A Case Study for Brighter Futures
When Erin Simmons returns to her home in East Oakland on college breaks from Southern California, she texts old friends, family members, and a special mentor – Selena Wilson, the CEO of the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC).
“It’s nice to have that special connection with someone who’s seen you grow up and to know they appreciate who you are and what you’re doing,” Simmons said recently during her summer break. “It’s a motivator for me to keep going.”
Simmons, now 21, grew up around the corner from Eastmont Mall in deep East Oakland. Her childhood home is located in the “40x40” a 40-by-40 block area in the city’s flatlands, where residents experience the greatest socio-economic disparities, according to U.S. Census data.
Rise East, a collaborative effort guided by a 10-year plan to revitalize the 40x40, would dramatically increase investments into deep East Oakland and support well-established organizations like EOYDC, whose mission is to “nurture the holistic development of youth from kindergarten into adulthood so that they can live a life of prosperity, integrity, and purpose” – youth like Erin Simmons.
“EOYDC showed me that I can be from Oakland and not be involved in those other things,” she said. “It showed me the world is a lot bigger.”
Simmons said her youth in East Oakland captured “the traditional Black experience,” where she was raised by a hard-working family along with her three younger brothers, Erik, Elijah and Chase. She was the first one dropped off at school and the last one picked up, she recalled. Her mother, Chanita, was in constant motion to keep up with the responsibilities of raising a family.
At age 14, Erin enrolled as an intern at EOYDC, mostly helping with youth development programs during the summer. She graduated to “youth leader” and quickly added “youth instructor” and “youth coordinator” to her titles, but it was a free class she took at EOYDC when she was 16 that sparked a passion – and a purpose. As a part of her internship, Erin was enrolled into the “Pathway to College” program, which she expected would be a weekly study group for the SAT, a test most colleges require for admittance.
But Erin’s instructor began by sharing some daunting statistics about Oakland’s youth and their college-readiness. To enter college, high school students must complete their “A-G Requirements,” a series of courses that show they are ready to take college-level courses.
In Oakland, less than 50% of Black and Brown high school students complete their A-G Requirements before graduating. Said another way, less than half of Oakland’s Black and Brown students are college-egibile when they graduate high school – and Erin’s instructor showed a list of Oakland’s lowest performing schools, where as low as 20% of students are college-ready.
“Seeing that list was frustrating to me because I had friends and family at those schools,” Simmons said. “And I know they deserved a better education than what they were getting.”
From that moment on, Simmons felt the spark to improve education policies and became an “A-G/ college accessibility advocate” – determined to improve a system that had failed too many of her peers, and had contributed to the cycle of disparities she witnessed in her neighborhood. In 2021, with the COVID pandemic still peaking, Simmons graduated from high school, and was accepted into Chapman University, where she now double-majors in psychology and educational studies.
After she returned home to Oakland one summer, she earned a fellowship at Roots Community Health as a Behavioral Health Fellow, working with residents who were trying to overcome addiction to drugs and alcohol and better manage tough emotions.
As she nears the end of her undergraduate degree, she already has her eye on graduate school.
“I look back and growing up in Oakland there’s a lot to get distracted by, and you see a lot of people who get steered in the wrong direction,” Simmons said. “But my grades saved me. And EOYDC was the support system that helped me.”
