While I have lived in many places, and called five different states home at one point or another throughout my life, one constant for me has always been a deep connection to public education. I attended public elementary school in a small, rural western New York township. My teenage years were spent in large, suburban Chicago middle and high school halls, where my high school graduating class was roughly the size of my childhood town. As a young adult, I came to learn about the world as a student in two very large public / state universities (Illinois State University & University of Missouri - Kansas City). And now, finally, as a graduate and master in my field, I am driven to pass along my knowledge to the next generation of students, as a tenured professor at Mt. San Antonio College. I am a product of public eduction and would not be the man I am today without those experiences.

For as much of who I am today as I attribute to the opportunities public education has offered throughout my life, my family has also provided me with guidance, support, work-ethic, and a disposition to service. Both of my grandfathers (James Christ and Roland Perkins) served in the armed services, and were honorably discharged from the Army and Marines (respectively) at the end of their enlistments during the Korean conflict. Both began life after service with very little, but managed to work hard, and build a better life for the next generation, including Grandpa Christ founding, operating and passing down a small paving business in the aforementioned small town. My dad worked in that paving business from age 14 - 38, with his older and younger brother, and had my mom not been transferred from the Rochester to Chicago office when I was 10, it is likely I too would have began to work in the family business, as my cousins did. My aunt has been a public servant for that township for over 25 years in their parks and recreation division. Public service, to my family and in my life, is not a thing someone does for recognition or glory; it is the way we choose to ensure the lives our children have will continue to offer more opportunity and enrichment than the generation before.

In my own public service as a teacher, professor, and union leader, I have come to learn and understand how my experiences in life may have been very different from my colleagues, students, and fellow community members. I have lived a life that has allowed me opportunities that are not fully available to all, and I have come to recognize this as the privilege that I have. I can do little to change my own privilege, but when you elect me to represent Area 4 on the Fontana Unified School District Governing Board, I promise to use that privilege to lift up voices needing a platform and be an agent through which change can begin to occur.