For senior Joshua Elizondo, Los Angeles is the home he never had. It’s the city that gave him the opportunity to pursue advocacy and rediscover his passion for entertainment — opportunities he said he feared he would never have.
Growing up in the foster-care system in Detroit, 27-year-old Elizondo said he had to fend for himself in most areas of his life, but he has used his story to inspire others and to advocate for change. He is now part of Pepperdine’s Horizon Scholars Program, an initiative dedicated to supporting current and former foster youth students in their pursuit of higher education, working as a student assistant.
“I’ve chosen to renarrate the things that I’ve gone through to be more positive,” Elizondo said.
Moving From the Foster System to Los Angeles
Elizondo entered the foster-care system in Detroit when he was 11 after his grandmother, who raised him, died. He said his birth parents were not able to take care of him, so he was left without a stable living environment.
“It really just put me in a position where in high school I didn’t really form close relationships or bonds,” Elizondo said.
While navigating childhood on his own, Elizondo found himself in five different high schools over five years.
During his senior year of high school, at only 18, Elizondo moved to Los Angeles. He said this empowered him and gave new meaning to his life.
“For me, moving across the country really was that step of independence that gave me control over my life,” Elizondo said. “Being in foster care, a lot of your life is dictated and you have decisions made for you.”
When he first moved to Los Angeles in 2014, Elizondo joined California Youth Connections — an organization dedicated to helping foster youth participate in the legislative process to help shape the foster system. Three years later he was appointed to the board of directors.
Elizondo also started his own organization called the Foster Bunch in 2016 to help expose foster youth to the entertainment industry and reshape how the media portrays foster care.
“A lot of times people relate to foster care as something separate from them,” Elizondo said. “Part of what my organization and just my own personal mission in entertainment is to change that narrative.”
Elizondo said he hoped to transfer to Pepperdine after pursuing community college, but obstacles sidetracked his plans. In 2018, everything crumbled.
“I became homeless,” Elizondo said. “I was living in my car.”
While Elizondo said the foster-care system forced him to be independent at a young age, his experience of homelessness at only 22 years old deepened what that meant to him.
“That was part of really learning a new form of independence because independence doesn’t necessarily mean alone,” Elizondo said. “Independence means being able to advocate for yourself and understand balance.”
Elizondo said he continued to attend Santa Monica College while sleeping in his car, using facilities on campus and couch surfing for six months.
In an effort to serve his community, Elizondo also presented to a UCLA classroom full of social workers — teaching about the importance of including foster youth in efforts to improve the system.
“I knew that getting out of my car, even though I was homeless, would potentially impact the lives of the 30 or 40 students in that classroom,” Elizondo said. “And then the hundreds of foster youth in the system that they would eventually go on to work with.”
Elizondo Makes a Lasting Impact on the Horizon Scholars Program
After finding out about Pepperdine’s Horizon Scholars Program through a Google search, Elizondo said he contacted Program Director Deborah Armstrong to see how he could join. The two remained in contact over several months and Elizondo said they formed a lasting bond.
“She was just so welcoming and so encouraging of being able to come here,” Elizondo said. “Having her in my camp of support and being able to really explain to me what Pepperdine could offer.”
Elizondo said he transferred to Pepperdine in 2021 to pursue a major in international studies with an emphasis in global politics and a minor in social work.
He made it his mission while at Pepperdine to grow the Horizon Scholars Program alongside Armstrong as a student employee — hoping to transform Horizon Scholars from solely being financial services to more focus on community building.
“When I came to Pepperdine I knew that I wanted to make a difference here,” Elizondo said. “I said in my application that the school that I went to would not be the same institution I left.”
Armstrong said Elizondo was not only knowledgeable about the community college system and wrap-around services for foster youth, but he also cared deeply about the students and providing them with necessary support.
“Joshua would give away the moon,” Armstrong said. “He’s all about how can we support a student while they are going through school.”
Working together, Elizondo and Armstrong secured funding from Pepperdine this past year in addition to donor funding for events and merchandise. Armstrong said along with the weekly meetings, participants enjoyed dinner with President Jim Gash and attended their first conference last year, the Blueprint Conference.
Armstrong said there are currently 37 program participants at Pepperdine, five of whom are Seaver undergraduate students. Elizondo and Armstrong said for their oldest participant, a 52-year-old graduate student, and many others in the program, it was their first time sharing their stories.
“They’ve never had a space to really come together and share and know that there’s other people that have experienced the things that they have,” Elizondo said.
Advocacy Beyond Pepperdine
Outside of Pepperdine, Elizondo has continued to make strides in the greater Los Angeles area.
Working alongside California Gov. Gavin Newsom as an appointee to the California Community College Board of Governors in 2021, Elizondo said he oversaw 116 California community colleges made up of almost 2 million students.
Elizondo now serves as an operations committee chair to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors on the L.A. County Youth Commission. Elizondo said he, along with 15 other youth appointees impacted by foster care, juvenile probation and child welfare systems, advises the Board of Supervisors on necessary changes within L.A. County.
“When any change is being made for any population, someone from that population needs to be at the table,” Elizondo said.
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Email Christina Buravtsova: christina.buravtsova@pepperdine.edu
