School as Sanctuary

“I fully recognize the need for caring and understanding people. That is why I want to help others who are in need of compassion, kindness and a second chance.”

It was just before sunrise one day in 2016, and Dylan Carter came to a stark realization.
His life was at a crossroads. 
He had two choices: stay in a strained home life with his late father – in an environment where he said his life was in peril – or leave. 
He chose the latter.

Three years later, Carter is beginning his first year at San Diego State University and looking ahead to a bright future.
“If I was going to build a better life for myself, I had to get out,” Carter said. 
Carter lived in San Diego until he was about six, when his mother died and his father moved him and his three brothers to Hemet. 
His father served in the U.S. Navy but his retirement led to a difficult transition, Carter said. For Carter, life at home spiraled downward.

“It was around eighth or ninth grade when I started to realize that my home life wasn’t normal,” he said.

As his home situation worsened, Carter developed depression and chronic anxiety attacks. By his freshman year at Tahquitz High School, the attacks were so debilitating  Carter would black out up to 15 times a day. 
“I started to have fainting spells where my hearing would go out and my vision would go black, and I’d wake up and be on the floor,” he said. 

School became Carter’s sanctuary. He spent hours on campus before and after school, joining various  clubs and organizations. And he also started working odd jobs to save up money to make his most important purchase – a car.
By 10th grade, he’d finally saved enough. The next morning, he got in the car, drove away from his home and never returned. 

Carter moved into a room at an aunt’s house and used the money from his jobs to pay for rent and utilities. He credited his relatives for keeping him off the streets.

“I am very appreciative for my aunt and uncle for taking me in. Dividing up the rent, utilities, and other miscellaneous bills taught me how to live on my own and how to budget,” Carter said. “They are genuine people who helped me out when I had nowhere else to go. I would have ended up finding a new place to live or I would have ended up homeless once again without them.” 

Meanwhile Carter continued to “immerse myself in education.” He was captain of the Color Guard, sang in the choir, was in drama club and was an officer in the Key Club. He took multiple AP courses and was concurrently enrolled in the local community college, Mount San Jacinto College. (By the end of Carter’s first semester at SDSU, he will technically be a sophomore.)
When Carter won Student of the Month at the beginning of his senior year, one of his teachers recognized his resolve.

“There are things that Dylan has had to experience in his life at such a young age that would break an older person,” said his AVID teacher, Kacy Simpson. “However, this young man has persevered and works harder than most.” 

But it wasn’t all hard work, Carter said. His extracurricular activities helped him forge lasting friendships with people who would become his surrogate family, even as his relationship with his immediate family fell apart. His eldest brother, with whom he was closest, died three years ago, and he doesn’t have contact with his two living brothers. 

Carter’s hard work paid off when he graduated eighth in his 400-student senior class and was accepted into SDSU. He was the recipient of several scholarships and is a participant in the Guardian Scholars program, which is overseen by the Office of Educational Opportunity Programs and Ethnic Affairs. It provides year-round support and resources to students who are current or former foster youth, wards of the court, under legal guardianship or unaccompanied homeless youth.

“The EOP and Guardian Scholars program reached out to me during the whole application process until the present, and they made me feel as if I had a family at SDSU before I even accepted the offer of admission,” Carter said. “The music, theater and psychology programs also brought me to SDSU.”

Carter said he doesn’t dwell on the dark days of his childhood. Rather, he focuses on the positive effects his experience could have on others. Currently undeclared, Carter said he is considering becoming a psychology major to ultimately help others deal with depression and anxiety. 

“It was no longer about the traumatic things that have been done to me,” Carter said, “but it was about the things that I could say or do to encourage others. Through all the pain and adversity … I fully recognize the need for caring and understanding people. That is why I want to help others who are in need of compassion, kindness and a second chance.”