Kaila McDonald was only 16 years old the day she ran away from home. Two years later, she was working sixty to eighty hours a week, and living out of her car.

McDonald, a Redwood graduate, was robbed of a typical childhood, growing up in a home surrounded by sex, drugs and violence. By January 2008 she had put up with enough, and made one of the most monumental decisions of her life.

“I just couldn’t take it and I needed to run away. I knew that if I never got out, I would never be able to make it, and it was time that I took the initiative,” she said.  “At first I was really scared and I regretted it, but then I realized I had made the right choice because I ended up in a situation where I was able to get resources and help.”

McDonald’s story is just one of hundreds of homeless teens living in the Bay Area, although the majority of this population is hidden from the public eye.

“If you go to Berkeley, homelessness is extremely prominent, it’s on the streets, and it’s not hidden. But if you come to Marin, the kids here couch surf or sleep in cars, and less people see it.”

McDonald lived in Marin County where her relatives were willing to take her in to prevent her from being placed in foster care. She then attended Redwood for her junior and senior year of high school.

“I didn’t really have friends at Redwood,” she said. “I worked in the CEA during lunch and break, and the way I planned my schedule, I would leave right after school and walk over the ramp to Noah’s Bagels. I would work six to seven hours a night, and then I would either take the bus or walk the 2 miles home, and then wake up at 6 in the morning and do it all over again.”

According to McDonald, Redwood provided her with incredible resources and opportunities that ultimately made it possible for her to go to college.  During the few months between high school graduation and college, however, McDonald did not have anywhere to stay.

“After I graduated high school, my social security money had stopped and I was completely independent,” she said. “But I still felt fortunate, because I at least could live out of my car, while there are some young homeless people sleeping outside in parks. I was lucky enough never to experience that, but living out of my car still had a detrimental effect. It gets really lonely, just being out all the time with nobody really there but still working and waiting to go to college.”

During this time, McDonald would do whatever she could to make money for herself. “I would do undercover catering jobs where I was able to just get cash, I even sold knives. I was just doing whatever I could to make money.”

McDonald is now a freshman at UC Berkeley, double majoring in political science and psychology, with a minor in philosophy.

“I love everything about my life,” she said. “I’m 18 years old and what I’m doing now after all that I’ve been through is pretty remarkable. I’ve learned so much and I’m just so glad to have that knowledge, I’m happy I learned this stuff now instead of when I was 30 years old.”