UC Merced police officer sharing his path to success

The early years of Nick Navarrette's life might seem anything but a laminated calling card to success.

As he grew up on welfare, in a single-parent South Merced Latino household, there was no shortage of economic and cultural hurdles barring Navarrette's path to manhood.

Through hardships and setbacks, however, Navarrette not only survived his youth -- he excelled well into his adult years. "Statistically, my brother and I shouldn't be where we're at," remarked Navarrette, 30.

These days, Navarrette is a police officer with the UC Merced Police Department. His younger brother, Zachary Urena, 24, recently graduated from California State University, Stanislaus, with a degree in international business and finance.

For Navarrette, however, moving into a stable career didn't mean forgetting to give back to his community. He spearheads the UC Merced Police Department's Mentor Program, where UC Merced students serve as positive role models for youth growing up in South Merced. "This was an opportunity for me to come back and do something where I grew up." he explained.

When Navarrette and his fellow officer Maria Botwright launched the program in fall 2006, they fielded five UC Merced students to serve as mentors to fourth-grade students at Alicia Reyes Elementary School in South Merced.

Three years later, "Officer Nick," as he's called by the children, oversees 50 UC Merced students who serve as mentors at Alicia Reyes School. The program serves around 120 children at the school, referred to as "Junior Bobcats" (the Golden Bobcat is UC Merced's mascot).

Navarrette, who has two children of his own at Alicia Reyes, conceived the program after UC Merced Police Chief Rita Spaur asked him and Botwright to come up with a way to build bridges between the university and the community.

On one hand, the interaction between university mentors and elementary students is geared toward encouraging children to think about college at an early age. On another, Navarrette said it's also to help steer kids away from the lure of gangs.

"What I care about, and what we all care about, is that these kids go to college and that they don't succumb to their environment," Navarrette said. "Our biggest and main goal is to give these kids another opportunity to get out of where they are."

Although community service fits under Navarrette's job description, his contributions to the people of Merced started years before he became a police officer.

By age 9, he was participating in community trash cleanups in South Merced, as well as erasing graffiti from walls and visiting convalescent homes. Navarrette still keeps a collection of old Sun-Star clippings, with articles about volunteer activities in which he participated.

Navarrette said his pride in the community, to a large extent, is because of the vigilance of his mother, Vangie Navarrette. While Vangie worked six days a week as a beautician, she also made sure her children were involved in community activities, even during after-school hours.

"The (parental) supervision, as far as her being there, wasn't really there during normal business hours," Navarrette recalled. "So she made sure that I was involved in programs like Junior ROTC and the Boy and Girls Club, where I could go and spend constructive time."

As Navarrette grew older, his mother encouraged him to do other activities, such as playing saxophone in the school band and sports. Even with her hectic schedule, Navarrette's mom still took time to attend his baseball and football games. "My mom did the best job she could -- which was a good job, I think," he smiled.