It was about 14 years ago when Jack Mandel individually invited a group of twenty-something to his home in Fullerton.
“Invited” really is not the correct word.
“I expect you to be at my home,” Mandel told Rosa Diaz. “I will receive you in the receiving room.”
Diaz, as with the others invited, credits Mandel’s assistance with getting her to college. When budget cuts limited after-school hours for Santa Ana school libraries, Mandel, a longtime Orange County judge, figured out a way to keep the Santa Ana High School library open so students could study there under his mentorship and tutoring.
Diaz said she thought the requested visit to the Mandel home would be of the one-on-one variety. But there in the “receiving room” – more a smaller, casual second living room, Diaz said – were other Santa Ana alum Mandel mentored.
“Many years ago,” Mandel told them, “I said to you, ‘What I do for you, I want nothing in return.’
“Well, I misspoke.”
Mandel told them he had met tech entrepreneur Henry T. Nicholas, III, who wanted to use his wealth to benefit even more students like those gathered, students with plentiful potential but a paucity of resources.
Mandel and Nicholas were going to launch after-school educational enhancement programs for Santa Ana kids. And Mandel informed those invited to his home that day that they were going to help get it started.
Since then, the Nicholas Academic Centers have grown, now anchored by three physical locations in Santa Ana – at Century and Valley high schools and one in the downtown.
Mandel died on Dec. 24 at age 84. Various health complications led to congestive heart failure.
He was born in 1936 in Erie, Pa., attended Allegheny College and then went to law school at the University of Pennsylvania. He served in the Air Force as a captain and got his master’s at the University of Arizona.
With his wife, Judy, Mandel settled in Fullerton. Jack and Judy both had two children from previous marriages.
Mandel set up his family law practice in Orange County, was named Trail Lawyer of the Year by the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association in 1974 and became a Superior Court judge in 1981. Mandel made an unsuccessful run for the California Assembly.
He also had great impact as a philanthropist. Mandel followed the Jewish philosophy “Tikkun Olam,” which translates to “repair the world.”
“It means,” his wife, Judy, explained, “‘the world is broken and if you see something that needs fixing it’s your obligation to fix it.’”
Mandel established his law practice in Anaheim in the late 1960s. A couple of years later, Steven A. Silverstein set up his practice in the same building on Euclid Street. They became good friends, sharing breakfast most mornings, while often being rivals in the courtroom.
“We had cases against each other for a number of years,” Silverstein said. “Jack’s a liberal Democrat and I’m a conservative Republican. And I even voted against him!”
It wasn’t long after Mandel had become a judge (“a great judge, a very smart judge with a heart of gold” as described by Silverstein) when Mandel told Silverstein about the library closures and how he was trying to fill the gaps and help with the education and college prospects of the high school kids.
Mandel talked Silverstein into hiring a Santa Ana High student as a file clerk. There would be more.
“I think everyone Jack tutored, he sent to me to be file clerks,” Silverstein said.
Silverstein figured there had to be a better way to help the kids then just keeping libraries open and tutoring people. Silverstein suggested to Mandel that he start a foundation, raise some money for it and get himself a tax deduction.
Mandel was not interested.
Silverstein said he has had many of the county’s wealthier residents as clients. Among them Nicholas, who with Henry Samueli founded the Broadcom Corporation that made both of them billionaires. Nicholas is an active philanthropist in Orange County, often supporting housing, veterans and arts groups.
“So I go to Henry and said, ‘I got this idea for a charity, you’re always giving money to everyone ‘” Silverstein said. “I tell Henry about Jack and Henry says, ‘Sounds wonderful … how much?’”
Mandel and Nicholas met, Nicholas started with an initial donation of $500,000 and agreed to continue financial support, and, as Silverstein said, “It’s a win-win for all: It’s great for Jack, it’s great for Henry, it’s great for the kids.”
Santa Ana school board member John Palacio said Mandel has made a big difference in many lives.
“If you follow Jack’s history as a judge,” Palacio said, “you see that he was always fair-minded and giving. He always believed youth should be given a second chance. That’s why he valued schools as much as he did.”
Diaz was a high-achieving student. But there are sometimes ceilings that students just can’t bust through.
“I met Jack when I was 16 years old, an undocumented kid at Santa Ana High School,” Diaz said. “I had loving teachers and counselors, and loving parents and all of that. But there was a lot of anti-Latino immigrant in the 1990s.
“Jack made me believe in myself, that there could be a better life for me and if I worked hard I could put myself there,” she said. “He helped pay for my immigration papers and he helped get me into Allegheny. He was an ever-loving mentor for me, and I’m not the only one.”
And yes, she was a Silverstein file clerk.
When Mandel recruited Diaz and the others for the tutoring centers, he told them: “I am too white, I am too old and I am too irrelevant for this generation and I think students will listen to you.”
“And of course we’re not going to say no,” Diaz said. “That was not an option.”
Diaz now is executive director of the Nicholas Academic Centers.
The centers have had 1,479 students graduate through the program, with around 90% going on to college. Among the more recent is Santa Ana High senior Cielo Echegoyen, who has been accepted at Harvard.
“We have a lot of wealthy people in Orange County,” Silverstein said. “most of whom give a significant amount of money way beyond what Jack ever did, or could ever do.
“The difference is this: If you have a baker who’s got a successful bakery and he bakes 1,000 loaves a day and gives away 100 of them, that’s a generous, magnanimous guy. Jack, though, if he had one loaf for his family he’d give that one loaf away to someone who needs it.”
Diaz said she visited Mandel once a week in recent months as his health declined.
“I saw Jack the night before he passed,” she said. “I sat down with him, thanking him for everything he had done, and giving him the update about what was going on at the center.
“And the last words I heard from him were, ‘We did good.’”
"lasting" - Google News
January 09, 2021 at 05:06AM
https://ift.tt/38s4J8j
Jack Mandel left a lasting legacy, helping Santa Ana students get to college - OCRegister
"lasting" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2tpNDpA
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Jack Mandel left a lasting legacy, helping Santa Ana students get to college - OCRegister"
Post a Comment