Home away from home

Rachel Pupiromrat is 17. Before coming across Boys Hope Girls Hope of Southern California, she had moved 20 times and attended a dozen schools. The teen had struggled at school.

But the Costa Mesa- based non- profit has transformed her life. Now, she’s been accepted to De Paul University, in Chicago.

“I’ve lived here all of my life, and I want something different and a fresh start,” Rachel said. “I want to meet new people, who haven’t grown up where I have grown up.”

Boys Hope Girls Hope of Southern California is a place where children can get an education and a chance at hope for better possibilities in life. The children there come from homeless shelters, and are identified by school counselors or from homes that cannot provide for them.

“We offer 24/7 service for the young adults,” said Executive Director Robin Sinclair. “We offer love, stability, security, care, and we’re a presence for the kids.”

Hope does not operate like foster homes and does not rely on government funding. Instead, boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 14 are accepted into the program and they live with full-time staff, who run the residence much like a home.

The teens stay there until they finish high school. The boys’ home is in Santa Ana and the girls’ home is in Fullerton.

“What sets us apart is these scholars come to us with promise, tremendous potential and willingness to learn,” Sinclair said.

And they are held to that expectation. The teens have to maintain a good grade-point average, and they must keep up with their assigned chores.

Each home has a capacity for six children, and each has four full-time employees.

In the girls’ home “we go through a lot of hair products, and there’s always something baking in the oven,” Sinclair said.

At dinner time, the homes’ occupants sit down to eat together like a family.

Although Hope is not a Catholic organization, Mater Dei High School, an all-boys school in Santa Ana, and Rosary High School, an all-girls school in Fullerton, offer full scholarship to Hope’s boys and girls, Sinclair said.

“We have incredible success stories because of the education they receive. These are well-known schools across the county,” Sinclair said. “We are very fortunate that these schools give us scholarship.”

Rachel is one of those success stories, Sinclair said.

Rachel, who became part of Hope in eighth grade, showed tremendous potential, but her report cards didn’t show it, Sinclair said.

When she first came to Hope, she didn’t care for the structured new life or about doing well at school. Rachel’s grade-point average in her freshman year was 1.7. She thought then it would only be a matter of time before she moved somewhere else again.

But something in her attitude shifted, along with her grades.

“Because my grades were so bad, they told me they’ll dismiss me,” Rachel said. “I had to step it up my sophomore year, and that changed my whole attitude, I respected people more, and my grades went up. My sophomore year, my GPA went up to 3.7.”

Rachel will graduate from Rosary in June. She’s looking forward to moving out of California and starting a new life in a big city. She wants to be an architect.

“Girls Hope is a really good place for those who don’t have the same opportunities as other people,” she said. “It’s hard at the beginning, but ... if you think about your future while being there, it’s really helpful.”