PLV Scholarship Winner: Kaylee Johnson on Childhood Poverty in Orange County, California

In my last post, I noted the dispiriting increase of rates of serious mental illness in Orange County youth. There was, however, another principal area of concern identified in last year’s Conditions of Children in Orange Country report: childhood poverty. The sobering facts are detailed across several pages, broader trends backed up by a robust compilation of statistical data. I’ve highlighted some of the major findings here.

Although unemployment rates remain low and the market has had an amazing run since the recovery from the Great Recession, economic well-being has been declining in recent years for OC youth, with almost half of children — 49.1%, to be exact — eligible for the Free and Reduced Price Lunch Program. Eligibility is determined by a family’s income and is regarded as an indicator of poverty. Indeed, the number of children living in poverty in OC jumped from 13.6% in 2010 to 16.9% in 2016, according to U.S. Census data, which is an increase of 24.3%. Living in poverty is associated with a host of negative mental and physical conditions and lifestyle situations in children, including poor nutrition, lack of access to healthcare, under-resourced schools, behavioral problems, developmental delays, abuse and neglect, and insecure or unsafe housing, to name a few items delineated in the report. In addition, homelessness — defined by school districts as living in a shelter, park, motel, or doubling- or tripling-up in a house — has increased 111%, from 2.6% (17,051 students) in 2007/08 to 5.5% (27,119 students) 2016/17.

Such figures are in glaring contrast to popular media depictions of Orange County that overlook the region’s socioeconomic diversity, passing OC off as LA’s rich white — and yes, highly conservative, probably Trump-worshiping — cousin in the suburbs. Glorified sketches of OC as a paradisiacal land of plenty in which no child is without an iPhone, no woman without a small army of cosmetic doctors to fight aging, help to conceal the harsher realities of economic disparity beneath a veneer of material excess.

When I reviewed Junior League of Orange County, California (JLOCC) scholarship applications earlier this year — a process that inspired the inception of the PLV Scholarship in my mother’s memory — I was struck by the wildly dissimilar economic conditions of students who attended the same school. I read an application from an unbelievably high-achieving student at a Newport Beach high school whose family had grown up without beds, pillows, or electricity. This family had lived in garages built for cars rather than people. The student’s mother experienced debilitating migraines but had no access to healthcare. She suffered greatly. The prospect of university was like a cruel mirage for this student — a vision of prodigious potential dissolved by financial limitations. I’m unsure of whether the student was ever able to attend university.

By the time I started reading PLV Scholarship applications, I no longer assumed a hard and fast correlation between income and the perceived geographical desirability of a student’s school. I’ve had visitors from the UK comment on how all the cities in OC merge into one great suburban sprawl, lacking the traditional boundaries of countryside and city walls that demarcate many British and European cities. I can recall a friend from out of state remarking at how surprised she was that we could go from a “good area” to a “bad area” in just a couple of minutes by car. In contrast to enduring perceptions of socioeconomic homogeneity, OC is home to a broad and colorful array of people of different racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds (as a side note, OC went blue for the first time since the Depression in the 2016 General Election, and — as of earlier this year — there are more registered Democrats than Republicans in the County). Unfortunately, though, low socioeconomic status creates suffering for children and teens who live in communities mistakenly thought to be immune from the ravages of poverty.

Meet Kaylee

Kaylee Johnson, one of the first PLV Scholarship recipients, grew up in South County and attended Laguna Hills High School. Her family of five was supported by her breadwinning father, a bankruptcy lawyer. But Kaylee remembers going an entire summer without hot water and cannot recall a time since elementary school when her family was able to afford water, electricity, heating, cable television, and cell phone service all at the same time. When she was just 14, the cash she had saved up from birthdays, holidays, and babysitting made her the wealthiest member of her family — and meant helping to pay the family’s electricity bill.

Kaylee’s family was, in her words, engulfed by financial stress when her father became disbarred, drying up her and her family’s only stream of income; her mother had no job. Immediately after Kaylee’s sophomore year final exams, her family was evicted from their house, the children separated and now officially homeless. Kaylee spent two-and-a-half months living with a couple of friends’ families and having to adjust to different family cultures. She remembers the irony of feeling homesick for a home that didn’t exist. In her scholarship essay, Kaylee said that spotting her brother across the hallway at school and giving him a giddy hug made her day. Her sister, though, was still in elementary school, which made it more challenging to see her regularly.

Eventually, Kaylee and her siblings were reunited with their mother, who managed to secure low-income housing for the four of them and their beloved cat, as well as employment at a local grocery store. Although Kaylee had to assume greater responsibility within the household to help out her single, working mother — including getting her little sister ready for school since their mother worked early morning shifts — Kaylee knew she was now home. Her father, however, drifted from their lives without a car or place to live.

As I mentioned in Iliana’s PLV Scholarship winner post, high school can be a rough time for anyone; if an American girl can survive the high school experience and emerge basically okay, she is probably tough enough for just about anything. Kaylee managed to handle her family’s fall into financial hardship, the painful separation from her parents and siblings, a course load filled with AP and IB classes, three school sports teams, and volunteer work all at once. And she didn’t just survive; she thrived.

Moreover, while Kaylee herself struggled with both the pervasive sense of uprootedness that comes with childhood poverty and increasing childcare responsibilities at home, she still chose to help others in her community. She was the Vice President of Key Club, an international volunteer organization that promotes service and leadership in high school students. She also organized a bake sale at the grocery store at which her mother works in order to raise money for a worthy cause: her friend’s Blankets for Benefit Club, which donated handmade blankets to sick teens at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). As Kaylee mentioned in her scholarship essay, teens are the most overlooked age group at CHOC, receiving the fewest donated items.

Perhaps the single most striking aspect of Kaylee’s scholarship application was her refusal to allow her family’s financial instability to define her — or, put another way, her relentless self-determinism. She went to class each day with a positive attitude, eager to channel her energy into that which she could still control: her academic performance, which could actualize her dreams of the future. She realized that school was a long-term investment that could yield the priceless dividends of financial independence and personal autonomy — both of which she never again wanted to be without. Kaylee’s unbreakable drive and hard-earned wisdom and maturity helped her receive admission to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she began her studies as a Communications major earlier this fall. She hopes to go into marketing or television media. Kaylee describes her experience in the following interview, which was conducted last summer:

The difficult events of our pasts undeniably shape us; but rather than limiting us, they can provide opportunities for learning and for personal growth. What lifelong lessons did your family’s challenges teach you? From where did you draw strength during hard times?

Kaylee: I have definitely garnered some lifelong lessons from my experience. I learned from my dad being disbarred how important it is to really keep a career intact and not risk losing it. I do not want to ever risk my family’s well-being and stability. I drew strength during these times by thinking about my future. I knew that if I worked hard to earn my spot in the college I wanted to be at, that all my efforts would be worth it. Even though I was going through a really difficult time, I had my future to get excited about. This really kept me going.

Media portrayals of Orange County often misleadingly focus on its affluence when there are many children and teens who live in poverty. What advice would you give to another teen facing financial stress and uncertainty beyond his or her control? How is attitude key?

Kaylee: My advice to someone who is facing adversity is to never let it define you. The situation you are in is out of your control. Do not burden yourself by thinking that you could have prevented poverty from reaching your family. Going along with this, attitude is really key. Having a positive mind and thinking about the amazing things you will do later on gave me motivation, and I think that it could help anyone going through adversity.

The PLV Scholarship Board was struck by your commitment to helping others during your family’s own period of economic difficulty. Did your experience change your perspective on community service?

Kaylee: I always thought that community service was great. You give back to the community. The community benefits from the service you provided, and that’s all. What I have discovered, though, is that the community is not the only benefit. Giving back to the community is rewarding for oneself. Volunteering while impoverished shows that you can really make a difference even if you cannot monetarily support the cause.

How did your circumstances impact your desire to learn in school and your views on higher education?

Kaylee: Having economic difficulties only encouraged my desire to academically succeed. I put even more effort into my education because I knew that I did not want to let my economic situation stop me from performing well in the classroom. I knew that I have wanted to go to college for a long time, but going through what I went through makes want to strive to succeed and attend a university.

In your essay, you mentioned feeling “rich in the poorest way.” What did you mean by this?

Kaylee: When I finally got into a low-income apartment with my siblings, mom, and animals after living with friends for months, I felt like I had everything. Well, I was still the poorest I had ever been financially. However, I felt rich and so fortunate because I was finally back with my family.

How do you think your challenging family circumstances as a teen will impact the woman you become?

Kaylee: The challenges that I have had will only push me to succeed. I think that I am a stronger woman as a result of the difficulties that I have encountered. My motivation to accomplish the goals in life has only increased which will make me more likely to be successful in my career and life in general.