Tam High student defies hurdles to graduate early

Kenneth Fuentes’ story sounds almost too good to be true.

A 12-year-old non-English-speaking immigrant from Honduras arrives in the U.S. in 2019, settling with his family in Petaluma. Five years later, he graduates a year early from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley and enrolls in a four-year university.

Even Fuentes finds it a little hard to believe.

“With the help of my community, I will continue to be brave and attend Dominican University of California next fall as a first-generation college student,” Fuentes said in a speech at Tam High’s graduation ceremony on Thursday. “This is a dream I never thought possible when I first came to the U.S., but this dream is now my reality.”

Fuentes, now 17 and living in Marin City, credits his teachers and the staff at Bridge the Gap College and Career Success, an educational support program in southern Marin.

Bridge the Gap is run at Tam High by director Rondell Gibson and a staff of three full-time workers and two part-timers. It is the high school branch of the Sausalito-based nonprofit Bridge the Gap, which offers enrichment and academic intervention services for the Sausalito Marin City School District.

Bridge the Gap works with about 80 to 100 students annually to offer everything from emotional support to tutoring, counseling and friendship.

“I’m extremely proud of Kenneth,” said Gibson, 38, who came to Bridge the Gap in 2022 after 14 years with the Marin nonprofit 10,000 Degrees. “I’m trying to find the same motivation that he has in all our students. That’s what we strive for with everybody.”

Fuentes attended middle school in Petaluma for about two years before his family moved to Marin City. He started ninth grade at Tam High.

Gibson said Fuentes didn’t really engage with Bridge the Gap College and Career Success until the beginning of 10th grade in the 2022-23 school year. That was when Gibson and staff members Dayrin Flores and China Williams sat down one night with Fuentes’ transcripts to see where he stood academically and what they could do to help him advance.

“Kenneth had a buddy who was a senior and who was graduating,” Rondell said. “He wanted to graduate early also.”

The staffers saw that Fuentes needed to take just one math course over the summer of 2023 to bring him up to speed for what would amount to a combined junior and senior year in 2023-24. He also needed to continue improving his English skills.

Fuentes was immediately on board. He made plans to take the summer math course and signed up for free math and science tutoring with Bridge the Gap after school.

Fuentes met with the program’s counselors, who showed him how to apply for college and obtain financial aid. He stopped by the Bridge the Gap office during the day when he felt he needed support or just to talk to a friendly person.

Fuentes plans to study criminology at Dominican University and become a police officer after he graduates.

Gibson, a Marin City resident, said it is success stories such as Fuentes’ that have kept him going in the business of supporting youths for the last 16 years.

As an African American graduate of Redwood High School, Gibson said he understands how alienation can occur in high school if one is not part of the dominant culture.

“This job is a rarity in the nonprofit world in that it supports my community,” Gibson said.  “This work has a direct impact to the community I’m from. That’s the reason I’ve been with it for so long.”

Gibson said he is impressed by Fuentes’ transformation.

“Kenneth had just very basic English skills when he got here, enough to say, ‘I’m hungry,’ or, ‘Where’s the bathroom?” Gibson said. “Now he speaks very well, with just a slight accent. He put a lot of time in over a very short timespan.”

For Fuentes, the secret sauce was the community that Bridge the Gap and his teachers helped him build.

“I wasn’t afraid to ask for help and I never stopped looking for my community,” he said in his graduation speech. “We can all build our communities by being receptive, welcoming and caring to others. With our communities, we can be brave and overcome obstacles.”