Raised in East Oakland by her single working mom, Jeanelle learned about responsibility at a very young age. At nine years old, she took BART and the bus by herself at 6:30 a.m. each morning to get to school. Although she was accustomed to hardship, nothing can describe the grief she felt when her mother died of a heart attack when she was 11 years old, followed by her aunt’s death from pancreatic cancer three years later. She now lives with her grandmother, who has come out of retirement and works to support Jeanelle. Jeanelle takes classes at a local community college and is President of the Associated Student Union (ASU) at Contra Costa College. She will attend Long Beach State.

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