USD Magazine Summer 2021

was old enough to register people to vote. And it went from there.

or for the Day contest in 1988. That was the first time I ever came to City Hall. That was an opportunity to ex- press what I’d learned by reading the paper and watching the news. I took what I’d learned and put it into an essay. And the thing about politics is that if you’re willing to work for free, they’ll put you to work. So as soon as I had a bus pass and my parents were willing to let me ride by myself, I just started volunteering on campaigns. And they put me to work. I certainly wasn’t old enough to vote, but I

who may be in their second or third year and are unsure what major they want to declare. I was never that guy. We may not have had a lot of resources, but my parents always took the newspaper. I read the paper every day as far back as I can think of. And I’d watch the news from 5:00 until 7:00 each night, both national and local. That was of interest to me, in the way that other kids were excited to go play sports or read comic books. And there were different outlets for me to express that, one was as a finalist in the May-

President Joe Biden alongside San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.

That’s fantastic. Tell me, how did you make the decision to come to USD? Three reasons. Number one is that my grandmother’s home — the home my father was raised in — is literally in USD’s backyard. While no one in our family had ever gone to college, I played at her house, and she was a good Catholic grandmother who was always say- ing, ‘That’s where I want you to go to school.’ I give her credit for planting the seed and making it real. I remember her saying, ‘It’s

right there. It’s not abstract. You could come have lunch with me and then go to class.’ Second, when I was in high school, I was chosen for the Enter- prise Fellows Program, which was where I first met Congresswoman Susan Davis. And one of the facili- tators was a woman named Rosa- rio Iannacone ‘92 (BA), who was a student at USD. She was basically a mentor in the group. And I joined her on campus, which was

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Summe r 2021