The message that Santiago Canyon College grad Charlie Nguyen has tattooed on his left wrist serves as a daily reminder of how far he’s come after bottoming out at age 16: “No one is unworthy of redemption.”
Imprisoned for nearly eight years after committing what he calls “a violent gang-related crime,” Nguyen found his own redemption through persistence, hard work and whip-smart intelligence, along with crucial assistance from Rising Scholars, an empowering SCC program that serves incarcerated, formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted students facing similar challenges.
Today, Nguyen, a grateful, focused pre-law sociology major at UC Berkeley, continues to give back to those saddled with a rough background comparable to his.
“I was born to two parents involved in gang life,” Nguyen said. “They consumed a lot of drugs, and I was literally born into drugs.”
Adopted by his maternal grandmother, who raised him in a troublesome environment, he dropped out of school at 16.
Enrolled at SCC from 2021 to 2024, Nguyen earned four associate degrees: liberal arts, humanities, sociology and psychology, the latter two transferable to a four-year university. He managed this, incredibly, while incarcerated in Orange County Juvenile Hall, thanks in large part to Rising Scholars.
“I knew Charlie would be a successful student the first time I met him,” said Albert Alvano, director of Rising Scholars and assistant professor and counselor at Santiago Canyon College’s Division of Continuing Education. “I immediately saw his curiosity, his persistence and his advocacy for himself and his classmates.”
For more than 30 years, before what was originally called “The Orange Campus” officially became known as Santiago Canyon College, faculty have taught noncredit college courses in OC jails, focusing on such topics as parenting, substance abuse and workforce preparation. Counselors began visiting the off-site classrooms in 2016, offering guidance and post-release educational assistance. Two years later, as more formerly incarcerated students started reaching out for help on the Santiago Canyon College campus, Rising Scholars (originally called Project RISE), was created.
Last year, Project RISE was renamed Rising Scholars, two years after the program became a part of the California Community Colleges’ Rising Scholars Network. Through Rising Scholars, SCC began offering college-credit classes in the three Orange County juvenile halls in the spring of 2021. Three years later, this off-site undertaking became known as the Rising Scholars Juvenile Justice Program, a nod to a grant of the same name furnished by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
Nguyen emphasized that Rising Scholars was essential to his extraordinary turnaround. “At 16, I decided that school simply wasn’t for me,” he said. “But the SCC counselors and faculty believed in me and gave me the space to be able to learn. They told me that, one, it’s possible and, two, they’re going to help me every step of the way. I found that I loved learning, and I wanted to go to college.
“I didn’t know how to navigate higher education,” Nguyen said. “That’s the biggest role that Rising Scholars has played for me. They provided me with textbooks, helped me to connect with professors and furnished all of the tools I needed to succeed. … I knew I was well on my way when I earned my first A in a real college course.”
“We make regular visits to juvenile hall, lead workshops, provide guidance — anything to meet the specific needs of our students,” Alvano said. “We also have counselors who work, primarily via Zoom, on educational planning. And in some cases, we provide laptops for our students, those deemed eligible by their probation officers.”
Alvano stressed that Rising Scholars’ ongoing success is a collective effort. “The key to this program is our group of hard-working counselors, our counseling assistant and our dedicated faculty, as well as great support from the college administrators. It’s a team effort.”
The first graduate of SCC’s Juvenile Justice Program, Nguyen is passionate about social and criminal justice, advocating for those often discounted by society. To that end, he serves as a program and outreach intern for the Boundless Freedom Project, which furnishes Buddhist- and mindfulness-based services to justice-impacted people, as well as advisory board coordinator for Cr8 Innovations, which seeks to furnish free housing to formerly incarcerated students. A future attorney, he’d like to one day focus on juvenile justice work or, more broadly, serving the public interest in some capacity.
“People believed in me before I believed in myself: my legal team, my judge in the case and the staff at Juvenile Hall,” Nguyen said. “SCC counselors and faculty were critical in helping me get off my feet. Since they saw me for more than my mistakes, I now do my best to believe in others.”
To those with a similar background, Nguyen said, “There are people who can help you. You just have to reach out. If you set your mind to a goal, anything is possible.”