Adult school opportunities give a hand up to students who need it
Cesar Padilla is an embodiment of the American dream and he credits Fremont Adult School for helping make that dream come true. At 15, he nearly dropped out of high school and was considering a career as a grocery store cashier.
Today, he’s Dr. Cesar Padilla, a medical director of maternal critical care and a nationally recognized leader in his field.
The son of immigrants, Padilla grew up in Decoto, a Bay Area neighborhood unfortunately known for its drug and gang violence problems. Padilla felt neither safe nor supported at high school and by his sophomore year, he had a 0.67 GPA.
“They picked me up, didn’t let me fail and they believed in me.”
Dr. Cesar Padilla, Medical Director of Maternal Critical Care
Having failed so many classes, a guidance counselor told him he wouldn’t graduate on time. Recognizing his son needed more than what staff and faculty could give, his father, Leopoldo Padilla, enrolled Cesar at Fremont Adult School.
Throughout his junior year, Padilla attended adult and high school — which put him in class from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day — to make up credits.
“There was a genuine feeling of acceptance. … It was like, ‘It’s OK that you failed. We know that and we’re not here to talk about how that defines you,’” he says. “That was the beginning of a psychological switch. … It was like I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, which was a high school diploma.”
Padilla graduated on time with nearly a 3.0 GPA. He continued on to Ohlone College, initially to become an emergency medical technician. Instead, counselor Maria Ramirez suggested a four-year university pathway and encouraged him to consider pre-med.
“The first semester I was [at Ohlone], I had a friend who was killed. I started realizing that school was actually more than school for me, it was a way out,” he says. “I sit here today and think about the kids who were killed and who were in prison, because those were some of the smartest kids I knew. … What if my friend had a shot? What if my friend’s dad wasn’t in prison and took him to adult school?”
Padilla ended up matriculating to the University of San Francisco and attending medical school in New York. He completed his residency in Los Angeles, two fellowships at Harvard’s Brigham and Woman’s Hospital and recently accepted a position at Stanford University.
“I can easily look at my diplomas and say, ‘I have two Harvard Medical School diplomas,’ but … what they should say is ‘Fremont Adult School,” he says. “They picked me up, didn’t let me fail and they believed in me.”
Learn more about Fremont Adult and Continuing Education at www.face.edu
Written by Anne Stokes
| Regions | Classes |
|---|---|
| Bay Area California | High School |
