He never went to junior high or high school, and he admits to being a felon.
He also has a 3.40 GPA at Bakersfield College.
Edward Smith, 37, BC psychology major, lived, and still lives, a hard life. He said that he recently ended his latest bout with homelessness and shares a $100 a month rented house with his girlfriend, Cat, but he is currently unemployed. He pays part of the rent with grant money from the college. He is also in a great deal of pain from a broken arm that has no cast, and the doctors at Kern Medical Center took it off without reason or warning.
“They took the cast off and told me to ‘deal with it,'” Smith said. He admitted that he got into a scuffle with another man over a woman, which resulted in the broken arm. He said that he felt that he “deserved” the injury.
Smith hails from Three Rivers, Michigan and spent most of his developing years in and out of mental institutions and detention centers including George Junior Republic in Grove City, Pennsylvania and Pheasant Ridge Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Smith lived for a time with his biological father who was physically, emotionally and mentally abusive, Smith said. His mother left the family when Smith was very little, and he says that he hasn’t seen her at all since then. Smith came to California in October 2002 to get away from his drug associates in Michigan who got him into cocaine, but then in California, he went to prison for methamphetamine use. He spent some time in Kern County’s Lerdo jail as well as the prisons in Wasco and Chuckawalla for meth use. Smith says that he was 24 years old the first time that he went to prison, and it was at the Putnamville Correctional Facility in Indiana.
As a teenager, Smith was diagnosed as a bipolar schizophrenic. From age seven on down, Smith has been in some type of institution, and he never went to a regular school.
“I’ve never been to junior high or high school because I’ve always been in some kind of institution. I couldn’t be a kid. That’s why I feel like I’m 17 all the time. I was never in foster care, and I was never adopted,” Smith said.
Smith admits that coming to BC has helped him straighten out his life. He said that another parolee and fellow participant in the Substance Training and Recovery program or STAR, which is a part of the Division of Adult Parole Operations of the California Department of Corrections and has a Bakersfield location on 3400 Sillect Ave., told him that he could enroll at BC. Smith couldn’t believe it would be possible for him to go to college although he had gotten his GED at some point. He had just gotten out of prison in February 2006.
“I said to him, ‘I’m a multi-felon. How can I go to college?'” Smith said.
The fellow parolee told Smith that BC enrollment was a simple process, and a STAR representative encouraged him to go. So Smith enrolled in August 2006. He also applied for EOPS and financial aid.
“I really dove into my schooling,” Smith said. “Now, once I get on campus, I forget about everything that happened to me. It keeps my mind from getting bored. Boredom is the reason why I did drugs. But now I don’t get bored because I’m always thinking that I have studying to do and papers to write.”
Smith says that he has gotten a lot of support and help from BC staff who sometimes give him money for bus passes and print papers for him. Smith has volumes of praise for Sarah Villasenor, educational adviser at financial aid.
Villasenor said that Smith is a great student and very eager to reach his goals. She also said that he is a lot different from the other homeless and disadvantaged students she has met who are often overwhelmed by their circumstances and can’t continue with their schooling.
“He’s very consistent and really driven. He’s stubborn but not in a bad way,” Villasenor said.
Villasenor said that she had to convince Smith that he deserved the scholarship that he got from the Bakersfield Foundation last spring.
“He actually felt guilty about it,” Villasenor said.
Jack Pierce, associate professor of geology and earth science at BC, has nothing but good things to say about Smith, who is in Pierce’s earth science class.
“Ed is always ahead of the game in class; he always asks questions and answers questions well,” Pierce said. “He’s studious and extremely bright.”
Pierce also said that Smith has never been bashful about talking about his background nor does Smith feel sorry for himself.
Dave Besst, Smith’s English B50 instructor, also noted that Smith is an active participant in class discussions and is zealous about doing well in college.
“He’s very dedicated and passionate about his education,” Besst said.
Smith’s career goal is to become a counselor for teens in either a mental or criminal institution, and he says that he favors using the behavioral-cognitive approach. Smith says that what constantly motivates him to keep pursuing an education is his five children whose ages range from a few months to 13 years. Xenia, 11, Smith’s second eldest child, wants to live with her father. Smith says that if he can maintain an official residence, then seeing his children regularly should not be a problem.
Smith says that he feels that with his background, he has no excuse for not working as hard as possible to be a responsible student, father and citizen.
“I figure with all this baggage, I have to excel,” Smith said.
“He’s the poster boy for stick-to-itiveness,” Pierce said.