are providing leadership in all areas that govern this country. technology, health, academia, commerce, art, entertainment, and government. today we must come together not only in celebration but in acknowledgement of the work that lies ahead. we understand that this is now a global economy and the opportunities that confront and challenge us are ones that we can only surpassed if we come together. so we can win the future, as the president said, if we dream together. if we work together as a society, as an economy. the best is yet to come. so let me leave you with this last idea -- every moment affords us an opportunity to change the world.

let's seize that moment and each and every moment that succeeds that moment and let's do that together in celebration of our asian pacific heritage and in recognition of all the heritage is that make up san francisco and california, and we will truly ana this month our heritage and our future. thank you so much. you have done so much for every single one of us. [applause] fo >> ok. all right. we've got some competition on the stage now. >> look this way. a couple of other people we need to thank -- our host is a mere -- our host is mayor lee, but we

have a bunch of coast as well. supervisors mar, farrell, kim, elsbernd, wiener, chiu, cohen, avalos. round of applause for our coasts, please. our even a chair. -- our event chair. [reading names] >> all right. thank you. >> thank you.

round of applause. these people give money, so please applaud. >> next, i would like to introduce betty yee, a member of the california state board of equalization, and the 2014 candidate for controller. >> good evening. as we celebrate the contributions of some very, very important figures in our history who have contributed to the development of our country, our stage, this great city, and as we honor the achievements of congressman mineta, the ongoing contributions of congressman hunter, and our own mayor, ed

lee, in san francisco. each of us could not be doing the work that we are doing, that we have done without the doors of opportunity having been opened for each of us. so we're making sure that we are developing the leaders of tomorrow as part of the integral programs of leadership development and civic engagement. the internship program is designed to prepare college students to become our future leaders by providing our interns with the opportunities to work with government agencies, they develop their leadership skills, gain public policy experience, and broaden their civic engagement. the insurance selected have demonstrated a dedication to the community, and they will continue their engagement by working professionally with their peers and mentors. learning and workshops to

enhance their leadership skills, and for dissipating in community service projects. we thank the local, state, and federal law offices for hosting in turns, and we thank the elected officials for their continued leadership and for opening the doors for mentoring our new leaders. please join me in congratulating and welcoming the internship class of 2012. will the intern's please join me on stage? [applause] they are --mayor, will you join us for a photograph, please?

>> thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. one more round of applause to the interns. [applause] if you look around you tonight, you will see poster boards celebrating, acknowledging the first asian-americans to do certain things. we have the first asian-american actress in hollywood, the first asian-american nba player, the first members of congress. these interns are the future of our community. these interns are the reason why we are here today.

but we are also here to celebrate and recognize one of the greatest members of our community. this year is the first year we are giving the lifetime achievement award. it is going to secretary norman manetta, who is receiving this award for many reasons. he is a trail blazer, a man who paved the way for many of us who followed. he was the first asian american mayor of a major city. i'm sorry, mayor lee, but you are coming in third now. he was elected to congress 10

times. he was the first to serve two presidents in the cabinet. it was on 9/11 that he showed us what he was made up. when those planes hit the twin towers, it was secretary mineta who made the call to ground all the planes. he instituted a policy that tsa is following today to ensure that our skies are say. after 9/11, he prevented the profiling of arab-americans and muslim americans in our country. tonight, we honor him and give him this back for a very special reason. i want to thank the san francisco giants for donating a bat autographed by hall of famer orlando said payton. the reason why we are giving

thisbat to the secretary is because of what happened to him when he was a young boy. like hundreds of thousands of other japanese-americans, he was forced to relocate into the internment camps. as a young boy, the secretary was taken to the train station by military police officers. as a young boy, he was a huge baseball fan, and he had his prize possession with him -- his baseball bat. the military police saw the young boy with his baseball bat and said, "you are not taking that with you. that is a glut in." they took away a young boy is prized possession. later on as a member of congress, a generous person hurt the story and offered him an autograph- aaronbat -- hank

aaron bat. as a member of congress, you are not allowed to except his worth more than $200, so the government took away his bat again. we cannot replace what was taken away from the young boy, but we do give him something we hope will take its place just a small bit. ladies and gentlemen, i present to you the first ever recipient of the life achievement award for services rendered to the asian-american community and services rendered to our nation. i give to you, secretary mineta. [applause]

>> i cannot think of a more appropriate gift tonight than to recede this -- receive this bat. i want to thank everyone for co hosting this event tonight. all of us who have had the privilege of serving in public service have gotten to that point because we were standing on the shoulders of those who preceded us, and i want everybody here, young people, to remember that whatever they do in the future, bring everything you are and bring everything you want to the jobs you are going to be doing. there are tremendous opportunities that are out

there. asian pacific american heritage week is a time for all of us to be able to show the majority community what we are capable of doing, and it is also a time when people in the asian- pacific american community are learning about each other. many people say that the united states should be a melting pot, and i do not believe in the melting pot theory. when you have a melting pot, you put all of the ingredients into the bowl, stir it up, and everybody loses their identity. in the asian pacific american community, there are over 150 languages, religions, cultures,

everything you can think of, and we do not want to lose that identity of our own history, regardless of where our forefathers have come from. i want everybody to be proud of the language of their forebears, the religion, the history, the culture, the art. again, i do not want us to lose our identity in the community in this great nation. again, thank you very, very much for great leadership, to the board for this wonderful gift bestowed upon me, and let's go ahead and continue to hit the

ball out of the ballpark. thank you very much. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, we are going to bring up our founded to say a few last words, but before he speaks, we would like all the previous speakers to come up for a photo with the board, so if the board members could please come on up. it is the hard work of these board members that make any event like this possible. without their hard work, none of this would happen, so we are going to do a quick picture and then say thank you to everyone. we are also going to ask the board of supervisors to please come up.

we would also like to ask for the judicial officers in the audience to come up as well. also, if you are a sponsor, please come on up.

all right, we are going to have our founder speak a few words and thank everyone. ladies and gentlemen, we are going to start our cultural program afterwards. food will be served in the four quarters as the program is going on. >> thank you very much for a

great presentation. let's give two hands to everyone. thank you. a special hand to organizers and i want to thank everyone for coming here and celebrating heritage month, and a special thanks to the statewide leaders. some are here, some are not, but -- let's see, where is my -- ok, well, again, enjoy the rest of the celebration and have a good time. take care. thank you. >> ladies gentlemen, i would also like to give a round of applause to our mc tonight.

>> good afternoon. and welcome. welcome to san francisco. my name is lisa villareal, and i am here during this lunch representing not only the coalition for community schools, but also president and ceo of these and francisco foundation. she could not join us to introduce the mayor of san francisco. let me tell you a bit about our mayor and let me tell you about

the passion he has for community schools. rarely do we find an elected official, and mayor that comes with so many vital skills and experiences that relate directly to powerful community engagement. from his early days as managing attorney for the asian law caucus, to key positions including the director of employment relations, director of the human rights commission, the director of city purchasing, director for public works department, and finally, city and administrator prior to his election. mayor edwin lee has experienced every civic perspective. his dedication and a passion for children and youth are evident by his extraordinary support for the san francisco department of children, youth,

and families. one of the first national city based initiatives to support children and youth. to be matched only by his outstanding partnership with the san francisco unified school district that is one that many districts across the united states within the -- would envy. they have forged a partnership to deepen schools and embrace the full-service community schools initiative across the city of san francisco. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the forty third mayor, and the first asian-american mayor of the city and county of san francisco, mayor edwin m. lee. [applause] >> thank yo, lisaou, lisa, for t introduction. welcome to san francisco, how do you like the weather? first of all, i want to thank her and marty from the san

francisco foundation and sam hernandez that is not with us today. they are doing a good job with our educators to make sure that the school district is never isolated. i knolerned that -- learned that a long time ago. the best cities are the ones that place education at the very center of what we are trying to do as mayors. i want to welcome the mayors of lincoln, nebraska and hartford, connecticut. thank you for being here. i want to welcome the various school board members and administrators that are here today on this important topic of community schools, thank you for coming to san francisco. thank you for taking this opportunity to learn from each other how we can do better.

i was talking with my education adviser, hydra mendoza. it doesn't go a week that we don't talk to each other about the value of education. whether it is hurt, carlos garcia, or the incoming superintendent, we will always place education at the center of our agendas. that is what we have to do. i can't conceive of any city in the country who would not place education the highest part of their agenda. it just doesn't seem like you are a city if you don't do that. in san francisco, we value that because we are knowledgeable. we know how important it is not only for our kids, but the role of education and everything that

we do. and the fact that our community school concept is alive and well and our city -- in our city. we have had those years where we look at the school district and we say, wait a minute, we don't have to work with them. they are a state agency. and the state gave it up and they keep giving it up. we keep having to respond. for me, i am sick and tired of responding to what the state is not going to do that we have to anticipate the bad news and we have to embrace these school districts and to make sure that they are always part of our city. that is why we have been working on ideas and programs to make sure the health department is engaged. to make sure our public safety agencies are engaged with the school district. our mayor's office, the budget office, the board of

supervisors. all the other elected officials have to find some way to engage our school district, the administrators. that is why i have been talking all morning about how to get a meeting with the ceos. yes, our principles of our school district. they are like the ceos. we have to engage everybody to make sure that we are doing the right things to balancing all the things that they need to run a successful school property and a school program. i benefited from public education many years ago. now that i am 60, those years are being recollected slower. as a recipient of public education, i have known for some many years that i was and passion that -- i was passionate about succeeding as an individual. there are more barriers to success these days.

financial barriers. every time we turn around, there is another barrier presented to successful education. that is why the cities must be involved and the community schools have to be a concept that everybody embraces. i want to thank you for holding this important meeting here because we have been trying to champion the whole community schools concept. we know that the success of our kids have to do with everybody being involved. from army dunton to carlos garcia -- arne duncan to carlos garcia and everyone involved with this movement, we have to involve everybody at the early stage. we can't let our schools fail by allowing them to be isolated. with your help, with your ideas, with the programs that are the foundations that we are coordinating and implementing, the greater idea is to involve

everyone else in the community with our schools, that is going to be, i think, the way out. the only thing -- the other thing that i would like you to know, the other efforts are to involve more of our businesses with our schools. in san francisco, we are leading the effort to make sure that the technology companies in of a -- innovate and find success as part of our city. i would like that success of innovation that many technology companies are bringing to their businesses to also happen with our school district. i know that if we can innovate our way to better taxi dispatch is like we are doing with technology companies were better ways to service delivery, we can also innovate ways in which education can be a greater part of every kids' lives and all parents.

and making sure that we can use technology and the business community to do that. we will be introducing these ideas, working with our principles, working with the school boards and the superintendent to make sure that we can also link the businesses that are doing great things and discovering fantastic ideas of businesses. we can also link them to the school districts and make them an innovative part. thank you for being here, thank you for sharing, and thank you for being part of our great movement of community schools in our city and our country. thank you very much. [applause] >> enjoy your lunch, we will resume the program and about 10 minutes. -- in about ten minutes.