About Me

Here are some of the questions I’ve been asked when meeting folks for the first time. I figured I’d give you my answers now so that if our paths ever cross, we can focus our time together on YOUR story and other more important issues of the day. I look forward to that opportunity. Thank you.

“…and you are?”

In a coconut shell… I am Vidalino Staley Raatior (aka Vid, formerly Vidalino Jones), a loving dad for Keala and husband for Desha, a member of the Pwaraka & Alengeitaw clans, an international educator, a former Jesuit, a citizen journalist, social entrepreneur, and a web designer from the Pacific island nation of Micronesia. If you care to dig deeper, you can read my 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 bloodied history on Onoun in the Nomwonweito region. My family moved to Houk Island (formerly called Pulusuk) where we now live. Today live within walking distance of the same Pacific Ocean (albeit a much colder side of the ocean) in the town of Soquel in Northern California with my growing family.

“What brought you to the States?”

Taken by Desha in 2004 during a visit to Houk Island.

I wish I could say that I sailed over to California on one of our waherak (outrigger canoe) like the one pictured here by my wife Desha in 2004 on Houk. But the fact is I left Houk for the first time back in the early 80’s to pursue a high school education and haven’t really stopped. The mode of transportation was / is the government-operated  Micro Dawn (in background). This ship or similar cargo ships came to our island twice a year…the beginning of the school year to pick up students and again to return us home for the summer. Those were memorable years for a 9th grader when over 200 outer island students and a few teachers would make that trip. Often it took an entire week to reach Houk, but we got to visit the other outer islands. We were packed on board like sardines, but it was the most fun sardine cruise.

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. 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?”

Typical sunrise in Chuuk.

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?”

My daughter and her pink shoe craze during Christmas 2009.

If I can make money buying pink shoes for my pink-crazy daughter Keala (see photo), I’d do it in a heartbeat.  Unfortunately, the outrageously overpriced California housing market gets in the way of life so one has to make a living to make mortgage payments. 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 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. For a complete list of my educational and professional background, you can check out my Curriculum Vitae.

Visit out website: www.outerislands.org

To keep me rooted in other important things in life which do not pay my bills, I get involved in a number of  ventures. I founded Atawe Design 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 Chuuk Reform Movement to build coalition with other Chuukese citizen-activists globally and locally who advocate for change in the political system back in Chuuk, Micronesia. Lest I forget to help my roots in the outer islands of Micronesia, I co-founded the Outer Islands Partnership, Inc., a non-profit organization aimed at building global and local partnerships to empower children and women in the outer islands of Micronesia. Finally, I am the founder and lead organizer for the Santa Cruz WordPress Meetup, 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 …

• Follow me on Twitter
• Let’s virtually meet Face to Face
• Link Up with me professionally
• Let’s meetup to talk geek stuff
• Come paddle with me and the Akau Hana Outrigger Canoe Club which I belong to
• Fire me an email