After a 1989 motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the waist down, Johnson wallowed in frustration and anger, spewing invective at his wife and feeling sorry for himself. He quit his job as a missile technician at the Navy's Pacific Missile Test Center at Point Mugu.
Reeling from money problems, medical problems and daily verbal attacks from her husband, Johnson's wife finally left him.
"For three years, I basically watched TV, watched people go up and down the neighborhood and felt sorry for myself. And then one day it just hit me," said the 44-year-old Ventura resident. "I said, 'I've had enough of this. What am I doing with my life?"
Johnson had only a high school education and had graduated near the bottom of his class. Overcoming his embarrassment at having people see him in a wheelchair, Johnson entered Ventura Community College, earning an associate degree in liberal arts. Johnson next enrolled at CSUN's Ventura campus, which was moved to Channel Islands last fall.
Johnson successfully ran for president of Associated Students of CSUN's Channel Islands campus, a post to which he has been re-elected for the 2000-2001 school year. He was also selected as Channel Islands' Student of the Year.
Johnson is graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 grade average and plans to continue at CSUN while he earns a masters of science degree in college counseling and student services.
As to Johnson's ex-wife, Ellen, she will be at his graduation. The two have remained "really good friends"--such good friends that they are talking about remarrying, Johnson said.
The older of Garcia-Chavez's two daughters is disabled. At age 7, she isn't potty trained, can't feed herself, and won't eat unless coaxed. Mealtime is a time-consuming and messy ordeal.
But for the last three years, Garcia-Chavez has attended CSUN fulltime. This semester, the Puerto-Rican native is taking 21 hours of classes so she can graduate and get a job teaching physical education to disabled students.
She drops her daughters off at school and daycare, then attends classes until it's time to pick the girls up in the late afternoon. After dinner, baths and chores, Garcia Chavez heads back to CSUN until 10 p.m. Her husband helps, though recent marital problems have added to the strain.
"It's a little hard doing the kids, the school and the house, but I wanted to graduate. Even if it took me a while, I knew I would," said Garcia-Chavez, 28, of Sunland, who has sporadically taken college classes since graduating from Palmdale High School in 1990.
Abandoned by her crack addict husband, Felice Parish's mother moved the family from South Central Los Angeles to Pomona to escape gang violence. A few years later, Parish and three others were in a car outside a Pomona movie theater when shots were fired. Parish's boyfriend was fatally wounded.
"It made me even more determined to go to college and get away from the violence," said Parish, 26, of Pomona.
Parish enrolled at CSUN, where she studied to become an actress. On campus, Parish appeared in numerous plays. Off campus, she worked with four professional actresses in the American premiere of Athol Fugard's "My Life" at the Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood. Peter Grego, a professor of theatre at CSUN, directed the play.
An unplanned pregnancy in 1998 complicated things for Parish but she kept going to school--and last year gave birth to a baby boy, Elyjiah. "I never really contemplated abortion or adoption," said Parish.
Parish's boyfriend proposed to her at Christmas time and in February, Parish found out that she'd been accepted into Harvard's prestigious American Repertory Theater for graduate school.
Tablada, 43, of North Hollywood, came with his wife from Belize in 1981 seeking a better life in America. He struggled in low-level jobs, then became a machinist, working in freelance sales on the side. All the while, Tablada supported a succession of friends and family members who moved from Belize to California. His sisters, a brother, parents, and in-laws all lived with the Tabladas for a year or two until they were able to save enough money to become independent.
In 1992, Tablada began attending CSUN at night, but the 1994 Northridge earthquake so traumatized him that he dropped out. In 1998, he suddenly realized: "I'm losing sight of my dreams." Tablada was working days. The classes he needed were in the morning. "My wife and I made a choice. I retired."
Tablada hopes to be a role model for "a host of young nieces and nephews" he wants to inspire to attend college. He has been admitted to a master's program in psychology at CSUN, and plans to continue his education until he earns a Ph.D. He wants to become a therapist.
"I am changing," Tablada said. "Back in 1981, a bachelor's degree may have been something to aspire to. But I think I need to be more educated so I can play a greater role in society."
During his 16 years as a Mercedes Benz repairman, Kramer's co-workers didn't understand his dream of going to college. Few of them even had a high school education, let alone any college
The 38-year-old Agoura Hills resident married right out of high school and had two children to support. Finally, 11 years ago, Kramer began taking night classes at a community college near his New Jersey home while continuing to work days at the job he found "unfulfilling."
In 1992, the Kramers moved to California to be near his wife's family. Kramer attended Pierce College, then transferred to CSUN. The fall of 1998, Kramer said, "was the decisive moment. I could no longer take any evening classes. All the classes I needed were during the day." Kramer transferred to a Mercedes dealership that would let him work part-time.
"It was very, very difficult financially. It had an incredible impact on the way we lived. I took my children out of private school, let the nanny go. My wife was very angry. No vacations, much less dining out, no buying toys, we had to sell one of the cars," Kramer said.
Now, Kramer has a degree and his first professional job. He reports on June 5 to work as a process engineer at Spectrolab, a division of Hughes Aerospace Inc., in Sylmar. Kramer's job will be to analyze the production of solar panels for communications satellites.
While working, Kramer will continue attending CSUN at night, pursuing a master's degree in physics. About 50 of Kramer's family and friends from across the United States are invited to a party Sunday, May 28, to celebrate.
A native of Mexico City, Tovar immigrated to East Los Angeles with her family in 1990 at the age of 16. "I am the oldest of four children and the first one to go to college," Tovar said proudly.
"My first whole immersion to the English language and to the culture was when I got to CSUN in 1994," said Tovar, 25, of Reseda. "My family and all my friends were Spanish-speaking so I never had to speak English other than in the classroom." On Tovar's first day of college, she rode the bus from East L.A. to downtown, then realized she had no idea where she was going. She asked for directions but nobody knew where CSUN was.
"So I got on the bus, and I went back home with a desolated heart because I felt I had failed,'" said Tovar. Tovar's father mapped out a route for her. "For the following four years, I rode the bus for two hours to get to CSUN, getting on different routes until I found the one that took the shorter," Tovar said. Tovar left the house by 5:45 a.m. and didn't get home until 6 or 7 p.m. Tovar used the four hours she spent on the bus daily to study or read.
"Then I got involved in campus activities so I would leave the school at 9 p.m. and get home by 11. Sometimes, I'd be 'Okay, do I want to eat or do I want to sleep? No, I want to sleep. I'll eat tomorrow,'" Tovar recalled. Tovar frequently found herself alone at a bus stop in downtown Los Angeles at 10:30 p.m. "I'd try to dress like a guy and be very tough. I'd wear big jackets and beanie hats and hide my hair so they wouldn't see my face, my hair or my body," she said.
"The last year I was on the bus, I would just get on the bus and go to sleep. I told my Dad. I have to move to the Valley. I'm so tired."
Tovar is excited that she got her green card in March. Although she was at the top of her classes, lack of a green card kept her from applying for scholarships and special programs. She wants to earn her doctorate and become a professor of American literature.
The second week of the 1999-2000 school year, Benedict found out he had multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease that doctors say will land him in a wheelchair in five to 10 years. Benedict, 28, of Los Angeles, took one day off from school to grapple with the implications of the disease, then went right back to classes.
"The week before school started, my entire right side went numb from my neck all the way down," Benedict said. "The test results came back on a Monday night. Tuesday, I just couldn't bear to go to school. I just had to sit and reflect on it, let it all sink in but then I went right back to school Wednesday. I took my day, that was it. Time to get back to work.
"There were days when I'd wake up and try to stand up and I couldn't, I'd fall to the floor," Benedict said. Only then did Benedict miss classes. The painkillers he took merely numbed the pain. "Going up and down the stairs was hard. All my classes are on the third floor. But I don't like to take the elevators even though it's painful and I have to pull myself up the last flight of stairs, because I want to use my legs while I can, before I have to be in a wheelchair," Benedict said.
Despite his struggle, Benedict was still a standout student, always prepared for class, always contributing to class discussions.
He plans to return to CSUN for postgraduate studies.
The nuns at Mary L. Poulson's high school singled her out as having the intelligence to pursue a higher education and placed in her college-preparatory courses. But her mother's Filipino culture dictated that she become a wife.
Poulson did what was expected of her and married young. But she was soon left a widow with two children. Untrained in any profession, Poulson became a secretary for Southern California Edison. For 17 years, she worked as a clerk, with little chance of advancement or respect.
"According to my bosses, they couldn't offer me much because I did not have a higher education. I felt doomed," recalled Poulson, 49, of Ventura.
Then, 13 years ago, Poulson remarried. When her children "left the nest," she attended Moorpark College and Ventura College before transferring to CSUN's Ventura campus, which moved to Channel Islands last fall.
"I had no idea what field to pursue, but I knew that I enjoyed learning," Poulson said. Poulson has been on the Dean's List every semester and is graduating with a 3.94 grade average. She plans to become a teacher.
When Isom came to CSUN in 1996 from the small Antelope Valley city of Littlerock, she needed four remedial courses--the maximum available--to overcome deficiencies in her education. But the 21-year-old Canoga Park resident persevered, and by attending summer school every year, managed to graduate in four years.
She won two scholarships from CSUN's Journalism Department and a prestigious Freedom Forum internship at Minnesota National Public radio. She was also active in the Black Student Union and worked with Associated Students. And, she inspired her younger sister, Stephanie, to come to CSUN.
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