Investing in Their Futures

Saul Villicana moves with the poise and polish of a veteran businessman. His handshake is firm, his eye contact direct, his shirt starched and his pants pressed. His hands gesticulate smoothly with the rhythm of his voice, like he’s addressing a corporate boardroom.

The 17-year-old from Long Beach graduated Friday, the valedictorian of a seven-week college immersion course called the Summer Business Institute. He and 120 disadvantaged students from Los Angeles County high schools spent the summer at USC and Cal State L.A. managing mock businesses and stock portfolios and meeting with real executives.

The program targeted children who might not be college-bound and are unlikely to sit around the dinner table talking corporate finance with their parents.

School counselors looked for candidates who weren’t excelling but showed a certain drive.

Villicana has drive. His teachers at the institute said the senior at Banning High School persevered in the face of family problems that would crush many a teenager and emerged at the top of his class with a clear goal for the future: He wants to study at USC and become an international financier.

It was a grueling journey to this realization.

He had to hop on the Metro Blue Line just after dawn every day for the long trek to Cal State L.A. There, he sat in class until 2:30 p.m. and then raced back to Long Beach to work the evening shift bagging groceries at a store in Bixby Knolls. He bought his own shirts and ties, and helped his aunt buy food, he said.

“He just seemed to have that zeal, that want,” said instructor Joe Moreno. “Most kids just come in and [are casual about it]. He wanted something from this.”

Last school year, Villicana, a former A student, was getting Ds and Fs as he bounced from home to home. He first lived with his father, with whom he did not get along, and could not study because of the turmoil in the house, he said. Then he lived with his cousin until social workers said she was too young to be his legal guardian. He headed to an aunt’s home, but she was raising too many other children, he said.

“I was stressing about where I was going to stay, what I was going to do,” he said.

Finally, he settled in at another aunt’s house. He had to quit the football team to go to work, and he managed to get his grades and life under control. But his grade-point average had dropped miserably that year, the most crucial for college admissions.

Encouraged by one of his guidance counselors, Villicana signed up for the Summer Business Institute, run by the nonprofit Academy of Business Leadership. The academy was founded in 1993 by business leaders and has graduated more than 700 students. Organizers say that 98% of the graduates go on to finish high school and 78% go to college.

“It gave us more skills and an inside look at the business world,” said Michael Ngo, 16. “We had to speak in public. But we were at each others’ throats a lot.”

The students heard lectures by executives and toured area businesses.

Villicana immediately took to the schmoozing and handshaking of the corporate world.

“I couldn’t have asked for anything more--the professional connections I’ve made with Sanwa Bank downtown and the Pacific Investment Mutual Corp. in Huntington Beach,” he said.

He and four other students from around the county were partnered to invest an imaginary $100,000 in the stock market and manage a mock business, a bakery they called “A Little Taste of Mexico.” He said the business was an effort to unite the Mexican and American cultures, which he said remain far too divisive.

A panel of executives looked at the business, judged its finances and gave the students a third-place award out of eight groups.

Moreno hopes that private schools, not tied to rigid admission formulas, will overlook Villicana’s junior year academic troubles and see his success at the summer program as an indication of his potential.

“Right now, I just introduced him to some guys from USC,” he said. “ I know he’ll get in.”