Saratoga News Chris Constantin West Valley-Mission College board president sets a record By Steve Enders When voters elected then 20-year-old Chris Constantin to the West Valley-Mission Community College District board of trustees, he became the youngest ever elected to the group. Two weeks ago, 22-year-old Constantin was named president of the board of trustees and is now believed to be the youngest in the nation ever to hold such a position. Former Saratoga mayor and board colleague Don Wolfe says, "I don't think I was offered the vice president position to provide adult supervision. Honestly, I look to his leadership and to his excellence on the board. He's very attentive." On one occasion, Wolfe says he needed to be briefed by Constantin on a couple of subjects the board was to discuss at a meeting. Constantin somehow managed to pore over an 80-page agenda and was familiar with everything in it, helping Wolfe get up to speed for the session. "He does his homework," Wolfe says. "That's what it takes." Constantin does his homework, and lots of it, for many different subjects. He's trying to complete an electrical engineering degree at San Jose State University, is a sales representative for Adaptec Computers of Milpitas, trains individuals to learn about personal computers, gives folk-dancing lessons and sits on the executive board of Crime Stoppers. At one point after being elected, Constantin said, he was taking classes at SJSU, West Valley College and San Jose City College all at the same time. Ask him how he does it all, and Constantin says he just juggles it somehow, although he admits his grades have been sliding recently. It's all about payback, he says. A high school counselor turned Constantin on to taking some classes at West Valley when his grades were slipping while he was attending Bellarmine College Preparatory. The move turned his life around. "It was like a light went off or something. All of a sudden, I realized, this is something I've been missing out on," he says. "If I'm going to give back, I'm going to do it in as many ways as possible." Constantin didn't even want to run for a board seat originally, he says. A friend convinced him to do it, but he didn't do any campaigning, didn't show up at any debates and somehow came in second in the election, knocking off an incumbent. "I started off as the 'young kid' on the board. I had to fight and prove myself to get respect and show what I've got. I'm an extreme idealist. Some of the things I think about--there's no way one man can implement them," he says. That's not to say he hasn't achieved anything while on the board. He's proud of helping get the schools' Middle College programs off the ground. Middle College is doing for area high school students what his high school counselor did for him--getting teens to take lower-level college courses before dropping out of school altogether. "I wanted to push it because it saved me. The people who are running it are the ones who should get the credit," he says. He's also trying to secure equipment to start a digital video lab, where students can use the latest gear to stay abreast of the ever-changing technology in that field. He says he'll probably never run for any other higher office, because he's finding out how hard it is to get things done. But that's not limiting Constantin's sights. Next on his to-do list is to become chief executive officer of a high-tech company. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, January 6, 1999. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.