Rancho Cielo helps students succeed with a new program to get them on the road.

Jesus “Chuy” Ruben Hernandez still can’t believe he is the owner of his first car, a 2007 VW Jetta he was awarded through a new Rancho Cielo program dubbed RIDE: Rancho Investing in Driver Equity. When a case manager at the school called him at his home in Greenfield to say he could come pick up the car in Salinas, it didn’t seem real. He took the bus to get there.

The car is now Hernandez’s ride into a future he never imagined. He’s currently studying psychology at Hartnell College, determined to one day counsel young people who are struggling as he once did. Growing up he thought school wasn’t for him. Then he entered Rancho Cielo’s program that helps young people ages 16-24 from underserved communities, and with support from the staff, discovered he could succeed.

“I never dreamed I would go to college,” he says. “[Rancho Cielo] changed the trajectory of my life.”

RIDE began after Rancho Cielo’s Equity Committee saw a need for students to gain access to identification, says Jaime Kitz, a Rancho Cielo board member and chair of the committee. They launched a driver’s education program that helped students earn licenses. Free training was offered and Rancho Cielo instructors took students out on the road to get in required practice hours. From there the committee decided to find a way to make cars available to students who demonstrated a certain level of need and maturity.

Three students applied for the new grant but there were only two cars available. After a committee reviewed their applications and interviewed each student, John Phillips, founder of Rancho Cielo, was so moved by each of their stories he went out and found a third car.

The three students were coached on the ins and outs of car ownership, budgeting for expenses and maintenance. “It was probably pretty shocking filling a tank,” Kitz says.

A ceremony was held on Feb. 4 at Rancho Cielo officially awarding the students their cars. “It was very moving,” Kitz says, “the humility they all had and the graciousness they had at the same time. It was almost a sense of relief for them.”

With the first generation of RIDE now complete, the plan is to expand it. Nonprofit leaders will be asking the public to donate cars at Rancho Cielo’s upcoming sold-out fundraiser, the 15th annual Culinary Round Up on Feb. 23 in Monterey.