SRA scholar charts new life path with support of North Bay family

BODEGA BAY -- For many first-generation college students, education is their ticket to a better future and that sometimes means moving far away from their family. For Students Rising Above scholar Josh Collins it took going across the country to realize the value of his family.

It was never quiet in Josh Collins' home and he was rarely alone. Josh is one of quadruplets. They were known around town as "The Quad." Wherever they went there were always questions.

"Usually they ask if we can read each other's minds. Who's the oldest, who's the 'best quad?'" Collins recalled.

When Josh and the quad came home from the hospital, reality set in. Money was tight and there was domestic violence. The pressures of caring for quadruplets got to be too much. A few months after they were born, their father left. The quad and their mother moved in with their grandmother in Bodega Bay.

For a brief time, life was simpler.

"We were just together and happy it just felt like that's how it should be. That was the year that our mom passed away," Collins said.

His mother passed away from cancer. Josh and his siblings stayed in Bodega Bay with their grandmother Marilyn. But most of his childhood memories were clouded by toxic relationships with other extended family members who stepped in to help after his mother died.

As Josh got older he felt the walls of the small town start to close in. He was desperate to find his own identity, separate from  the quad.

"I had to get out of there. I needed to rise above and escape through education," he said.

Josh escaped 3,000 miles away to Bates college in Maine. He began his freshman year in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that year he was diagnosed with a heart condition and found himself missing the connection and support he had with his siblings.

Josh's sister Dani is also a Students Rising Above scholar and the program not only helped them attend college but it also helped them with housing and even mental health support.

This spring Josh is expected graduate with a degree in biology. His goal is to come back home to the Bay Area to work in biotech and make new memories with his grandmother and "The Quad."