Candidate for
Board Member; College of the Sequoias Junior College District; Trustee Area 3

RUBEN MACARENO is a candidate for a seat on the College of the Sequoias Board of Trustees because he believes the college needs to be a bigger and more important player in Ward 3, an area within the college district which encompasses many small communities in northwest Tulare County, Farmersville, Woodlake, Ivanhoe, Cutler-Orosi and the northern portion of Visalia. Ruben was a member of 2007-2008 Visalia Unified School District's Area Attendance Committee. He presently administers the Martin Macareno Foundation which awards scholarships and grants to organizations that focus on youth in economically-challenged communities.

Prior to his foundation work he was a newsroom department administrator at the Los Angeles Times, specifically in the Editorial Hiring & Development Division and eventually in the award-winning Photography Department. He volunteered his time to the company's charitable arm from 2003 to 2007 as a grant giving committee member for the newspaper's Family Fund--a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation--whose mission is to improve the lives of disadvantaged children and youth. From 1987 to 1993 he worked with the Times' public relations team on the Summer Camp Fund raising one million dollars every summer to send underprivileged youth to camp. In July 2007, he voluntarily sought a separation package from the parent-company Tribune Company to return to his hometown in Tulare County.

Politically Ruben has participated in numerous campaigns in a variety of capacities and has also worked for the late U.S. Congressman Edward R. Roybal in Los Angeles, for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials in Washington DC and briefly interned for U.S. Congressman Richard Lehman under the supervision of his administrative aide Cruz Bustamante, who eventually was elected Lt. Governor of California. In 1985 the 50th Presidential Inaugural Committee invited Ruben--and he attended--President Ronald Reagan's second inauguration for his efforts in getting various communities, specifically Latinos, involved in the political process.

"Greater Visalia, Hanford and Tulare have had much of the attention in terms of resources which is great; but we need not to forget Ward 3--which is largely rural and Latino--and its needs. I will represent the area's needs before the college board to help implement greater access and improve relations with the college," he states.

Ruben attended California State University, Los Angeles studying Political Science and Los Angeles City College where he earned his Associates of Arts degree in Modern Political Studies. While attending community college in the 80's he was elected student body president of his college and a statewide student organization's (now named Student Senate of California Community Colleges) regional president in southern California that included all of Los Angeles' nine community colleges as well as El Camino, Santa Monica, Glendale and Pasadena colleges. He is also the founder of the Student Organization of Latinos (SOL) which still exists today. At Exeter Union High School and Farmersville schools he had numerous leadership positions including Junior Class President and Student Body President respectively.

Ruben is married with two children and was raised in Farmersville by his mother and father with 12 brothers and sisters.