Rendezvous employee works overtime to pay for daughter’s education

Ninfa Rios spends 55 hours a week at work, getting home close to 2 a.m. some nights, with the hope that her daughter can live out her dream of becoming a doctor.

Rios said she began serving food in UCLA Dining Services five years ago when she realized she had to make more money to pay for her daughter’s education. She said she could not get enough hours at work in food service for the Paramount Unified School District, where she previously worked.

Rios was born in the state of Sinaloa in Mexico to a family that moved every few months while her father went between jobs. Her parents supported her older brother through school, but when he eventually dropped out, her parents decided it would be better for their two daughters to work instead of finishing school, Rios said.

“I wanted to have a career and I wanted to study, but my family (didn’t) support me,” Rios said. “They said ‘We need you to work’ (and) I said ‘Okay,’ so I didn’t continue in classes.”

Rios said she loved learning math growing up, and she had dreamed of becoming a math teacher.

When she was 26, she moved to Los Angeles with her husband and decided she wanted to continue her education. She earned her GED and obtained citizenship when she was 30 and started taking classes at Cerritos College.

However, she said her college counselor told her math was a man’s career.

“I told (the counselor) that I want to take math classes and he said ‘No women should take math, it’s for men,’” said Rios. “I said, ‘But I love it.’”

Rios continued taking courses in math, English language, reading and computers. In total, she earned 22 units of college credit, she said.

However, Rios decided to put her own education on hold and start to take on more hours at work so she could pay for her daughter’s education and give her daughter the life she never had.

“I wanted my daughter to have a different experience in life growing up,” said Rios.

She got a job in the cafeteria at her daughter’s elementary school, but once her hours started being cut back, she said she needed to find new work. That was when a friend suggested she apply to work at UCLA.

Though the 30-mile commute each way can be tiring, she said that working for UCLA turned out to be a blessing because her husband had lost his job. Rios said she needed to get the hours because she was under pressure to maintain her monthly payments, the costs of her daughter’s education and her daughter’s college housing.

Her daughter, Elizabeth Rios, attended Cal State Fullerton for her undergraduate degree and is now in a post-baccalaureate program at UC Irvine, hoping to attend medical school to become a pediatrician.

“The reward is, with this job, I can afford for my daughter’s university. She is an only child and doesn’t qualify for any scholarships,” Rios said. “The first university we paid for everything and now it is more expensive … working here helps pay for her university.”

Edward Westbrook, senior food service manager at Rendezvous at Hedrick, said Ninfa Rios is a hard worker and always punctual.

“She comes in and can work like two people,” Westbrook said.

Rios can be seen smiling behind the boba counter or around the various food stations in Rendezvous on a regular basis, never seeming to tire from the long drive or hours standing on her feet.

Even though the hours are long, Rios said she is happy to work at UCLA because supervisors gave her chances to pick up more hours to pay for her daughter’s schooling.

Rios said she hopes to continue her own education once her daughter graduates from medical school. Though she no longer wants to be a math teacher and has not made definite plans for a future career, she said she still loves to learn.

However, she said her dream has always been to see her daughter finish school.

“My dream is to see my daughter be a doctor and that she has a happy life,” said Rios. “Everything is possible.”