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Patty Hewitt is one of 18 students in the state to receive an award that recognizes young people who overcome great obstacles to reach success.

Fremont grad left jail behind for honors

By Justin Berton

Patty Hewitt sat in jail for 30 days during her sophomore year at Lynbrook High School.

Last year, after transferring to Fremont High School, she sat as the senior class president.

It was in juvenile hall, where Hewitt was serving time for assault, that she began to plot her turnaround. "In jail, you have so much time to think," Hewitt said. "I saw girls in there--pregnant girls--that were talking about the [bad] things they were planning to do once they got out. I knew that's not what I wanted."

Earlier this year, Hewitt was one of only 18 students in the state to receive an award that recognizes students who overcome great hurdles to reach success.

"When I got that," Hewitt said of the award from the Association of California School Administrators, "That's when I knew I had changed."

"This is a very prestigious award," said Mike Hawkes, Fremont Union High School district associate superintendent. "Patty was chosen because even though she was having a difficult time, her leadership skills were easily identifiable."

Hawkes helped arrange Hewitt's return to the district after the student had served out her sentence at juvenile hall. Hewitt decided to go to a new high school where she knew few people and, better yet, only few people knew her.

"At Fremont, when I first got there, people just smiled at me when I walked down the halls," Hewitt said. "It was such a different place."

Hewitt decided to keep her past a secret from those she befriended. Before she went to Fremont, her surrounding influences were dragging her into a life of drinking, apathy and senselessness.

"I was just really curious about this world," Hewitt said. "Every teenager wants to be known, to have an identity--at least have a reputation."

During her Lynbrook years, Hewitt and her friends quickly received a reputation and, after getting into a brawl that couldn't be brushed aside as her first offense, Hewitt was sent to jail.

While there, Hewitt thought of the pain her parents were going through as she became their third and final child to sit behind bars.

Hewitt's two older brothers, Juan and Miguel, were also incarcerated in Sacramento and Oklahoma.

"I wanted my parents to be proud," Hewitt said. "I wanted them to know all this wasn't their fault."

With the help of Fremont administrators, and looking within herself for inspiration, Hewitt decided to make a change.

Quickly, she took a more active role in her school and her life. She joined the Student Organization of Latinos, the track team and the drill squad. She took honor and AP classes and lifted her G.P.A. to a respectable 3.5.

She also began to volunteer her spare time. Last Christmas, Hewitt and a friend collected used sweaters and coats from Fremont students and piled them into her little Geo Storm.

The two drove to San Francisco and handed out holiday care packages and clothing to more than 70 homeless people.

In her nominating essay for Hewitt, Fremont high school assistant principal Peggy Raun-Linde praised Hewitt for "the student she is, the woman she has become."

Hewitt will attend UC-Santa Barbara to study microbiology in the fall, and hopes one day she can help bring medicine to families who live in poverty in other parts of the world.

"People look out there and they know people are starving in China or wherever, and they think somebody else will take care of it. I'll take care of it. That's fine with me," she said.

Now, when Hewitt runs into friends from her early high school years, she hears the stories of what her future might have been.

"I hear this person is in jail, this person dropped out, this person is doing the same thing," she said.

"They have to learn for themselves," Hewitt said. "I just hope they learn before it's too late."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 22, 1998.
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