Ernesto was elected to the Compton High School Alumni Board in 2017. Ernesto is a proud product of Compton. A graduate of the Class of 2010 and recipient of both the CHSAA, Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York, where he received his degree in Sustainability Studies/Pre2010 “Leader and a Scholar” Scholarship Award and the Gates Millennium Scholarship, Ernesto went off to Rensselaer -Law with a minor in Economics.

A self-identified politics and policy nerd, Ernesto has gone on to work in various State Capitols across the country with legislators pushing for education, health, environmental, immigrant, and economic resources for under served communities, and has also worked with the Obama Administration on pushing for climate change policy and the free-college tuition program for students across the country.

More recently, Ernesto led digital advocacy efforts on Senate Bill 1272, the Citizens United bill, that is now Prop 59 for the November Ballot, and led a key victory on overtime pay for farm workers in both AB 2757 and AB 1066, and has helped in the passing of Prop 56 in 2016, which is an increase in tobacco taxes to fund medicaid, cancer research, and tobacco cessation programs; and also helped in the election of the first Latina U.S. Senator (Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada). As a Gates Millennium Scholar, he helped pioneer the Gates Millennium Scholars Program’s efforts in using social media to help identify and mentor rising high school seniors who will be applying for college and the scholarship, which led to more than 10,000 seniors from across the country apply for college and attain numerous scholarships over the course of 4 years. Ernesto is currently working in handling legal aspects of property management and is working on his law school endeavors.