When Alaysia was 16 years old, she transferred schools and set foot on a newly minted Sequoyah high school campus. After attending a large public high school in Bakersfield for 9th and 10th grades, it was a dramatic change. “It was really clear I was just a number there,” said Alaysia. “And now here I was at this tiny high school. It was unbelievable to be at a place where there was so much intention to know us, let us be who we were, and explore what we were interested in. The environment at Sequoyah—where students are nurtured—really launched me on my path forward.”
Prior to attending Sequoyah, Alaysia spent a period of time in the Los Angeles County foster care system, which was a difficult, life-changing experience. Emerging from the upheaval of that chapter in her life, she was determined to channel her trauma in a direction that would help others in the foster system, but she didn’t yet know how. Sequoyah’s, Social Innovation Program (SIP) helped her name her purpose. “I knew Sequoyah was special, but then there was SIP, and that was next level,” she recalls. “SIP taught me about advocacy: what it is, why it’s important, and that it starts with you.” The foundation SIP provided helped her to shape her pursuit of this work, already bubbling up within — it helped her to look at a large, overwhelming system in need of reform and understand that, in order to make change, you have to start somewhere. But not just anywhere; beyond spreading awareness, SIP taught Alaysia about action.
“When I was in the system,” she says, “no one said anything to me about college or about considering my future. So I started there.” Alaysia directed her SIP efforts toward developing a program to identify and support students in foster care interested in preparing for and pursuing a college degree. During her senior year, Alaysia began Spark Your Future, a nonprofit organization developed from her SIP work. Partnering with the Pasadena Unified School District, Spark Your Future provided mentorship, educational resources, and workshops for youth in the LA County foster care system on navigating the college admissions process.
Alaysia continued this work into her college experience at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in fall 2019 with plans to explore how to integrate her nonprofit’s work at the university to increase the school’s incoming foster youth population. She became a mentor for the Guardian Scholars Program, which provides resources, services, and support to meet the unique needs of former and current foster youth, emancipated minors, homeless and independent students. But the COVID pandemic brought everything to a halt in spring 2020 and changes in LMU’s Guardian Scholars Program made it impossible to host prospective students on campus to engage them in the process. So Alaysia switched gears, leaned into using Spark Your Future as the conduit for action, recruited peers at LMU to participate as mentors, and together, supported five high school seniors through the application process, entirely over Zoom – all of whom were accepted to college in fall 2021.
Leadership, service, and faith have been hallmarks of Alaysia’s college experience and continue to drive her forward. In addition to her work in the Guardian Scholars Program, she was a program coordinator for four years in The Learning Community at LMU, supporting the success of first-year students of African descent; a resident advisor during her junior and senior years; and a student leader in LMU’s Campus Ministry Ignacio Companions Program for immersion trips serving communities in Alaska and Jamaica. “I never stopped doing SIP work while I was in college — with Spark and in other ways too. SIP is in my blood. Thank you, RJ*!”
This past May, Alaysia graduated from LMU, earning her bachelor’s degree in Political Science with minors in African-American Studies and Theology. During her college career, Alaysia received the Raymunde McKay Award for Service and Leadership; the Arrupe Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award; and the Learning Community Outstanding Senior Award. She also was named LMU’s Newman Civic Fellow for Campus Compact, a national coalition of colleges and universities dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement. Member institutions may only select one student per year, nominated by the college or university president, to be awarded the fellowship.
Alaysia continues to find purpose in service and social justice efforts. “I’m currently a program manager for an organization called the Social Impact Firm, which is pretty much about bringing SIP into businesses, nonprofits, and schools to promote social change through collaboration,” she explains. This fall, she is excited to move to Hawaii for a few months to pursue faith-based work through community collaborations and service. Looking ahead, Alaysia sees law school in her future, and the pursuit of family or education law as a potential path to deepen her advocacy for youth in foster care systems.
When asked about any advice she might share with Sequoyah students, Alaysia paused. “You know, I think advice is like service; it should be directed and specific to the needs of the population.”
*RJ Sakai has been Sequoyah’s Director of Social Innovation at the high school since 2017.
