Try a politician who cares about SoCal, and you!

With me you get intelligence, perception, & problem solving.

Hablaré en su evento. I will speak at your event.

 

Education - educación, Professional Life - La Vida Profesional, 

Early Years - Años Tempranos

At work

In more than 30 years of teaching Advanced French and Spanish 1, I have done a lot more than plan lessons, present lessons, tutor, grade papers, submit grades, take tickets at sports events, sit in on special needs meetings, and advise the French and Chess Clubs.

    I taught life skills including spread sheets, life planning, and budgeting. Students did projects on trade jobs, college completion, job searches, and starting small businesses.

    I managed a $90,000 magnet gifted budget that brought the IB program to my site.

    I wrote half of a massive WASC accreditation plan, and served on the Local Control and Accountability Plan team.

    I have sat on advisory committees, overseen teacher training, been a master teacher, been a mentor teacher, and traveled with teens to Europe several times. 

   

 

When I grew up in North Long Beach in the 70s, several of the families in the neighborhood had a mom or a dad who worked at the Robertshaw Appliance Factory. We had working moms and PTA moms, and many of the dads wore blue shirts to work as plumbers, electricians, factory employees, and more. We were black and white. We walked to school together, watched out for each other, and we played together after school at Houghton Park.

 

When the first Mexican-American family moved in, they joined us, and we walked to school together, played together, and watched out for each other. No one in our neighborhood had ever yet met an Asian person, and everyone on the block owned their home. It was when I switched from Hamilton to Hughes Middle school that I finally had the honor of making my first Asian friend.

 

In the 80s, we moved to a house near the traffic circle in Long Beach, where my grandmother rented the unit behind the house from my mom and step-dad. These three people worked together to provide a good life for me, along with some child support from Dad. After my step-dad was diagnosed with cancer, my mom quit her not-so-successful law practice to care for him. She had attended night classes at Wilson High School* for four years then passed the bar exam on the first try. She had taken over my grandfather's not-so-successful law practice. They were very kind lawyers.

 

I have photos of all of the friends that I made at Poly High School, with me, at the parties that I was able to host, at my house near Ximeno and 15th. We were Asian, black, brown, and white, all dancing together and listening to Whitney Houston, The GoGos, and Gloria Estefan. We were from all economic backgrounds, but for the most part, every family owned a home whether it was at the traffic circle, in North Long Beach, on the East Side, on the West Side, on Signal Hill, ..... 

 

*(PCU was Pacific Coast University which was a low cost law school in Long Beach with night classes taught at Wilson High School for decades. They found office space near the traffic circle a few years back. Sadly, this is their last semester in existence. They can no longer compete with other schools' enrollment and online offerings. It is sad to see them go. Both my mother and grandfather graduated from law school there. These 2 very competent lawyers were "not so successful" because neither of them had the stomach for some of the harsher aspects of working in law.)

 

I don't remember what it was that Mitch McConnell had done, again, that reminded me why I had not been a Republican for over 30 years. Mike Pence and the RINOs sure can mess things up. Then memories of George Bush x2 came back, then Dick Cheney & his role in Haliburton and the Iraq War (both of which I had protested against) and that was it, I knew that I would have to be an Independent.