From Menace to Marvel - Cherelle Tisby is Making it Right
Cherelle Tisby had a traumatic childhood. She struggled with anxiety and depression
from her years without her mother in an unstable environment. Cherelle bounced around
schools and kept getting into trouble. After violating probation at the age of 15,
the judge placed her in foster care, calling her a menace to society.
Her experience in foster care opened her eyes, and taught her some valuable lessons, including an opportunity to learn about mental health. However, on the day Cherelle graduated after five years in the system, she made a few bad decisions that landed her in trouble with the law. As a result, she found herself in an abusive relationship and pregnant, and spent a year in a juvenile detention center that she described as one of her worst experiences of her life.
Cherelle enrolled at Cerritos College and found her calling in journalism and public relations. She will transfer to a four-year university in the fall to study journalism. In 2017, Cherelle received a Cerritos College Foundation scholarship, and is grateful for the support she received from the College’s financial aid, the LINC foster youth support program, and her professors for their guidance and mentorship. Cherelle has two surviving children after losing two other babies due to complications with premature births. Today, she is a strong supporter of the March of Dimes and helps raise funds for research to prevent premature births. Cherelle has walked the annual Mothers March event for more than a decade.
She hopes to become a motivational speaker, and help troubled youth and those who suffer mental illnesses, anxiety, and depression. One day, she would like to be an advocate for underrepresented population and become a political leader to represent minorities and the underserved.
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