Just miles from USC and the admissions scandal, these students sell food for college money
LOS ANGELES_It was morning and the campus was still quiet when Vanessa Miranda began to shout, trying her best to draw customers:
"Esquiii-te! Come and get your esquiii-te!"
She and some of her East Los Angeles College classmates were selling sliced corn with mayonnaise, butter and cheese at $3 a cup to raise money for their club, Puente, a program that helps students transfer to four-year universities.
Puentistas hustle year-round to sell tamales, bacon-wrapped hot dogs and coffee with pan dulce to pay for trips to visit colleges across California, mentorship and group activities, and graduation caps and gowns.
Most students are immigrants or the children of immigrants, and the overnight journeys they take in vans and buses to places like they
