PUSHY ANGELS
“I went from the streets of the Eighteenth Street gang in the Los Angeles ghetto to become a highly successful Latina entrepreneur. I couldn’t have done it without my PUSHY ANGELS.”
PUSHY ANGELS
“I went from the streets of the Eighteenth Street gang in the Los Angeles ghetto to become a highly successful Latina entrepreneur. I couldn’t have done it without my PUSHY ANGELS.”
PUSHY ANGELS Make An Impact
My PUSHY ANGELS helped me break the cycles of welfare, domestic violence, drugs, incarceration, and lack of education growing up in one of the world’s most dangerous gang-ruled streets in Downtown Los Angeles.
I might have stayed a high school drop out if my PUSHY ANGELS didn’t take an interest in me, ask questions about my education, light a spark inside of me, and change my perspective about what was possible for me to achieve.
Hazel's PUSHY ANGEL Story
I grew up in East Los Angeles in a ghetto so dangerous my mother didn’t allow me to cross the street. My parents cycled in and out of the justice system and we relied on government services for basic needs. Seven of us lived in a cockroach-filled one bedroom apartment. Drive by shootings, domestic violence, and fearing for my life was my daily experience.
Then I met my first PUSHY ANGEL, Judge Barbara Burke through an at-risk youth program at the Los Angeles County Courthouse.
I was hired to assist her. Judge Burke took a keen interest in me always asking about my plans for higher education. Which at the time I had no interest in. My PUSHY ANGEL also navigated some of the deadliest streets downtown to drive me home safely after work every day. At the time I never thought someone “like me” would ever go to college, let alone finish high school. But Judge Burke planted the seed of higher education which took root and grew in me.
I met my second PUSHY ANGEL later in my 20s while working as a legal secretary for a prominent workers’ compensation attorney.
He was the first ever Latino professional I had ever seen. In my interview he asked, “You’re in college, aren’t you?” To get the job I lied and said I was. But I still didn’t have my high school diploma. I was in a rocky marriage raising three kids. Yet his high expectations drove me to go back to school, get my high school diploma and earn my associate degree.
But he didn’t let me stop there.
He consistently asked what I would achieve next. It was clear that he expected me to become a highly educated professional. Under his encouragement, I went back to school to study psychology to serve bilingual communities. Before long, I earned my bachelor’s degree and later my master’s in educational psychology. I would never have achieved this if it weren’t for him helping me to change my perspective about myself.
PUSHY ANGELS Create Miracles For Others
They can be a teacher, boss, friend, or even a stranger with a message of hope. They elevate our perspective of ourselves and lovingly nudge us out of survival mode and help us see the potential and greatness we all have within ourselves.
A PUSHY ANGEL lights the way for us when we can’t see the path.
Who Are PUSHY ANGELS?
PUSHY ANGELS Create Miracles For Others
They can be a teacher, boss, friend, or even a stranger with a message of hope. They elevate our perspective of ourselves and lovingly nudge us out of survival mode and help us see the potential and greatness we all have within ourselves.
A PUSHY ANGEL lights the way for us when we can’t see the path.
