Candidate for
Member; Sacramento County Board of Education; Trustee Area 7

Harold Fong I'm the son of immigrant parents from rural China who came to the United States for a better life for themselves and their children.

Born and raised in the Southside Park neighborhood. My father worked 3 jobs to house and feed a family of 7 kids. My mother worked as a seasonal canary worker. I learned the value of work at an early age collecting newspapers to recycle and soda bottles to have my own spending money. Later I became a Sacramento Bee newspaper boy delivering the afternoon newspaper after school. This gave me the opportunity to the world outside of Sacramento. The Bee contest for newspaper boys allowed me to go to Disneyland, see snow for the first time in my life, and see baseball games in San Francisco.

I attended public schools going to William Land Elementary School, Sutter Middle School, and Sacramento High School and attended UC Davis, Sacramento City College, and CSU, Sacramento. I received a BA in Ethnic Studies with a minor in Sociology and a Masters in Social Work from CSU, Sacramento.

My parents always stress the value of education to transform your life. They were right. The ethnic studies class taught me the history of other people. It changed my life. The community work that I did was another educational experience that changed my life as well as improved the lives of others.

After graduation, I worked as a field work instructor in the School of Social Work at CSUS for a year. After saving enough funds, I went to Hong Kong to learn Cantonese at the Yale in China Institute. After a year there, I was invited to teach English at a private college. One thing led to another and I spent almost 10 years in Hong Kong teaching Social Work at Baptist College and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

I returned to the United States after my parent's fears for my future after the British signed the treaty to return Hong Kong back to China. They shared the details of their economic lost during the civil war in China and after the establishment of the new government. My parents lost everything in China.

I returned to the States with a new perspective. Still the activist but having experience what happens in other parts of the world, the United States is the best place to live and raise a family. Freedom and liberty are promises that everyone has regardless of your economic situation, race, age, or gender.

I have taught at Sacramento City Unified School District, worked as a social worker in the county Children's Protective Service, served as the education coordinator at the California Conservation Corps, and served as a health educator and program manager in the California Department of Health Care Services.

Serving on the county board of education is my way to giving back and improving education for all kids.