SUCCESS STORY ROBERT LOPEZ YEAR: 2010 – 2015 When Robert was thirteen, a friend who was in El Nido Family Centers' Gang Reduction Youth Development (GRYD) program sponsored by the City of Los Angeles brought him to El Nido. 10
A native of Colima, Mexico, Robert arrived in the His photography instructor with the GRYD program U.S. at just nine months of age. His father was was an El Nido volunteer, Richard Doran, a former a construction worker, his mother a housewife. LAUSD art teacher. Richard became Robert’s Robert and his brother, who is three years second father, counseling him and encouraging younger, grew up in the Pacoima barrio where him not only with photography, but also with his drugs were everywhere and gangs were a schoolwork, the college admission process and constant threat. When Robert was thirteen, even his personal life. The positive reinforcement a friend who was in El Nido Family Centers' offered by Richard and the atmosphere of the Gang Reduction Youth GRYD program gave Robert Development (GRYD) a sense of family, the feeling program sponsored by the City of Los Angeles brought him to El Nido. While Robert had managed to stay out of trouble up to that point, his life was totally without direction. What he saw was spectacular. The wide variety of GRYD program activities, from drumming to muralmaking to photography and soccer, presented him with opportunities he never knew existed. Coming from a gang-infested neighborhood, he was able to qualify for the GRYD program and jumped eagerly into every opportunity presented to him. As a soccer player, Robert was an outstanding goalkeeper on Pacoima’s GRYD soccer team, which won the all-city GRYD championship. This gave him, for the first time in his life, a sense of accomplishment, of overcoming obstacles to achieve a victory. It was the first time but thankfully not his last. that he was not alone, but THE POSITIVE had friends and confidants, REINFORCEMENT and that he should work OFFERED BY hard to pursue his dreams. RICHARD AND THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE GRYD PROGRAM Nothing exemplifies that hard GAVE ROBERT A work more than his senior SENSE OF FAMILY, year at the San Fernando THE FEELING THAT High School Math / Science HE WAS NOT ALONE, / Technology Magnet, where BUT HAD FRIENDS he buckled down to get 85 AND CONFIDANTS, credits in his senior year AND THAT HE SHOULD (25 more than anyone had WORK HARD TO previously accomplished PURSUE HIS DREAMS. in LAUSD history), going to school during the day, at night, on weekends and on the Internet in order to get a sufficient number of credits to graduate with his class. Robert is now attending Mission College and hopes to get his undergraduate degree from Pepperdine in four years. His dream is to work as a photographer for National Geographic, so that he can travel and capture the world with his lens. He’d like everyone to know that El Nido can “change a person’s perspective, creating positive images for a life that feels good.” Robert's dream is to work as a photographer for National Geographic, so that he can travel and capture the world with his lens. 11
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