Find the Right Wall for Your Ladder

This year’s recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award has managed to truly live the mission of Cal Lutheran. From his activities, internships and academic studies as an undergraduate and graduate student to his Peace Corps and Fulbright experiences abroad to his teaching at a public charter school, Chris Kajtor has quickly become a global citizen with a focus on helping youth and making the community better. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Kajtor credits Cal Lutheran for setting him on his path and his professors for encouraging him to aim high. After earning dual degrees in psychology and sociology, he went on to complete his master’s in public policy and administration. As an undergraduate, he helped Professor Bill Bersley develop a class on Becoming a Man or how to become a good human being. The class looked at contemporary culture and what boys are taught about what it means to be male as well as how their own fathers modeled masculine behavior. It challenged students to look at whether happiness was in making money or maybe more about having a purpose, giving back to the community, doing something bigger than oneself.

During his time at Cal Lutheran, Kajtor served as a graduate assistant for Residence Life and as a teaching assistant for Professor Sig Schwarz’s Holocaust in Literature and Film course. He also interned with the Area Housing Authority in Ventura, where he organized a “Christmas at Cal Lu” event for the children in the low-income housing development to visit campus, meet Santa (another student) and receive gifts donated by students.

But it was all the time professors Schwarz, Bersley and Herb Gooch took with him, the long conversations and mentoring that helped Kajtor find his path. That path first took him to Ukraine with the Peace Corps. There he taught international relations at a university and relished his work with local nongovernmental organizations, a pediatric cancer facility and orphanages. He even introduced the sport of baseball to Ukrainian young people. His path next took him to Romania, the country of his parents’ birth, on a Fulbright teaching and research scholarship at the University of Transylvania. His research focused on the best ways to help Romanian students attend and graduate from college.

Kajtor has some words of advice for current students. His key point is to listen to your intuition, your gut instinct. Borrowing a line from author Joseph Campbell, he advises students to “follow your bliss.”

“For me,” he says, “It was not about making myself look good, or building a great resume. It was about making the world a better place. Each step just felt right.”

This was more challenging for Kajtor than he expected. His parents, who experienced hardship in their immigration to the United States with only two empty suitcases, hoped America would offer their son the opportunity to climb the ladder to success. He tried doing just that but says, “I realized that my ladder was leaning against the wrong wall—I wanted more than just money, material comforts, etc.” So, when he chose the Peace Corps over a better-paying job in the U.S., it was hard for them to understand.

“I realized then that I had a choice. I could live my parents’ life and do what they wanted me to do, or I could live the life I wanted [and do something bigger than myself],” Kajtor explains.

Two years ago, after all his international experiences and with a teaching credential from the Peace Corps, Kajtor found a job as a computer science teacher at University Prep Values High School in Los Angeles. “Computer science isn’t just important for their future, it’s important for our country’s future. If we want America to remain on the cutting edge of technology, we need this generation to master those tools,” he says.

Teaching, for Kajtor, isn’t just about computer science. “It’s about helping the students to become the best they can be. I love this school because we are values-based. Every day we get to focus on helping our students become good people in our society who make the world a better place…much like Cal Lutheran did for me.”

When asked what the future holds in store, Kajtor responds, “I would love to continue making a difference.”