Meet Vid Raatior

My family...the love of my life.

Vidalino Staley Raatior (formerly Vidalino Jones) is a loving dad, devoted husband, member of the Pwaraka and Alengeitaw clans, a former Jesuit, an international educator, political activist, web designer, citizen journalist, and social entrepreneur from the Northwest region in Chuuk State, Micronesia. While he lives in Northern California, he is deeply rooted and involved in his home country of the Federated States of Micronesia specifically in finding ways to help the poor and isolated outer islands of Pattiw, Namonweito, and Pafeng. Below are some of the questions he’s been asked when meeting people for the first time. If you care to dig deeper, you can click here to read his reflection piece titled, “In Search of What Matters to Me & Why.”

“Where are you from?”
I was blessed to have been born and raised in the remote outer islands of Pattiw and Namonweito in Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia. My extended family from the Pwaraka clan originated from the island of Tamatam while my paternal clan of Alengeitaw has its history on Onoun in the Namwonweito region. My family moved to Houk Island (formerly called Pulusuk) where we now live. Today I live in the coastal town of Soquel in Northern California with my wife Desha and our two kids Keala and Keoni.

“What brought you to the States?”
Life was wonderfully simple on Houk island until the winds of change and the promptings of faith propelled me away in pursuit of adventure, education, and a Jesuit formation. I left Houk for the first time back in the early 80’s to pursue a high school education and haven’t really stopped. After living the nomadic life of a Jesuit for 10 years, I realized that it wasn’t my true calling. A year later while in graduate school at the University of San Francisco I met my partner now Desha Staley and you could say my proverbial canoe was beached on the shores of Santa Cruz in Northern California where we now live.

“Where did you learn to speak English?”
For good or bad, I am the product of the Chuuk State public school system. I attended Houk Elementary, Wei-Pat Junior High School, and Chuuk High School. While that educational system failed to adequately prepare me for college, its shortcomings did force me to work harder at succeeding. I learned English from watching and imitating television shows throughout college and graduate schools. After graduating from the University of Guam with a bachelors degree in communications, I went on to graduate school to study philosophy at Fordham University in New York, theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley in California, and educational administration at the University of San Francisco. But my most impressionable years of learning happened during my ten years as Jesuit scholastic in the New York Province in the Region of Micronesia. I owe everything I am today spiritually, intellectually, socially, politically, mentally, and vocationally to the formation I received as a Jesuit scholastic.

“So what do you do for a living?”
Sometimes I wonder why I left the simplicity of life on Houk where there is no electricity and running water, but we fished and worked the soil to sustain our needs and live one day at a time. Now, here in the U.S., we seem to live to work in order to upgrade to the latest fad…a never ending quest for a complicated life.

Professionally, I am the Assistant Director for Study Abroad Programs at Santa Clara University. I also do consulting work in education, technology training, marketing & communications, web development, and other areas. Previously, I worked as the Site Coordinator for the Youth Together Project at the Arts, Research, and Curriculum, Inc. in the East Bay school districts. In education, I have served as a classroom teach and Assistant Director at Xavier High School in Chuuk, Micronesia. For a complete list of my educational and professional background, you can check out my Curriculum Vitae.

“What fun things do you do when you’re not at work?”
I love spending time with my family. When I have a moment or two to sneak away, you can find me working on any number of my personal projects which which do not pay my bills, but they do keep me rooted. I founded a web design venture to empower non-profit organizations and social change movements in my home country of Micronesia. My training in journalism coupled with my Jesuit formation in social justice led to my starting the Rhuulap Northwest Movement to build coalition with other Chuukese citizen-activists globally and locally who advocate for change in the political system back in Chuuk, Micronesia specifically in the Northwest Election District of Pattiw, Namonweito, and Pafeng. Lest I forget to help my roots in the outer islands of Micronesia, I co-founded the Micronesia Dental Support Project (http://mdsp.unitedcp.org), a non-profit initiative aimed at helping the dental care needs of the impoverished children in the outer islands of Micronesia. Finally, I am the founder and lead organizer for the Santa Cruz WordPress Meetup (www.meetup.com/santa-cruz-wordpress), a cadre of web designers, programmers, and developers in Santa Cruz County who use the open source software called WordPress.

“How do I get in touch with you?”
You can…