Acorn

Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: TRUE DREW

Media Credit: Charlotte Hammond

Sergio Paredes moved to West Orange, NJ from Peru when he was five years old. Because his mother and father worked long hours to provide for the family, Paredes was really raised by his brother eight years his senior.

The neighborhood in which Paredes was brought up was particularly bad and by the time he got to high school he was heavily involved with drugs and various illicit activities. He was arrested in high school for drug and weapons charges and asked not to return to West Orange High School. After the arrest, Paredes also found himself court-mandated to do community service, volunteering to help senior citizens in his community with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. It was all Paredes needed to gain a fresh perspective on life-especially the one he was leading.

"The people I was helping had such a different view on life. They had stories and they'd traveled," he says in between bites of his sandwich. "They really relaxed me about life in general."

Paredes, who was not even thinking about going to college and wanted to get into work after he graduated, was amazed at how much responsibility he was able to handle at the senior center, let alone surprised that they would even entrust him with such duties given the reason he was volunteering.

"I did a lot of programming and therapy sessions," he remembers. But the most profound revelation he had was discovering how well he could connect to others. "I didn't know I cared so much about people," he says.

It was Paredes' mother who pushed him to apply to college. At this point, Paredes was in his third high school, Oratory Preparatory in Summit-his second high school, Essex Catholic, had closed down forcing him to transfer again. His brother had since enlisted in the marines, having dropped out of college himself.

"I didn't even think I'd get into Drew," Paredes says. "My dad didn't go to college, and I think that's the reason why my mom wanted me to go."

Despite his rough past, Paredes has become one of the most well-liked and respected Drewids on campus.

"I trust him in a lot of things.  He's an asset to the community because he's an open and friendly person and involved in so much," Jamie Jung, his Resident Assistant says. "He's very involved with…the Honduras Project, he's the ECAB chair, he does Ariel, and he lives in La Casa and does stuff there. He is a very friendly and approachable person."

Continued...

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