By Brian Diaz, staff writer
With a family military history that dates back to WW1, Sergeant Klein continued his family tradition and served as part of the U.S. military for 22 years, working as a staff member between HR and Operation duties. Although he has only been at Galileo for a few months, Sergeant Klein’s extensive military experience is part of the reason he is making a big impact on the JROTC program.
Sergeant Klein spent his first two years of his high school school career in Japan, but then due to his father’s job in the Air Force, they had to move to Omaha, Nebraska, where Sergeant Klein spent his junior year. But he was unable to finish high school in the U.S. and had to move to Italy where he spent his last year of high school. Sergeant Klein was in Italy for two years, working in a convenience store while in Italy.
In the summer of 1986, Sergeant Klein moved one last time with his father to San Francisco, where he spent 2 years in community college before transferring to San Francisco State, majoring in graphic design.
At the age of 32 though Sergeant Klein decided to follow in his family’s footsteps and he joined the U.S army. While in boot camp Sergeant Klein’s biggest takeaways were discipline and teamwork. His time as a JROTC cadet the program taught him about citizenship, leadership, service to the community, personal responsibility, and sense of accomplishment. With what he learned Sergeant Klein made a lot of friends and has had the opportunity to learn about other rich cultures, traveling around the world, either for work or pleasure.
As he was close to retiring from the military, some of his friends in senior leadership suggested that he should become an instructor, because he has a positive and inclusive sense of purpose working with young soldiers.
Through a job announcement Sergeant Klein applied to the JROTC program within the SFUSD, where he was interviewed by Sergeant Chism and principal Avila, who both believed he would be a good fit at Galileo.
Now at Galileo, Sergeant Klein expects to see more students enroll in the JROTC program. He believes being part of the JROTC program will help students learn team building skills and more social skills as the cadets will be able to attend activities like the military ball, The JROTC Cadet Leadership Challenge (JCLC) & STEM Camps
