Santa Cruz Sentinel - Watsonville Students Get A Civics Lesson From Congressional Candidate

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By Ryan Masters

The Watsonville High sophomores in Ryan Jones' world history classes discovered their voices matter Wednesday when congressional candidate Jimmy Panetta showed up in response to an assigned letter writing campaign.

A few weeks ago, Jones tasked his students with writing to officials running for public office about issues they wanted the candidates to address. When Panetta reached out and asked to set up a time to meet the students, Jones and his students were genuinely surprised.

"We expected to receive a form letter or some kind of impersonal response from their office," Jones said. "Not this."

In addition to Panetta's visit, 35 to 40 students also received personal, handwritten letters from Attorney General of California Kamala Harris, who's running for the California Senate.

"The funny thing is we didn't hear back from any of the local candidates we wrote to," Jones said.

During his roughly three-hour visit to the classroom, Panetta gave the students advice and provided insight into the world by illustrating his own colorful journey from high school athlete with so-so grades to congressional candidate.

But before he could begin, Panetta was interrupted by his campaign manager. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wanted Panetta to introduce her at a rally in Salinas that afternoon. Panetta agreed but stayed focused on the students.

As a high school sophomore, Panetta said he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. However, he took to heart some advice from his mother, Sylvia Panetta, co-chair and CEO of The Panetta Institute for Public Policy.

"She said, "Never be sedentary. Don't just sit there,'" Panetta said.

After a stint at Monterey Peninsula College while waiting tables, Panetta studied international relations at UC Davis before taking a six-month clerkship with the U.S. Department of State. His time in Washington, D.C. resulted in a grueling job on a 234-foot National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel in the Bering Sea.

"I greased a lot of lines, cleaned a lot of toilets and painted a lot of that ship," Panetta said. "But the best experiences in my life were also the worst experiences. Don't be afraid to put yourself in difficult situations."

Panetta underlined this advice by describing his work as a young prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, his service gathering U.S. Navy intelligence on high value targets along the border of Afghanistan after 9/11 and, most recently, his years prosecuting gang members in Monterey County.

Referring to some of the students' letters, he addressed his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform, comparing the plight of today's undocumented workers to his Italian grandfather Carmelo Panetta's immigrant journey in the 1920s.

"We are a nation of risk-takers who are willing to leave behind the known and come to the unknown," Panetta said. "It's that attitude of willingness to take risk and work hard that made this country great."

As Karina Navarro, 15, opened her letter from Harris, she reflected on the fact that a congressional candidate and an acting attorney general would take time to address her personally.

"It's cool that someone actually listened. It gives me faith in the government. If they take the time to come here and write me back, I feel like they're actually interested in what I have to say," Navarro said.

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