Retired boxing champion Oscar de la Hoya knows plenty about winning. He earned a Gold Medal in the 1992 Olympics as an amateur, and claimed 10 titles in six different weight classed during his career as a professional.
Now De la Hoya hopes to help teach kids in East Los Angeles, where he grew up, something about winning. De la Hoya recently took a break from his current job as businessman and boxing promoter to attend the opening of the new campus of the Oscar De la Hoya Animo Charter High School in the Boyle Heights community just east of Downtown. De la Hoya donated $1 million to establish the school and a local boxing program that's part of the campus. Public funds raised through bonds covered the rest of the costs, an estimated $26.5 million.
A crowd of 500 or so students who gathered for the official opening ceremonies on October 29 gave De la Hoya cheers on par with his best boxing moments.
De la Hoya took the opportunity to urge the students to seek professional careers.
"Like me, I want you to feel proud, too, because now you are the future," he said. "You will be the next doctors, lawyers, whatever you want to be. This is the birthplace of champions. We're going to get ahead."
The new campus covers 5,200 square feet, and includes 25 classrooms, two computer centers, four science laboratories, a covered parking lot, and a boxing gym. The institution is operated by the non-profit Green Dot Public Schools as a charter school, a concept that keeps the campus within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) system but allows local communities more control over curriculum, faculty and some regulation. The school currently has an enrollment of 550 students in grades 9 through 12.
The school operated for three years in a temporary location in anticipation of the new campus. So far it has turned out 322 students graduates, with 72% accepted into colleges and universities — impressive totals compared to district-wide averages for LAUSD. Average attendance is 96% so far, and the school recently ranked 53rd among the 100 top high schools in the country, according to U.S. News.
De la Hoya cited his training for boxing as a key to the discipline, motivation and positive attitude that formed the basis of his success. He said those factors led him to seek the boxing program at the new school.
"The (boxing) program is real important because it's in this area where I trained for the Olympics," he said. "It's important to keep having that tradition so that kids can keep coming to practice boxing."
De la Hoya said his career is proof that youngsters who grow up in neighborhoods where trouble and temptations lurk can still avoid those pitfalls and turn dreams into reality.
"I didn't go to a prestigious school," he said. "Since I was six or seven years old, I always had people who told me it couldn't be done, and I had to fight against that. And now I'm very proud to feel that there are more and more Latinos and minorities taking advantage of the great opportunities this country has to offer."
Johnatan Íñiguez, a sophomore at the school, said that he hopes he won't let De la Hoya down.
"We appreciate his help very much, for helping us to be better through this school," Íñiguez said. "My parents and I are very happy. He is a great man, a great person who doesn't forget about his people. The truth is he is a great inspiration not only for Latinos, but also for the whole world. Like he tells us, I want to keep progressing in my studies, go to college and go as high as possible."
The school was started in 2003 with the $1 million donation from the retired boxer, and in 2008 he contributed an additional $3.5 million to support Green Dot and its efforts to transform education in Los Angeles.
De la Hoya also provides various other forms of community support through is Oscar de la Hoya Foundation, which is dedicated to helping low-income families. He established the foundation in 1995 with a stated goal of improving the quality of life for people in East Los Angeles through the Oscar de la Hoya Animo Charter High School, the Cecilia Gonzalez de la Hoya Cancer Center, and Oscar de la Hoya Children's Medical Center. The latter two organizations are located at White Memorial Hospital. The foundation also provides support to numerous after-school programs to help guide youth toward positive lives and away from delinquency, drug abuse, and violence.
Nora Alicia Estrada is a writer for Impulso.
Photos by Nora Alicia Estrada/Impulso.
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