Even when Roberto Torres talks about his personal life, somehow the conversation finds its way back to work.

It’s an characteristic that’s paid off, though. The government and communication studies double-major was elected the new Associated Students, Inc., president just last week, and has since been busy preparing to represent Sacramento students next fall. Torres wanted the opportunity to be directly involved in the community, both on campus and beyond, ever since he moved to Sacramento in 2006.

Helping his community is nothing new to Torres. During his high school years, a teacher encouraged him to join the Richmond Youth Commission. Torres worked closely with the mayor in Richmond, his hometown, to fight youth crime and drug violence. He thus saw firsthand the change he could make in his community.

One of the mayor’s first projects was creating a safe haven for adolescents seeking afterschool alternatives to drugs and gang activity. The youth commission also held an anti-violence conference in which Torres created an open dialogue among the city’s youth about how to end violence as a community.

Torres spent his summer vacations doing community service with his best friend whom he met in high school, Giovanni Escobar. Escobar described Torres as helpful, friendly and easy to talk to.

“We used to work together and try to improve our community,” Escobar said. “We basically worked side by side trying to come up with these innovative ideas.”

Those experiences helped shape Torres’ views on government, especially on the value of grassroots involvement.

“A lot of people think that local government isn’t important, but honestly I think it’s one of the most important because their decisions directly affect the people that live in the city,” Torres said.

Being a community member is important to Torres, who has always stayed close to the Bay Area. But he is ready to branch out and set his public service career in motion.

Torres’ biggest dream is to someday be governor, but he ultimately will try to become a district attorney somewhere in the Bay Area. Torres has a fervent appreciation for California and predicts that he will live out the majority of his life here.

“I can see myself leaving California temporarily but I’d have to come back,” Torres said.

Torres’ great love for where he grew up and his strong desire to return to his family roots is a characteristic passed down from his parents, who came to the United States from El Salvador. He became better acquainted with his family’s culture in 2007 when the family visited relatives in his mother’s village, Las Playas de Jiquilisco.

“We spent most of the time at the beach – it was lovely,” Torres said.

Though he spoke fondly of the weather and easy going days on the beach in El Salvador, Torres raved most about the local cuisine. He enjoyed fresh homemade sweetbreads from a bakery his relatives own and pupusas, the national Salvadorian meal: a tortilla-type bread often stuffed with cheese, meat and other fillings.

Torres’ aunt made “Siete Mares” (“seven seas”) soup with local seafood, including crab, lobster and shrimp.

“It was to die for,” Torres said of the fresh shrimp. “My aunt literally went that morning and grabbed the shrimp, and then cleaned it – it was amazing.”

Back in Sacramento, life after El Salvador has been focused mostly on school and the future. Torres has his eye set on Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as his first choice for law school.

ASI Executive Director Pat Worley has known Torres for more than two years and said Torres is a passionate person, focused on enhancing all aspects of students’ experiences at Sac State.

“It’s very clear that he not only values that for himself, but also values that opportunity for all the students on our campus,” Worley said.

Worley said Torres’ knowledge of the university’s structure, including the California State University system overall, will be a major asset to his career, but it is his broad understanding of the Legislature that will make him more effective in finding ways to assure students have a representative place when ASI makes decisions on their behalf.

It was Torres’ background of helping his community during high school that caught the eye of Robert Pomo, director of the Honors Program. Torres was one of 60 students chosen for the program when it was started in 2006.

“He follows through; he’s very interested in the dynamic between human beings,” Pomo said. “He believes leadership in government is shared by everyone, not just the power of one.”

For all of Torres’ accomplishments that have helped set him apart from the rest, he still shares many things in common with his classmates – like finding time to rest between his school and personal life.

“I sleep if I can,” Torres said with a laugh. He enjoys spending time back home with his parents and younger sister. He also likes playing with his two Labrador retrievers, Juanita and Cocoa, watching crime dramas (“Law and Order” and “CSI: NY” are favorites), and enjoys a good game of baseball, basketball, football, or soccer – all of which he used to play at one time or another.

All of the activity in Torres’ life may seem overwhelming to others, but he is happy to take on whatever curveball life may throw his way.

“I have a real care for Sac State and for ASI,” Torres said. “Whatever I do in the coming year is because I see that it will help a student in some way, shape or form.”

Julia Baum can be reached at [email protected].