2012 Rising Star Award - Robert raul meza

[Applause] >>Thank you, president. Wow. First of all, I want to thank the Alumni Association for this tremendous honor. Looking at my table, we have two tables strong. I see my father, a Sacramento State graduate, my girlfriend, a Sacramento State graduate, uncle, sister, best friend, my sister, Chris…I’m sorry, Christine went to UC Davis. [Laughter] I spoke to my mother, as punishment this (he point to his banner) is going into her house for six months. I was thinking quite a bite about this award this past week and thinking what are the milestones in my life that led me to receive this great honor tonight. I came up with three and I just want to talk about those. The first is education at Sac State. Back in 2005, my senior project team was the first to design and develop software for a mobile phone. We were really proud of that but what made that really possible was the distinguished faculty of the computer science department, the dean, the department chair, there are several professors that really influenced me, I want to recognize them. Dr. [Unitelligable] Dr. Clevenger, Dr. [Unintelligable]. Recently I joined the (California) Technology Agency, I’m honored to have the Assistant Secretary Scott Patterson here tonight representing the Agency. What’s most important to me is that three years ago California’s Mobility Program was founded by Sacramento State graduate and that is what I’m really proud about. Lastly there are three individuals that really influenced my life. The first is my father, when I was in college, what I remember most about my dad was he relieved me to debts that I had to I could take low paying internship jobs and he also supported me, thank you dad. The next is my mother Gail Grisby, I had a lot of medical problems when I was in college, I think if we counted together we probably went to the ER, the doctor’s office, physical therapy, orthopedic surgeons, even at three o’clock in the morning she was always there with me giving the doctor the evil eye to make sure he was treating me well, so, thank you mother. And lastly there is my grandmother, we never called her grandmother, we always called her Nana, so I will call her Nana tonight. From the early games of my youth, to the endless Monopoly games, to my college when she would feed me almost weekly, and for the tremendous financial assistance she provided me for college, I thank you very much. Thank you again Sacramento State Alumni Association. As I thank you tonight please direct your applause to these individuals as I accept your award tonight. [Applause]