Rocky Takapu: Tonga with a Twist of Oakland

Join us in The BreakLine Arena as we share engaging conversations from our BreakLine community in celebration of this most recent Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Rocky Takapu was raised by immigrants from Tonga (a subset of Polynesian islands in the South Pacific) looking for greater opportunities in America, Rocky was born in Oakland, California as a first generation Tongan-American. Growing up in a rough environment and then falling into the street life, Rocky’s family moved him to stay in Hawaii with his uncle for the latter part of his teenage years. He was able to acquire discipline and was shown the opportunities that were available through the United States Air Force. From there, he was able to leverage his G.I. Bill for his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering and later was awarded the Science Mathematics and Research Transformation (SMART) Fellowship through the DoD. He then went out to become a civilian research for DoD and civilian laboratories such as Naval Research Lab and Draper Labs. Looking for a change, Rocky was introduced to Breakline where he was able to break into tech with Facebook. Rocky is now an Infrastructure TPM at Stripe. 

Rocky is passionate about STEM and providing extra seats at the table for the AAPI community and other underrepresented minorities by advocating communities such as BreakLine, Club Lab Rascals, and PIEFEST. He has an amazing wife Tee and two rambunctious boys, Pulileka and Viliami.

If you like what you've heard, please subscribe, follow, and rate our show! To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.