Students Rising Above

OAKLAND (CBS 5) ― Eia Gardner has a sweet glow about her. You can almost see it. "She's beautiful, inside and out", says Barbara Baker, the founder of the Achieve program, in San Fancisco. "There's this sparkle that comes from her. She's just so positive about everything."

 

Eia started life struggling for air. She was born three months premature , a tiny 4 pound, 13 ounce baby with the lung problems so common among premies. She spent the first month of her life at Children's Hospital in Oakland.  When she was four, her mother wasn't able to care for her or her sister anymore and little Eia went to live with her grandmother, Audrey Bell, in East Oakland..

It was not easy growing up without their mom. One day, her grandmother remembers the two girls just both broke out crying. "We've got to make it", Bell would tell her grandchildren. And in her home, they found the love and support they would need.  Now, Eia says, "I can talk to my grandma about anything. We're so close". 

 

At Frick Middle School in Oakland, Eia got a different kind of education. "I saw guns, knives and witnessed a murder", she says. "Some of my classmates became alcoholics, drug abusers, or became pregnant.  The Vice Principal there took an interest in Eia, and began to push her toward new opportunities. She joined Girls Inc, and got into the Eureka Summer Program. 

The encouragement was reinforced at home.  "I want you to do better than your mother, I want you to do better than I did", her grandmother would tell her. "You are very blessed. Take advantage of it. Put your best foot forward."

 

It was at Girls Inc, where Eia was interviewed by Barbara Baker with Achieve, who accepted her into the program and gave her a scholarship  to go to Holy Names, a private school in Oakland. "She was highly motivated", says Barbara Baker. "When someone is that positive, and that determined to have a different kind of life, she's exactly what Achieve is looking for. "

 

Baker started the Achieve program eleven years ago, sending low income kids to Riordan and Mercy High in San Francisco, and Holy Names in Oakland. The program helps with tuition, uniforms, books, enrolling them in summer programs, and even college tours.

 

For Eia, private school was hard at first, but ultimately, life-changing. "She just started blossoming", says her Grandmother. No one in her family has a college degree. Now, Eia is going to change that. "College is not just a dream for me, it is my destiny", she says. "Going to college would be accomplishing a goal for my entire family."

 

Eia is active in school government, and the dance team. She choreographed one production, and was selected for the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Group.  Now, she's been honored with the Students Rising Above Scholarship.  "Eia, you're doing too much!" her grandmother would tell her. "No grandma, I can handle it. And she does. "People are drawn to her", says Baker. "She's a leader."

 

 

For Audrey Bell, watching all the accomplishments unfold for her granddaughter is all too wonderful. "I'm overwhelmed". I've been manic, so excited for the last two weeks. "I tell myself to calm down… now we have the senior ball…." Audrey Bell mentions the senior ball as if she is the one going.. "I am so proud of her," she says. "She fills out a lot of important forms. She knows a lot of stuff."

 

Eia says it's scary being the first in your family to go to college because you're not sure what to expect. But she's excited too, saying "I want to prove to people that dreams are possible no matter what your financial situation or past experiences."

 

Eia Gardner will be going to Agnes Scott College in Georgia.  She's interested in nursing.

 

 

 

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