"I hope I was able to inspire every single one of them"
Los Angeles Rams safety Taylor Rapp spent his birthday at an elementary school in Chinatown.
Through his Instagram, fans learned how Rapp visited Castelar Elementary School in LA’s Chinatown. “They have the highest population of Asian-American students in ALL of LA,” Rapp wrote in the post.
According to the school’s website, Castelar “is the second oldest school in the district” and has “the largest number of Indochinese refugees of any school in the district”.
The school offers dual language program in Mandarin, which had its first graduation class in June 2017.
“I had the time of my life getting to meet and interact with these amazing kids,” Rapp continued in his post. “I hope I was able to inspire every single one of them to not let anyone tell them what they can and can’t do, and to go after their dreams, no matter what they might be.”
On his Instagram story, Rapp shared footage of him entering the class full of excited students, taking selfies with them and even posing as their teacher. In one clip, the class sings happy birthday to the NFL star in Mandarin.
One student asks him how many touchdowns Rapp has achieved. Fortunately for the 21-year-old, he earned his first touchdown only a few days ago in a match against the Arizona Cardinals.
Earlier this year the Chinese American footballer said he wanted to show “that Asians can play”. In the same month, he stated how he wanted to “inspire young Asian Americans”.
