As a child, Sara Gasca couldn’t imagine where she is now and the future opportunities ahead. Her concerns were more basic — finding food, avoiding abuse, survival.

Her mother used streetwalking to pay for her habit, she said. Gasca’s family was racked by drugs and abuse. She was shuttled around to grandparents, a father who was barely able to keep a family together. Her siblings were in and out of jail, and the family was regularly visited by Child Protective Services.

The 30-year-old first-generation college sophomore at Santiago Canyon College said she doesn’t want to “trauma dump,” but in her youth “college was not on the table.”

Although Gasca has reconciled with her mom, who is about 20 years sober and shares her story with church groups, her early life was roiled by turmoil.

Toda

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