{"id":16910,"date":"2026-06-22T14:32:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=16910"},"modified":"2026-06-22T14:32:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:32:04","slug":"single-father-rebuilds-his-life-with-help-from-rising-scholars-at-santiago-canyon-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=16910","title":{"rendered":"Single father rebuilds his life with help from Rising Scholars at Santiago Canyon College"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When Alex Martinez made his way across the Santiago Canyon College campus about a year ago, he had no idea the trajectory of his life was about to take a radical turn.<\/p>\n

Read more Supreme Court reinstates murder conviction in case of Etan Patz, missing New York City boy<\/a><\/p>\n

Martinez arrived out of sheer desperation, hoping to enroll in classes after being injured and unable to work at his physically demanding job. But the enrollment process overwhelmed him, and discouragement set in almost immediately.<\/p>\n

Martinez, 45, scanned the campus. A single dad who had spent much of his life incarcerated, he felt out of place among students half his age. His arms and legs were covered in tattoos \u2014 a visible reminder of the life he was trying to leave behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was already going to give up,\u201d Martinez recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do, where to go. I didn\u2019t feel like I belonged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he ran into someone he knew from his past \u2014 a maintenance worker on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Oh, you need to head up to Rising Scholars,\u2019 \u201d Martinez said. \u201c \u2018They\u2019ll take care of you.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Designed to support formerly and currently incarcerated students, the Rising Scholars program provides dedicated staff, counselors, priority registration, peer mentoring, tutoring and career guidance. Nearly 100 California community colleges now offer Rising Scholars services.<\/p>\n

At SCC, the program grew out of work the college began in 2016 inside Orange County jails, said Albert Alvano, professor and counselor in the Division of Continuing Education and director of SCC\u2019s Rising Scholars program. That outreach led to the creation of an on-campus program in 2018, originally called Project Rise.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Today, Rising Scholars at SCC serves more than 100 active students, up from about 30 to 35 when the program became official in 2022.<\/p>\n

Alvano, who helped launch the program, remembered the day Martinez walked in with his two sons.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came onto our SCC campus not really having a plan,\u201d Alvano said. \u201cHe was getting ready to leave \u2026 a little bit overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez grew up in Santa Ana in what he openly describes as an abusive and chaotic home. His father was a drug dealer, and Martinez was often pulled into that world. He remembers being sent to deliver packages and knowing exactly what was inside.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

He also endured physical abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to have to jump in for my mom and take the beatings so he could leave my mom alone,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

By his teens, Martinez was selling drugs, fighting at school and drifting toward the gang lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Read more Staggering amounts of fentanyl hit streets as the DEA watched and took no action, records show<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to belong somewhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He cycled through Juvenile Hall, county jail and eventually state prison, serving \u201cthree or four years at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

His life began to shift when he became a father, having two boys born back-to-back, and for the first time, he felt a responsibility larger than himself. When the boys\u2019 mother left, he suddenly found himself raising them alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I said, \u2018I\u2019m going to focus on raising my kids and doing good.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

He worked moving jobs, stayed out of trouble and tried to build a stable life. But when he tore his quad during the pandemic, everything collapsed. Unable to work, he turned to social services for help \u2014 and someone suggested school.<\/p>\n

Enter Alvano and Rising Scholars.<\/p>\n

Martinez started with noncredit classes. At first, he didn\u2019t even know how to log on to a computer. Rising Scholars counselors sat with him until he learned. Within months, he moved into credit classes. Then he enrolled full time.<\/p>\n

Today, he takes 16 units, arrives early each morning to study and stays after class to finish assignments before picking up his sons from school.<\/p>\n

He volunteers at his sons\u2019 school, coaching soccer and football, and stays after school with kids whose parents can\u2019t pick them up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s making the right changes in his life,\u201d Alvano said. \u201cSomeone who is committed now. And it\u2019s about his kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez mentors youth, showing them his scars and his blind right eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re still young,\u201d he tells them. \u201cYou can bounce back before you end up like me, trying to catch up at 45.\u201d<\/p>\n

He plans to earn a degree in human services and become a drug and gang counselor in Santa Ana. His dream is to work with programs such as Project Kinship, a nonprofit run by men he once knew from the system that supports individuals impacted by incarceration, gangs and violence.<\/p>\n

He imagines picking up kids from the barrios, taking them hiking, getting them into sports and showing them a different life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the way I\u2019m going \u2026 I\u2019m getting A\u2019s now,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI\u2019m happy. I got my little boys, and I\u2019m free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more FACT FOCUS: Netanyahu\u2019s claims about Iran\u2019s nuclear program run counter to public evidence<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ater years in and out of prison, Alex Martinez plans to counsel youth involved with drugs and gangs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSingle father rebuilds his life with help from Rising Scholars at Santiago Canyon College - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=16910\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Single father rebuilds his life with help from Rising Scholars at Santiago Canyon College - 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