Straightened up and flying right -- Evolution Award winner Jesse Carranza has gotten his life back on track. SFVS / MIKE TERRY

IT'S BEEN NEARLY TWO weeks since Valley native Jesse Carranza celebrated the Fourth of July by receiving the Alfred Anthony Flores Jr. Evolution Award, presented by the Communities In Schools to area youths who get a second chance to rebound from poor, early lifestyle decisions.

But neither the honor nor the meaning of the award has faded from Carranza's thoughts or his heart.

"It's almost overwhelming, but in a good way, because it motivates me," said Carranza, 21.

"Every time I look at the award I think of what his sister Gina said, how he never had a second chance and I do. I want to take advantage of that opportunity as much as I can."

Carranza, a former amateur boxer now attending Los Angeles Valley College to study cinematic arts, also thinks he can be a role model for others who made questionable decisions but want to change the direction of their lives.

And Carranza needed to make a change.

As a teenager, growing up in Arleta with single mother Florinda Campos, and two younger sisters Emily and Nicole Montoya (a third sister,Angie Carranza, would come after Florinda remarried), Carranza had started getting into trouble. He was hanging out with gang members and becoming attracted to drugs, first marijuana then crystal methamphetamine. He was in danger of becoming another promising youth who lived too fast and died too young.

That reversal of fortune did not come easily. First Carranza needed life-changing mentors. Then he needed a life-changing moment.

His mentors came first. There was Communities In Schools counselor Miguel Flores who believed Carranza was a life worth saving, and began to press him on staying in school and getting off the streets.

"[Flores] pushed me to go to the gym," Carranza said. "At first, I would always run away from him, do bad stuff, do drugs, be with the wrong friends.And he would show up in his car with his partner and say 'what are you doing?'

"Miguel started giving me advice and it got into my head. He made me realize the life I was living wasn't worth it. I want to stand out and above the rest."

Flores steered Carranza toward the boxing and martial arts gym Heart of Champions in Sylmar, run by Blinky Rodriguez and his wife, the late Lilly Urquidez Rodriguez. Both were champion boxers and kick boxers; in fact Blinky and Lilly were the first husband and wife to fight on the same professional boxing card in California, back in 1979. Both are in the California Boxing Hall of Fame.

Blinky, executive director of Communities In Schools, a nonprofit youth advocacy organization based in North Hills, said Lilly was the first to spot Carranza's potential.

"Miguel had his son training there before Jesse came," Blinky said. "They started bringing Jesse, and Lilly could see that the kid was smart but he was blowing it. She really liked him, but she caught him smelling like pot. She told me to keep an eye on him, told me he loves to write.

"We knew he had talent. He could fight but he had others gifts."

"Lilly was a great inspiration in my life because she wanted me to focus more on school than boxing," Carranza said. "She saw that a lot of us (neighborhood kids) weren't making it education wise."

It didn't hurt, either, that Lilly - a featherweight - had a punch that could knock out a bear.

"I got hit by her," Carranza said. "And I realized she wasn't no joke. She taught me how to turn my shoulders the right way and put your whole body into one punch. That's one of the things she taught me."

Even though Carranza immersed himself into training - "my routine used to be waking up at 5 a.m., running 4-5 miles, going to school, after school going to train some more 4-5 hours," Carranza said - he hadn't completely weaned himself from bad influences.

He originally got into boxing to be, in Carranza's words, "a street fighter and beat someone's [behind]." In 2004, at age 15, a friend convinced Carranza to take part in street fight with rival gang members that, Carranza was told, would be a two-on-two battle in an alley.

That's not what happened.

"The 'two-on-two' turned out to be a 'two-on-six'with older men, and they had bats," Carranza said. "I couldn't run away from that, and ended up getting jumped. I have an ugly scar on the back of my head that is covered up after letting my hair grow out.

"I was lucky. I went to the hospital, got stitches."

More fortunate than Alfred Flores Jr., 18, who was shot and killed in April last year by a gang member outside of Northridge 7-11 store.

"Alfred was a prime example of what can happen to a young kid who's in the wrong place at the wrong time, Carranza said. "That's why I always choke up when I hear Gina say 'you have a second chance and he didn't.'

"From that moment on I wanted to become a boxer. I had started boxing (as a way) to turn my life around. But that motivated me to protect myself."

Carranza was one of 30 candidates considered for the Evolution Award, according to Bobby Arias, president of Community In Schools. When asked what made Carranza stand out, Arias was candid.

"We had worked with Jesse for eight years,"Arias said. "Sometimes people want to give up too quickly on children; we feel you can't give up on them ever. He personified the type of kid we had worked with who finally found his passion.

"While Jesse never met Alfred, both trained under Lilly.And both their stories were similar; both had their youthful indiscretions. But losing your life like Alfred was not one of them for Jesse. This was a young man making the best use of his second chance and that was the final factor.We felt he personified what Alfred's legacy will be, overcoming obstacles and making good decision and being a productive citizen."

Carranza remained active in Lilly and Blinky's gym a few more years. Still, his interest in becoming a boxer has dissipated. Instead, Carranza is turning to his creative side. He has always liked writing, dashing off poetry and producing articles for the San Fernando High school paper. He hopes to finish Valley College in the fall semester, and then transfer to Cal State Northridge to further study cinematic arts.

At present Carranza rents a home in North Hollywood with good friend Mike Gelles, who recently graduated from Northridge with a degree in cinema and television arts. "He wants to make movies and I want to write movies," Carranza said.

PHOTO COURTESY / FRED FLORES

Like many students, Carranza struggles to keep up with tuition costs and rent, by getting financial aid and "help from Mike." The $500 he received along with the Evolution Award will go toward books this semester. But he has volunteered at the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office and Fox Studios this summer, has also done an internship at Warner Brothers Studio.

He has also found employment. He said he will begin working as an extra in an untitled movie being produced by Scott Budnick, whose credits include "The Hangover," "School For Scoundrels," and "Starsky And Hutch."

"Scott has a history of helping young people," said Blinky, who introduced Carranza to Budnick when Carranza tried unsuccessfully to get into USC's film school. Budnick also helped Carranza get the internship at Warner Brothers.

BothArias and Blinky said they want Carranza to be opportunistic and be willing to help others like he was helped.

Carranza said he understands that message.

"I want to give back to my community," he said. "Giving that same effort that others gave me. I really take that to heart.Without that aspect of giving back, I would not be doing any of this film stuff, or making it in general."

Mike Terry can be contacted at