A Touch of Class

After Manuel Arts: Isabel Duenas

The youngest of three children, Isabel Duenas was in fifth grade when her brother joined a gang, started doing drugs and having run-ins with the law.

“I saw what this was doing to my parents,” Duenas said, recalling visiting her brother in drug rehabilitation centers as a child. “They were suffering. It pushed me away from getting into any kind of gang activity.”

Her family was living in mid-city Los Angeles, in the Crenshaw/Pico area, when they moved to Lynwood, near South Gate and Compton, in order to distance themselves from the gang that got Duenas’ brother into so much trouble.

In middle school, USC’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) recruited Duenas, a stellar student, for its pre-college enrichment program. Through the program, Duenas attended Manuel Arts Senior High School near USC. The program required her to attend school on Saturdays and gave her the opportunity to be mentored by USC students.

All the hard work paid off. On Friday, the 22-year-old graduated from USC College with a bachelor’s degree in American students and ethnicity and in sociology. For her exceptional service to the surrounding community, she was inducted into the Order of Troy.

Isabel Duenas poses in front of the new statute of Traveler, USC’s mascot. The Los Angeles native earned her bachelor’s in American studies and ethnicity, and sociolgoy from USC College. Photo credit Pamela J. Johnson.

During her academic career, Duenas has worked closely with the NAI. She returned to her Lynwood community and presented to high school classrooms a plan showing students how to get into college. She mentored students in neighborhood schools, becoming NAI’s lead math tutor.

As a McNair Scholar, she conducted graduate-level research, advised by USC faculty and graduate students. Homeboy Industries, a L.A.-based program helping to turn around the lives of gang members, became her main research project.  She stresses the importance of institutions such as Homeboy, which has recently sustained crushing financial blows.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that there are better ways to deal with gang members than incarceration,” Duenas said. “I feel that my own brother was influenced more by gangs at a young age while incarcerated.”

In the near future, she plans to either pursue her Ph.D. or attend law school. But on Friday, it was all about the celebration.

“We are so proud of her,” said Isabel’s father, Felipe Duenas, a busboy at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza for 23 years.

Keeping Tikvah Alive: Brian Tenenbaum

When Brian Tenenbaum left his hometown of Miami Beach, Fla., at 17 and arrived at USC College, he immediately became involved with the USC Hillel Jewish Center. The new staff was still unpacking and the upperclassmen and women were already out the door.

There was a sense of disarray and Tenenbaum found himself one of the few members champing at the bit to get things going.

“USC Hillel for me had become a chore rather than a passion,” Tenenbaum recalled. “Late after dinner I found myself stacking chairs and looking at an empty room with a few peers. So we set out to relight our community with a more open spirit and to have more fun.”

The few participants brought in Israeli music and dance. He and the others prepared dinners and invited engaging professionals and community leaders as speakers. Eventually, the students returned. And so did the sense of Jewish community at USC.

Brian Tenenbaum, who earned his bachelor’s in international relations from USC College, was extremely involved with the USC Hillel Jewish Center. He also is the founding member and president of the Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity, USC’s Jewish fraternity. Photo credit Pamela J. Johnson.

“Jewish political and cultural awareness came back to campus in a big way,” Tenenbaum said. “I set out to make my mark.”

And he did. Working as a Caravan For Democracy Fellow, he received mentoring from former Israeli diplomats who taught him how to spark constructive dialogue concerning issues in the Middle East. He brought in competing Jewish student groups to create a cohesive organization on campus. They met with USC’s Armenian Student Assembly and the Muslim Student Union and worked together on joint projects. 

He also became the founding member and president of the Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity. The Jewish fraternity had been established in 1948, but was closed in 1993. It has enjoyed a rebirth after Tenenbaum took the reins in August 2008. Starting with 13 men who met at an apartment, the fraternity now has 40 members and its own chapter house. They’ve raised thousands of dollars for charities such as Fight On For Darfur.

“The legacy one leaves behind after graduation,” Tenenbaum said, “is based upon how one helps those who follow to succeed.”

After meeting Tenenbaum, it comes as no surprise to learn that this confident 21-year-old plans to attend law school. Graduating Friday with a bachelor’s degree in international relations, he’s already well into his master’s classes in public diplomacy at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. By the end of his junior year, he finished the credits he needed for his bachelor’s.

As a Trojan, he’s fiercely loyal.

The vanity plate on his car says it all: Trojan1.

Just Keep Swimming: Evan Marcus

For his first five years, Evan Marcus didn’t speak. He studied the world with intelligent coffee-colored eyes, never trying to utter words.

A few years earlier, his mother who had adopted him from a Guatemalan orphanage took him to a speech therapist, who concluded that the toddler had a language processing disorder. He received rigorous speech therapy and was withheld from pre-school until he began speaking and showing steady progress.

Growing up, Marcus enjoyed the freedom of being underwater, where the pressure from speech therapists was replaced with contemplative silence. He excelled on the swim team at American Heritage School in Plantation, Fla., near Ft. Lauderdale, his hometown. An All-American swimmer in distance freestyle, he made the Guatemalan National Swim Team and began swimming in world championship games.

He missed the Athens 2004 Olympic Games by .30 seconds.

“Words cannot even describe that moment,” said Marcus, 22. “I gave it all my effort. I thought, ‘OK, what can I do to get better?’ ”

Also an academic honors student, Marcus became a Trojan, joining the swim team where he became a solid point scorer at the conference level. Curious about his own heritage and background, he began taking psychology and sociology courses. He was intent on learning why he suffered from speech delay as a child.

Evan Marcus who spent his first six months of life in a Guatemalan orphanage and overcame disabilities earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from USC College. Photo credit Pamela J. Johnson.

Through research, he determined that he received little human contact as an infant and the lack of social interaction contributed to his speech delay. Born to a Mayan Quiche mother, Marcus spent his first six months in the Guatemalan orphanage. 

His early research into disorders morphed into an interest in helping people overcome disabilities. On Friday, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology at USC College, with a minor in occupational therapy in USC’s department of occupational science and occupational therapy.

He’d like to eventually work with disabled war veterans. While a student, he volunteered for USC’s Swim With Mike, a fundraiser for student athletes overcoming life-changing accidents.

Seriously competitive, Marcus knows something about stick-to-it-iveness. After taking a year off to train for the 2008 Olympics, he again missed the team by mere seconds.

“I’ve always been good at picking myself back up,” Marcus said, adding that he gleaned this attribute from his mother, Sharon, a retired teacher and single mother. “She’s more than my mentor. She’s my hero.”