Life Stories Help Propel Communities Forward

SAN BERNARDINO >> Every student, faculty, and staff member on the Cal State San Bernardino campus has a powerful story to tell. And those stories are a reflection of one’s history, one’s background, and, ultimately, their legacy, which will have a profound effect on their communities. That was the focus of the latest “Yotie Talks” featuring Louie F. Rodriguez, a CSUSB associate professor of higher education and co-director of the Doctorate in Educational Leadership program at the university’s College of Education. Rodriguez’s theme: "Our Stories, Our Communities: What Is Our Responsibility to the Inland Empire?" Yotie Talks is a topical lecture program similar to TED Talks, where dynamic experts from CSUSB’s faculty talk about current and topical issues that impact the region, the state and the nation, and encourages questions and discussion from students, faculty, staff, and community residents to promote better understanding. Rodriguez shared his own life story as youth playing basketball on a dirt court with a makeshift backboard and hoop in the backyard of his parent’s home in Colton, to an above average student in Colton public schools, to a San Bernardino Valley College graduate, to getting his degree at Cal State San Bernardino, to ultimately getting his master’s and doctorate degrees from Harvard University. And all along the way he shared how mentors helped him realize that there was more to life—things that made him realize that he had a “kind of thirst, a hunger for change, for progress.” “When I think of my own journey, these are some of the things that kept me going, kept me moving, in retrospect,” Rodriguez said. “At the time I wasn’t really thinking about these things, but when a colleague asked me to present my journey, these are things that came up...my culture, my historical roots, my community roots, my linguistic roots, my race, all of those roots were significant to my journey and my family, absolutely, my parents.” Rodriguez offered seven steps on how one could find his or her “voice” and tell their story for and with the community: • Know yourself and your history. If you know why you exist, you’re more likely to persist and build your community stories. • Get connected to people and programs. Opportunities mean nothing if you don’t take advantage of them. • Be proactive. Think about this: Do you wait for the answers or do you actually go after them? Don’t let the system determine your future, make it work for you. • Be the best. Don’t just cruise to the finish line. Strive to be the best because our families and our communities are watching us. • Leave a legacy of brilliance. Keep that in mind as you move forward. • Dream big. Dreams are free, but failure is costly and don’t just reiterate what you’ve learned: create, innovate, facilitate. Think about all the people who you see as successful in this world. They were the ones who were creating, innovating, facilitating opportunities. • Be a leader, find a mentor, build relationships, volunteer for leadership roles. You have really two options—on this campus and in the community—lead or follow. Your service is your leadership. Don’t think you have to be in a formal leadership role to be a leader. If you serve your community, that’s leadership. • And, finally, surround yourself with excellence. Every once in a while, do an excellence check or an excellence inventory. Who’s around you? Make sure that people who are around you are supporting your goals. Excellence is contagious. Rodriguez is the author of three books: “Intentional Excellence: The Pedagogy, Power, and Politics of Excellence in Latina/o Schools and Communities,” “The Time is Now: Understanding and Responding to the Black and Latina/o Dropout Crisis in the U.S.,” and “Small Schools and Urban Youth.” For more information on Yotie Talks, contact Felix Zuniga at fzuniga@csusb.edu or (909) 537-5095.