The story of Dr. Victor Rios is Dr. Raja's inspiration for starting Miracle. Dr. Rios was Dr. Raja's Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley in 1999. He was raised in some of the worst housing projects in Oakland, CA. Dr. Rios came to the United States with his mother from Mexico when he was 2. During his childhood, Dr. Rios had to face violence, poverty and dilapidated housing. That dire poverty led Rios to drop out of school for the first time in eighth grade. At 14, he joined a neighborhood gang for protection and was often living in stolen cars for months at a time. Rios went on to high school but dropped out again and was back spending his days on the streets. Then, he saw his best friend — a fellow gang member named Smiley — murdered in a gun-fight with their rivals.
“Smiley’s death changed my life around,” Rios said. “I began to think about what can happen to me. I began to think about facing hard time in prison if I continued on this path like many of my friends or ending up dead like Smiley.”
Smiley was shot and killed in the Fruitvale district by a rival gang and he literally died in Victor Rios' arms. It was around this time that a teacher who Victor Rios called Mrs. Russ began helping and mentoring him.
With the guidance and dedication of his teacher and mentor, Mrs. Russ, Rios began making a slow transformation that ultimately led to his graduating on time with his high school class. Russ, who now is retired from Berkeley High School in Berkeley, would call him at night and said Rios was one of many students she visited away from school.
“I remember talking to him about Shakespeare at his house,” said Russ. “I’m pretty sure we were studying Macbeth at the time, and I guess I was just trying to be there for him if he needed help with anything.”
Rios said it was crucial for him that someone decided to take an interest in his life and had expectations for him. Mrs. Russ was his mentor who would never give up on him. “It was important for me to hear an adult tell me, ‘listen we know you are a mess-up, we know you are a dropout, but we still believe in you.'” That belief propelled Rios on to college and eventually to earn a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Rios studies street-life-oriented youth and has written several award-winning books on his own life and juvenile delinquency. He is also a husband and proud father of 3 children.
An unlikely success story, no doubt, but Rios said teenagers on the fringe are salvageable and worth the cost for society not to give up on them. “Over the last 25 years in California, for example, these kids get locked up and they cost taxpayers $30,000 a year minimal,” Rios said. “And when they get out it’s a revolving door because there is at least a 70 percent recidivism rate.”
Dr. Rios was fortunate to have an educator who never gave up on him.
That process of perpetual encouragement and never giving up on a student is what Rios devotes his life to now. The miracle story of Dr. Rios is the inspiration behind Miracle University. His journey is a testament to the impact educators like Ms. Russ can have on helping youth live up to their full potential.
We cannot wait until 4,000 9th grade “Pushouts” in Sacramento drop out of school and fall into the pipeline from school to crime, incarceration, poverty, homelessness, lower life expectancy, and cost the society billions of dollars in lost wages and health care expenses
Thank you to our sponsors!
