joaquin, having a Mexican/Vietnamese mom, and white dad, was an interesting upbringing. He felt that when you are young; you are impressionable, building principles, foundation, values, and perspectives. He was 12 when he went to an Art Middle School in Downtown Oakland. Kids used to tell [...]
Born and raised in Oakland, Aisha Scott knows the pitfalls leading to a judicial system difficult to escape. Aisha was a gifted child whose love of reading had her literally bumping into street poles; and as a student, rarely having homework as it was completed before leaving school each day. Around the age of ten [...]
What can touch us more profoundly than the stories our loved ones share with us? In the case of Crystrial Murphy, Christina speaks of the mental health crisis that turned her younger sister's life upside down, derailing the pursuit of her college education. Christina and Crystrial are multi-racial/cultural. Born in Berkeley to an African/Native American [...]
Imagine being born into a world full of love and joy. The family cradling you and telling you how beautiful you are. Telling you how happy they are that you are here. That was not the scenario Adelaida “Ady” Rios was born into. Though she was as precious as any other newborn, her arrival ushered [...]
Jean Black was raised in the East Bay cities of Oakland and San Leandro. From an early age she was aware of the imbalance of power between instructors and students. She realized the power educators had in supporting or derailing a student’s confidence and recalls encounters with teachers in the third grade leaving her with [...]
Tyler Bennett is a cis-gendered gay man and Berkeley City College (BCC) student transferring to UC Berkeley, Fall 2021, majoring in Social Welfare/Public Health. Tyler grew up in two northeast Ohio counties spending formative years at the edge of Appalachia and adolescence in a “football” town. His personal struggles throughout school provided the impetus for [...]
I'm always grateful for a lot of people who help and accompany me to get through the challenges in my life. As an international student who had mild autism during childhood, I can relate to people's feelings of suffering depression and mental stress. But thanks to my family and friends, especially my parents, who never [...]
A solid internship can be a major turning point for a student’s career journey. Shabana Ali, age 23, knows this well. She is grateful to have experienced that kind of internship at Alameda County Behavioral Health (ACBH) in summer 2019. “I really liked it because it was different than some of the other internships that [...]
An internship with Alameda County Behavioral Healthcare Services (ACBHCS) was more than a résumé boost. “It was a life-changing experience!” she said. In the summer of 2018, Monica was entering her senior year at Skyline High School in Oakland when she took on the five-week paid summer internship. She learned professional skills such as creating [...]
Elaine Peng is on a mission to help the Chinese community. “It’s time to get people to open up and talk about mental health,” says Peng, president of the Mental Health Association for Chinese Communities. Her passion for mental health advocacy comes from her own life. Peng was happily married, teaching Chinese, and raising her [...]
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