National Jurist - October 2008 - (Page 20) High school dropout to law student California Western School of Law student shares his story to show troubled kids in his community that success is attainable never thought I’d go to law school,” said Jose Orozco, a 3L at California Western School of Law. “It’s funny because sometimes I’m in class and I get those thoughts. These are really law professors and law students.” The former high school dropout is the first in his family to go to college and graduate. But it was a long road traveled for Orozco, leading up to the day where he By Michelle Weyenberg realized his purpose in life — impacting his community and giving people hope. Today he is the incoming Student Bar Association president and will soon be working at the federal defenders office in San Diego. Far from his early years where he got involved in some local gangs, and as he says, could be in prison or dead. He barely made it through junior high school and dropped out of high school because he wasn’t going to graduate on time and didn’t want to be put in a special program. “I grew up without any direction as to what I wanted to do,” Orozco said. Born in Tijuana, he was three years old when his family moved to the United States. His mother died from skin cancer when he was eight, followed by his father five years later from prostate cancer. He went to live with his aunt and uncle in Sherman Heights, Calif., where he grew up. “My uncle sat me down and told me I needed to get a job,” Orozco said. “That was key for me.” Little by little, his job at Jack in the Box kept him busy at work and away from his friends. But he soon realized working at the local fast food joint wasn’t something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. “Initially when I got that motivation to go back to school, I just wanted to set 20 THE NATIONAL JURIST October 2008 PHOTO BY MELISSA STOTTLEMYER “Initially when I got that motivation to go back to school, I just wanted to set an example for my family.” — Jose Orozco, 3L at California Western School of Law http://www.cwsl.edu http://www.cwsl.edu
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.