3 years in the California foster care system
Joel is an enthusiastic and hardworking individual with a great personality. He was born in California, but grew up in Aguascalientes, Ags Mexico. Despite receiving a good education, he experienced domestic violence in his family which hindered his education. He then became financially responsible for his family. He decided he could better provide for his family by moving to the United States by himself. During his transition from Mexico to the US, Joel was stopped by police officials and placed into foster care. After graduating from Banning High School, Joel was accepted to four different Cal State Universities. He decided to attend Cal Poly Pomona University to study Political Science. College was difficult for Joel because English is not his first language. Joel was part of both the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) and the Renaissance Scholars (RS). Joel graduated from Cal Poly Pomona on June 2017 and is currently in the process of apply for a law program at University of Southern California.
