The Press Enterprise: Congressman tells students to set goals
Rep. Mark Takano is working in his dream job as a congressman, and Tuesday morning, he got to do his favorite part, talking to students at the Riverside schools he had attended.
Takano addressed an assembly of the eighth-graders at Arizona Middle School and then went to talk to 12th-grade government students at La Sierra High School, both in Alvord Unified School District in southwest Riverside.
“My favorite part of my job is to do this, listen to the people in the district, especially young people, so I can hear what’s on your mind,” Takano, a Democrat, told eighth-graders.
“This is my dream job, actually,” he said.
He told students how he rose from a childhood in what was then the poor part of town to serve in Congress.
“I am the result of many years of planning, and sticking to that plan,” Takano said, urging students to set goals.
Takano, a Riverside resident, taught high school in Rialto and served 22 years as a Riverside Community College District trustee before his election in November.
Even in middle school, Takano said he thought someday he would be a congressman, although he had a backup plan too. He urged students to plan for their futures.
At least some of the eighth-graders got the message.
“I though it was pretty cool because I’ve never seen a congressman before,” student Alexandra Reed said. “It shows anything is possible.”
Classmate Natalie Ibarra said she was impressed with how Takano started at her school and is in Congress now. “And how he went from a teacher to a congressman,” added Alyssa Serrato.
He told students how he went to Arizona and La Sierra High. His mother went back to work as a secretary at North High School across Riverside when he was in third grade, and Takano said he had to watch his younger brothers. She would talk about how students had gotten into prestigious universities, such as Princeton, and the grades and extracurricular activities they had to get admitted.
“I was a fourth- or fifth-grader at Myra Linn (Elementary School) when I started to think about my future,” Takano said. “I had decided I wanted to go to Harvard because that’s where presidents go.”
Takano said his family used education to advance.
His parents and grandparents were interned during World War II, when his grandfather lost all his property and came to Riverside to start over.
Takano recalled that when he was young, his father worked in a grocery store until he graduated from Cal Poly Pomona and was able to go to work for the city of Riverside for more pay and better hours.