Triston Ezidore, a political science major at USC Dornsife, balances classwork with his duties as a member of the Culver City school board.
Most teens are eager to ditch high school after graduation. Triston Ezidore couldn’t stay away.
After graduating from Culver City High School in 2021, he headed to Syracuse University in New York to start college. Eager to see how the issues he’d championed while high school student body president were implemented, he tuned into Culver City school board meetings from afar.
The results were less then satisfying. He decided to head home and take matters into his own hands.
Back in Los Angeles, he transferred to the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and launched a bid for the Culver City Unified School District Board of Education. In 2022, he won one of three open seats.
From school to school board
Ezidore was born in Minnesota, the son of Jamaican and Vietnamese immigrants, and was raised primarily by his mother, who emigrated from Vietnam as a child. His family bounced around the country frequently before settling in Culver City for his high school years.
“[Moving around] gave me a bunch of tools that have helped me get to where I am right now,” Ezidore told USC Annenberg Media. “It’s taught me how to meet new people, how to start conversations, how to be in new environments and speak with people for the first time.”