I adopted the Rufino Mendoza Elementary School on the North Side seven years ago through the FWISD Adopt a School Program. Rufino Mendoza served as our city’s police chief for many years.
Today I had the pleasure of talking to five classes at their annual career day. This was my seventh year in a row, and I always enjoy participating.
I get the children to start thinking about their futures and how they can be successful, productive, and happy.
I have fill out a brief questionaire that asks them what they want to be when they grow up, what subjects they will have to know, whether they will have to graduate from high school, graduate from college, and make good grades — with the answers to the last three already checked “yes.”
Over and over, I tell them they HAVE to graduate from high school and make them promise me that they will. If they get nothing else out of my presentation, I want it to be this.We talk about which colleges they can go to, what they can study, and why they should attend. We talk about the importance of studying hard and following the rules.
I use my wonderful daughter as an example of how hard work pays off (Marissa got a complete scholarship to SMU)
Oh, I also tell them a little about what attorneys do.
I go to Mendoza as often as I can to help inspire the children and always end up feeling richer for the experience.
It’s one of the small things I do to try to give back to this wonderful community and make this a better world.