Adam Solorzano
I remember waiting in lines at churches during holidays as young boy with my single mother and two younger siblings. For Thanksgiving, we waited for a free turkey and during Christmas we waited for gifts.
I had no idea at that time that my family was different than others. I grew up with no father. I grew up my entire life on welfare and in low-income housing. But this was normal to me.
This combination would lead me into a life that felt like my only option. I would begin to associate myself with youth around my neighborhood and also began experimenting with drugs very early in my life.
I started following a path that many Chicanos in my neighborhood follow, especially in the small border community I am from. However, this would lead me into a downward spiral for a good amount of my life. In fact, my entire teenage life was spent this way.
The bad days followed. I would be placed on probation and identified as a gang member by local law enforcement. I would drop out of school at 17 years old and sell drugs. I eventually would be incarcerated for minor offenses.
My life was not the best during that time, and it got worse when I would overdose at 19 years old. But as some say, you have to hit the bottom in order to change.
This is exactly what I did.
I began to fix my life and moved out of my neighborhood. I moved to San Diego in order to stay away from all my vices. It was not easy, but I enrolled myself into adult education courses to get my high school diploma. I graduated at 22 years old and I used this momentum to enroll in community college where I would begin my studies at the developmental level and eventually work as an English tutor for three years.
By the time I knew it, I was on my way to graduating with an associates degree in English. I also had the opportunity to apply to universities as a transfer. Something I never knew was an option growing up.
In 2018 I was accepted by my first choice university, the University of California, Berkeley.
There I would pursue my degree in Comparative Literature with a concentration in English and Spanish. Moreover, I began to learn how to love my culture, my upbringing, and myself through the courses offered in my undergraduate program.
This motivated me to apply for graduate school in order to help society, specifically those in communities like mine. Through this path, I found myself working towards a masters degree at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism where I mainly focused on social justice reporting and documentary film.
In addition, with all my eduction, I have been fortunate enough to a part of different organizations that help uplift justice impacted communities and individuals.
During that time, I worked with the Underground Scholars Initiative, helping support other justice impacted students in California, I have worked with the California Justice Leaders – AmeriCorps program as a reentry navigator for youth who were currently incarcerated in the Division of Juvenile Justice facilities, and I also had the opportunity to work for RYSE, a non profit as I would support youth on probation complete probation requirements.
Currently, I am seeking to help uplift the voices of underrepresented communities and individuals in California as I will be joining the KCBX Public Radio newsroom in September 2024. I am also working with the California Reporting Project over the summer 2024 organizing cases involving police misconduct, officer involved shootings, and use-of-force cases and I am also working in requesting records from these agencies that fall under SB 1421 and SB 16.
