This article is adapted from the UCLAx Magazine fall 2024 issue.

Cara Sandweiss and Trevis Smith are connected by more than just their Los Angeles roots.

After growing up together in the San Fernando Valley, the pair fell out of touch as struggles with addiction sent each on their own difficult path to recovery – Smith found himself in a series of boys’ homes and rehab centers, while Sandweiss dealt with periods of homelessness and even incarceration.

When she and Smith reconnected on social media in 2018, Sandweiss said, it was clear that they understood each other in a way that few others could. By that time, they had both gotten clean and started working in the rehabilitation and counseling industry, using what they learned from their own experience to help others beat addiction.

“Something in the universe aligned,” Sandweiss said. “We had each been through very difficult experiences and come out the other side.”

Smith started working on the clinical side of substance abuse treatment and mental health in 2006. After years working with individual patients, he opened his first Profound Treatment center in Westwood in 2016. At first focused on outpatient treatment, Smith soon expanded into residential drug rehab, and has since opened seven Profound centers in the LA area, with more on the way.

As his business started to grow, Smith reached out on Facebook to Sandweiss, who after getting clean had earned her Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counseling Certificate from UCLA Extension. By the time they reconnected, she had spent several years working in clinical oversight and administration at Cri-Help, a rehab center where she had once been a patient.

“I knew it would be a natural fit,” Smith said. “She had a skillset that would perfectly support what we were trying to do.”

Still, it took time for Sandweiss to make the jump. Even after she and Smith started dating and got engaged, she stayed in her position at Cri-Help, lending a hand at Profound whenever she could. It wasn’t until 2020 – and after a promise to stay involved at Cri-Help as a member of their board – that Sandweiss started working with Smith full time.

“It ended up being the right decision. We have a really cool dynamic and people see that through the love and care we give to the program,” Sandweiss said. “Where I fall short, he picks me up, and where he falls short, I pick him up.”

Soon after joining, Sandweiss came up with the idea of financing a scholarship for UCLA Extension students as part of Profound’s efforts to give back to the community. She had earned her certificate in counseling as a way of understanding the rehabilitation industry in a deeper way and said her 18 months in the program left a lasting impression. She wanted to be a part of giving that experience to others.

“Working in this industry can be emotionally draining, and you don’t always hear ‘thank you’ and ‘you saved my life’ at the end of it,” Sandweiss said. “But it’s also incredibly rewarding. We wanted to find a way to encourage more people who want to do this work, and who want to do it well, to have the tools they need to get started.”

Delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the scholarship will support its first two students next spring. For Smith, the scholarship stems from a desire to ensure that people in recovery are getting the best care available.

“There is someone out there who would be able to change someone’s life, maybe change a lot of people’s lives, but who doesn’t have the resources to get the education they need,” Smith said. “Helping that person get where they’re going is what this scholarship is all about.”

If you are interested in starting a scholarship at UCLA Extension, visit uclaextension.edu/give.