^B00:00:04

>> So Cal State San Bernardino was my choice to go to school after ending my tour of service in the US Army in 1988. And the biggest reason for doing so is, at the time, the CSU system gave military veterans credit towards their bachelor's degree. And it kind of put me ahead of the power curve. As you progress through your career, you start to get into the business side of law enforcement. And the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department is an $800 million business. And you need to understand how to run it, how to be able to, for instance, if you get a new contract city, how do you staff that. And those are all things I learned here at Cal State San Bernardino from my professors. And a number of them were law enforcement professionals that had experience. So you got not just the educational aspect of it, but you also were talking to experienced professors. What motivates me now is how do you solve some of those issues like homelessness. And that motivates me because I think it's taking a different look about how we do things in law enforcement and really how we do things as a society. I would hope we could get ourselves into some semblance of taking that person, rather than putting them in custody, but still taking custody of them in the case especially of mental health issues, getting them before the court. And instead of the court sentencing them to jail, let's sentence them to some type of rehab or sentence them to some type of facility where they're getting help. So they're not impacted or languishing in a jail, but we're actually helping people as we move through the system. 

^M00:01:24

For me, in my life, when I was at Cal State San Bernardino, I can say I truly enjoyed the most was really the social interaction. You can imagine a lot of the professors were professionals in the industry that you were studying in already. So you really got a leg up in terms of getting a good perspective on what you were trying to achieve your degree for. And I think that's what I enjoyed the most, plus the one-on-one interaction with your professors. They really invested in you. And that was something I genuinely appreciated. I went into the U.S. Army right after high school. So to be able to come to Cal State San Bernardino in 1988 and then interacting with campus at various events that I come to, specifically being the sheriff, it really amazes me on how this has grown, but it makes me proud. And it makes me proud that we can get educated here locally in the Inland Empire and go out and pursue careers, high-paying careers here in the Inland Empire. And I think without Cal State San Bernardino, we really wouldn't have that local community future. And you don't have to go elsewhere to find what really makes you feel whole in terms of a career. It's here. You just have to get educated and pursue it.

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