Healdsburg senior helps peers through stress

Sonia Perez had no idea that a personal roadblock would lead her to a rewarding career path.

As a freshman at Healdsburg High School, she was overwhelmed and nearly hopeless but hesitated to ask for help. Like many teens doing a juggling act each day, she was stressed out, anxious and not meeting her potential.

Things began to improve when Perez finally reached out to a school counselor. Together they were able to identify her struggles and tackle the panic that plagued her. As Perez gained confidence and discovered her potential, she reached out to fellow students by helping establish a peer support group for teens suffering from anxiety. The group, Diamonds in the Rough, is now in place to help teens cope with stress and find encouragement and understanding.

“It’s sort of like a therapy session, but between peers,” Perez said of the confidential, on-campus program.

She also volunteers at Healdsburg District Hospital in a sub-acute unit, bringing music, activities and touch therapy to patients.

“We try to bring the world to them,” Perez said. “It really is quite enlightening.”

Now 18, she now plans to study psychology and neuroscience at UC Santa Cruz, her top-choice college, with plans to become a psychologist or therapist.

With the help of high school staff, a caring mentor and a lot of hard work, Perez was able to achieve personal and academic success. She credits 10,000 Degrees Sonoma County with keeping her focused and on track to attend college, the first in her family to seek higher education.

The nonprofit agency helps low-income students access higher education, in this case by matching Perez with a mentor during her junior year, one of about 50 mentoring pairs in the county. She and Dolores Cortes-McPherson bonded from the start.

“We both come from small, isolated environments with not a lot of support and not a lot of resources,” said Cortes-McPherson, 46. “That was something I could connect with. We don’t let anything stand in our way.”

Perez is from a tiny village in Michoacán, Mexico, arriving in Sonoma County with her family when she was 7. They moved from Windsor to Cloverdale before settling in Healdsburg when Perez was 11.

“Everyone just seemed so alien to me,” Perez remembers of her move to the United States.

Perez has a baby sister and two brothers, 8 and 14, and began helping to care for her siblings shortly after they emigrated. Their mother speaks only Spanish, while their father has some understanding of English.

Cortes-McPherson is a doctoral candidate from the Basque region of Spain. She moved to Santa Rosa more than two years ago after a decade of working for the United Nations in Lima, Peru, as a human trafficking expert in policy development.

Cortes-McPherson and her husband, Chuck McPherson, 52, became familiar with 10,000 Degrees when his business-management company, Leap Solutions, became a sponsor. Both are impressed with 10,000 Degrees and its dedication to achieving educational equality. Along with mentorships and scholarships, the program offers financial aid workshops, support services and guidance for college-bound students from low-income households.

Although Cortes-McPherson is writing her thesis for her Ph.D., she wanted to become a mentor and impact the life of a young person striving for personal excellence.

“I have very limited time, but I thought it was a great initiative,” she said.

She and Perez get together at least three times a month and check in through weekly emails.

“When we have met it has been very profound, very meaningful,” Cortes-McPherson said.

Both women say the mentoring experience has exceeded their expectations.

“I thought she was going to be the person to guide me and build me and give me advice,” Perez said. “I never could have imagined how personal it was going to get.”

The teen found she could open up with her mentor and often turned to Cortes-McPherson with personal struggles.

“Without Dolores and Chuck helping me, I wouldn’t be doing what I do,” she said.

With nearly 600 volunteer hours under her belt, she has done everything from tutoring, shelving library books, assisting at a food pantry and serving as a peer mentor to a freshman. Perez also participated in a leadership program, Tomorrow’s Leaders Today, and serves as a role model to her siblings and her many cousins, 40 alone within close ties.

Perez is breaking gender and cultural boundaries within her family.

“It’s like this pyramid, everything is so interconnected,” Cortes-McPherson said. “Her parents may not have access to education, but they have good values. Maybe the only piece that was missing (for Perez) was the emotional support.”

The idea of attending college is daunting in many ways for Perez and her parents. She has already qualified for two grants and is awaiting word on several scholarships. Leaving home for college is “a huge transition” for the entire family, Perez said.

Working with Cortes-McPherson and 10,000 Degrees college advisor Diana Cruz “has been one of the greatest opportunities offered to me,” Perez said. “They’ve made me realize what I want and how to achieve it. It has definitely been an incredible experience.”

For more information, visit 10000degrees.org.