It was 25 years ago at a downtown luncheon that Lurlene “Lucky” Hemphill, principal of O’Melveny Elementary School in the San Fernando Valley, negotiated the deal of her life with the chairman of one of the largest and oldest law firms in Los Angeles, Century City-based O’Melveny & Myers.
Chairman Warren Christopher was eager to make a tangible difference in the lives of the kids at the school his firm had “adopted” two years earlier.
“There has got to be something more that we can do for this school,” Christopher said.
“Why don’t you start a little scholarship?” Hemphill suggested. “Maybe you could put some money in the bank and kids who graduated from O’Melveny School could get $50 to cover textbook or something like that.”
So Christopher took that idea, Hemphill said, “and I’m sure went back to the partners and just ran with it.”
By 1991, O’Melveny the firm had pledged a four-year scholarship of $12,000 to eight 6th graders at O’Melveny the school – named for its locale on O’Melveny St. after the law firm’s founder, Henry O’Melveny.
The scholarship became the only program of its kind in the Los Angeles Unified School District. And the firm was so anxious that in the early years, that seniors from San Fernando High who previously attended O’Melveny Elementary received scholarships until the original O’Melveny Scholars matriculated through high school.
Eight elementary school students receive this award yearly and along with it a mentor from the law firm to guide and support the child’s academic pursuits.
Since then, the scholarship has grown to $20,000, or $5,000 a year for four years, and 220 O’Melveny Elementary School and San Fernando High School have been named O’Melveny Scholars. To date, 43 students have fulfilled the hopes of the program and have graduated from college; 144 students have attended or are currently attending college.
On May 28 and 29, the endowment continued as 30 students were recognized as scholars and inducted into the O’Melveny & Myers legacy.
“It’s a really hard journey from getting selected to graduating,” Hemphill said at the O’Melveny Scholarship dinner at the Sheraton Universal Hotel May 28. “But it’s extremely rewarding.”
As the 16 students and their parents ushered into the Starlight Room on the top floor, some were dressed in the same suits and dresses they would wear to their elementary and high school graduations.
“I’m pretty excited but then again nervous because I’m going to have to do a speech,” Andrew Caballo, 11, said before the awards presentation, adding that his favorite subjects are math and science. “What I plan to do with the scholarship is I want to go to MIT in Massachusetts an get my degree in engineering. And after I want to become an engineer with my own business.”
Caballo was in good company that night, as two of the speakers got their degrees in engineering, including the keynote speaker and O’Melveny’s first MIT graduate (1999), Jesus Perez.
To kickoff the presentations, General Counsel for LAUSD, David Holmquist praised both the staff and students at O’Melveny Elementary: “Believe me, this school is a crown jewel in the LAUSD crown. We have about 1,100 schools; we all know this school, and we all think that this is one of the best that there is.”
Rep. Tony Cárdenas followed, recounting his childhood growing up in Pacoima, the son of Mexican immigrants who spoke very little English.
“My parents couldn’t afford for me to go to college. But organizations like this made it real. O’Melveny & Myers is giving you the opportunity to go beyond your dreams. I’m living a dream I never had,” Cárdenas said to the room.
From there, O’Melveny Elementary School Principal Henry Vidrio introduced the eight 5th graders, some of whom even spoke in Spanish to thank to their parents.
“I am very grateful to the O’Melveny & Myers law firm for electing me to be one out of eight scholars to receive this award because with it I am one step closer to being an immigration lawyer,” 5th grader Katie Morales said.
But the most moving speech of the night came after, when Jesus Perez recounted his journey from 1995 O’Melveny Scholar to graduation from MIT then Stanford to engineer at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. He recalled crying at the sight of his proud parents during his own speech at the same awards dinner 20 years ago.
Perez was the son of immigrants, as well, and told his family’s story of how his father hid in the engine of a ’58 Chevy pickup truck to sneak into the country. Or how his mother, despite being a functioning illiterate, was skilled in math and taught him numbers using beans.
His entire life’s work, he said, was for them.
“There’s something you need to realize as students, and I can tell you this with a very high degree of certainty, that there is very little you will do in life that will give you the kind of satisfaction as the day you get to hug that man who swept all of those floors for so many years,” Perez said of hugging his father at his college graduation. Or to hear him whisper in your ear, how much he loves you and how proud he is of you. Or that you get to look into the eyes of the woman who brought you into this world, the woman whose known more struggle than you can probably imagine. The woman who couldn’t read or write her own name, but somehow taught you how to do math with a pile of beans on the kitchen table.
“I don’t care what you do in your life, guys. There is nothing that compares to that feeling, when you get to do something like that.”
Perez underscored the importance of giving back to the community that paved the way. He still lives in the same neighborhood he grew up in, with his fiancée and newborn, regardless of how much money he makes now.
The impact on the students was realized once the high school seniors stepped up to the podium.
“This scholarship is more than just money. It’s the confidence and drive for wanting to be better in life for myself,” Marisa Pimentel, who is going to UCLA this fall, said to the room. “Looking back at all I’ve been through, its such a rewarding feeling to know someone had the confidence in me from such a young age. After seven years, I have that same confidence in myself and I will carry it on through college and my life.”
Jorge Ruiz, who will go onto play soccer for University of California, Santa Barbara, credited the scholarship to helping him get through middle and high school.
“It was always in the back of my mind whenever I felt down or maybe got a bad grade on a test,” he said.
And Jorge Reyes, originally a year younger than the others because he had skipped 7th grade in Portland, Ore., after his parents couldn’t find work, thanked the firm’s scholarship for their role in his going to Princeton University. He will also be the first in his family to go to college.
“For a long time I felt like I didn’t deserve it,” Reyes said of getting into Princeton. “And it wasn’t until just this weekend as I was on a climb with a couple of my friends on Munt Shasta. That was my first time climbing anything like it. I was completely inexperienced.”
It was once his friends slowed down and helped him out with gear and water that he realized why he felt this way.
“It was because I was thinking about it wrongly. I was thinking that I got into Princeton myself when in actuality I didn’t. It was all the people who helped me in my life: Mr. Slade, O’Melveny & Myers, my family, my friends, my counselors. The only way you can do grand things in life is with the help of others.”
