About 35 students at Piner High School spent Tuesday morning listening to talks from professionals from around Sonoma County about how they found their career and what it took for them to get there.

The routes were not at all what students expected.

When Diane Winsby, owner of Drapes & More Interiors, talked of her circuitous route from being a typist with the FBI to a human resources director for major company, kids listened. But when they really tuned in was when she began speaking of her childhood in an abusive home rocked by poverty.

She told students that she and her brother, as teenagers, rode around picking berries so they could sell them in order to buy milk and bread.

“I was embarrassed. I didn’t want anyone in class to know how bad it was at home,” she said. “My brother and I both rose above that.”

It made an impact on some students.

“Just to see all the things she went through and she still ended up being somebody. You don’t hear that much,” said freshman Jorge Gudino. “You mostly hear about people who are rich and it’s set up for them.”

Sophomore Karissa Krowe said Tuesday’s half-day event will motivate her to dedicate herself more to school, something she admits has been a struggle.

“My social life gets in the way…texting in class,” Krowe said.

“She’s very social,” classmate Ashley Bruno said.

“I’m worrying about when the next something is with your friends instead of doing homework,” Krowe said.

But Krowe said she is ready to change her ways.

“I have been feeling that way for awhile but this gives me a little push,” she said of Tuesday’s event in Piner’s library.

The event was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West, which offered a similar program at Ridgway High School in October.

Gary Lucas, owner of Communications now told students of his harsh childhood in which he started drinking at 10 and joined a violent biker gang.

A student asked him, “Hells Angels?”

No, but he knew them, Lucas said.

“I learned long time ago when you join a group like that, you are asked to do a lot of things. And when you join, the repercussions come years later,” he said. “It’s such a relief not to have to look over your shoulder.”

Lucas said pulling himself out of the life he was leading didn’t come easily.

“When you want to turn your life around, it doesn’t happen automatically. It doesn’t happen quickly,” he said.