Awards & Distictions
Future UCLA student overcomes family challenges with deportation, gangs, jail, drugs
As a middle schooler, Ashley Sotelo was following an all too familiar path. Her brothers skirted in and out of trouble. Her parents, who had little education, struggled to make ends meet. And Sotelo and her friends just drifted. “I thought maybe smoking weed was cool,” said Sotelo. “I hung out with the wrong crowd.” By the time she was in the seventh grade, her two older brothers had dropped