Growing up in Los Angeles, Dr. Sandra Cano saw gangs and drugs in her neighborhood, but her mother — a housekeeper who worked for some of the city's wealthiest — was determined to give her daughter the best possible education. Cano tells host Giselle Fernandez she was the first in her family to go to college, despite her surroundings, and eventually earned her bachelor's, master's and doctorate. She went on to become a teacher and rose through the ranks to become a principal, putting special focus on English learners — having known from experience the difficulties they face. Today, she is the executive director of the nonprofit City Year Los Angeles, which partners with educators to provide mentors and tutors for children in school.

After five failed attempts to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization, Ivey Van Allen and her husband were ready to try adoption to grow their family and were blessed with a little boy they named Jack. Little did they know, at a six-month check-up with the doctor, their world would flip upside down as Jack was diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia, a disorder caused by the underdevelopment of optic nerves. An avid exercise and yoga enthusiast who owned a fitness studio, Van Allen tells host Giselle Fernandez she felt she understood the human body and jumped at the opportunity to try different types of therapy for Jack, especially after doctors tried to tell her Jack might never walk, talk or see properly. Van Allen worked with Jack daily and moved him into a charter school that promotes an inclusive environment, and when it came time for Jack to attend middle and high school, Van Allen helped develop the schools herself.

The California Community Foundation is dedicated to finding systemic solutions to the biggest issues facing Los Angeles County by addressing the root causes. The foundation gives grants to nonprofit organizations throughout LA that help with poverty, homelessness and racial inequities, and its president and CEO is uniquely equipped to handle her role. Antonia Hernandez tells host Giselle Fernandez she was raised in the Maravilla projects and called derogatory names in school all because she came from Mexico. Determined to prove everyone wrong, she went on to graduate from UCLA's school of law, serve as the head of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and become the first Latina staff counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee under former Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Despite being wicked smart in school, celebrated film and television actor Meredith Scott Lynn — known for her roles in "Legally Blonde" and "Days of Our Lives" — struggled when it came to test-taking and wasn't able to attend the colleges she wanted because of her low SAT scores. Lynn would then throw herself into her creativity and enjoy a successful acting career until one day, when her young niece asked her to read a book, but the book was all illustrations without words. Lynn created a storyline on the spot, and the moment inspired her to put acting on hold and create Write Brain Books, an innovative educational program that helps children tap into their creativity and increase their writing skills. With this program, which is now in 48 states across the U.S., Lynn has proven that kids are so much more than just a test score.

Known on the streets as "Little Mama," nationally recognized gang expert Dr. Jorja Leap spent years studying Los Angeles gang culture to understand why men and women in underserved communities join them. Using the knowledge she gained firsthand by earning the trust of gang members, Leap penned two books that delve deep into gang life to prove to the world that they deserve help and attention. Leap's studies inspired her to co-found the Watts Leadership Institute, which provides resources to community leaders and organizations to create positive change in the neighborhood of Watts. The renowned UCLA anthropologist tells host Giselle Fernandez that it's her die-hard mission to share the stories of those she's come to know.

In 2016, Miry Whitehill answered her friend's call to donate a baby chair to a Syrian family who had just moved to California, only to discover that the family needed so much more. Whitehill made a list of items the family needed in order to get settled and posted it to social media — and soon after, Miry's List was born. Through the nonprofit, Whitehill has been able to help more than 600 families get settled in the U.S. through crowdsourcing and social media. She tells host Giselle Fernandez how she can relate to families she's helped, having grown up in an Orthodox Jewish community and eventually moving to Tel Aviv, where she was a stranger to their customs but welcomed with open arms — and now, she hopes to pay it forward.

As a young boy, José Hernandez worked alongside his Mexican immigrant family, picking fruits and vegetables throughout the San Joaquin Valley and Stockton. When he watched the first astronauts walk on the moon, Hernandez knew right away that he wanted to be just like them, so he followed his father's advice and worked tirelessly through school to become an engineer. It took Hernandez 12 attempts, but his dream was finally set in motion when he was accepted into NASA's space program and got to fly into space at age 47. Today, Hernandez wants to make sure all children have the chance to achieve their dreams the way he did, so he started the Reaching for the Stars Foundation that exposes kids to STEM-related opportunities.

While on a family vacation in 1999, Liza Bercovici received the dreadful news that her 13-year-old daughter Gabriella was killed in an accident. It became clear to Bercovici that she couldn't return to work as a family lawyer and that she needed to do something to memorialize her daughter, who loved to dance. Bercovici tells host Giselle Fernandez that she created the Gabriella Foundation — now called Everybody Dance LA! — despite having no previous nonprofit experience. The low-cost after-school dance program, which has expanded to 28 locations, serves disadvantaged youth in Los Angeles, and every child who participates has gone on to college.

For more than 50 years, famed photographer Greg Gorman has been shooting some of the biggest names in Hollywood — Al Pacino, Barbra Streisand, Elton John — and his portraits are some of the most iconic in the world. Gorman has worked on groundbreaking movie sets ("Scarface," "Tootsie") while also shooting covers for magazines such as Interview and Life. Gorman tells host Giselle Fernandez that his secret to success is getting inside the heads of the people he shoots and making a lasting connection with them. He has put the best of his work in his latest book "It's Not About Me!" and discovered other passions along the way besides photography — such as fishing, teaching and learning about wine.

Life was not easy for Susan Burton, but that did not stop her from creating a nationally acclaimed program, New Way of Life Reentry Project, for formerly incarcerated women and advocating for imprisoned people. Burton, born and raised in South Los Angeles, was sexually assaulted for the first time at the tender age of 4, and the abuse continued until she became pregnant before she could legally drive. Having never processed the trauma, Burton fell into a life of drugs and prostitution but eventually overcame her past and broke the cycle of incarceration after finding help at the former CLARE Foundation in Santa Monica. In this episode of "LA Stories with Giselle Fernandez," Burton describes her astonishment when she realized programs like the one that helped her were not available everywhere in LA.