You had an innovative way to finance the beginning of your higher education.

Both my parents were farm workers. Education was something my family always said was the building block for achieving our dreams. [But] my father didn't know how I would pay for school. I told him I would help.

I earned minimum wage stacking boxes. And I put on the one suit I owned, one of those really itchy suits. I bought it two sizes too large so I could grow into it. I wore this itchy navy blue suit through the Coachella Valley and I would go to local business owners and hand them a contract offering them an opportunity to invest in their community by investing in my education. They would give me $20 or $40 and I raised $2,000, which paid for two years of books back then.

Seventeen years later, I came back home to fulfill that promise. And the very first places I went to do my community work were the farm-worker trailer parks.

And that journey began in Westwood.

An affordable, high-quality education is what allowed me to progress in my path to service to others, and it is vital that we continue to provide those opportunities to students around Southern California and the nation. Our universities and institutions have community responsibilities to serve and advance the wellness of our society to apply knowledge and engagement to serve others. I’m proud that UCLA was the first model of that in my academic and professional development.