"This is kind of a roots trip for me," Feinstein told students at Taft Union High School.

Her school appearance and later luncheon at The Fort in Taft with community leaders involved the personal and political elements of her life.

Her father, Leon Goldman, grew up in Taft and graduated from the high school in 1922.

The school was built in 1911, so the senior senator from California traveled the same paths as her beloved father many years ago.

School administrators gave her a copy of her father's senior portrait and a list of his accomplishments, which included athletics, acting and debating.

The discovery of oil in Taft lured the Goldman family from the Bay Area, after they had survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Leon Goldman was one of 11 children, and one of the lucky sons in the family to go to school.

From Taft, he went on to study medicine at the University of California, Berkeley, and had a successful career.

"Much of his values came from here," said Feinstein, 73, who later acknowledged that much of what she is today she owes to her father.

Like her father advised her, she urged students to "work to their long suit, not their short suit," to discover their passions and pursue them.

Her physician father wanted Feinstein to study medicine, too, but she got a "D" in genetics at Stanford University.

"Losing is really hard, but you've got to come back," she said.

She was the first female mayor of San Francisco after Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated in 1978, what she called "the worst year of my life."

Student Jorge Mejia was surprised to learn Feinstein's father "came from a small town and grew up to be so important."

The Democrat expects to win her re-election campaign; the state's first female senator went to Washington, D.C., in 1992. Feinstein is working on legislation to boost vehicle mileage standards and energy efficiency. She told students global warming is a big problem "because of the dependence on the very thing that made this community what it is today."

At the luncheon, Feinstein was asked about the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq.

A political centrist, Feinstein believes in using diplomacy with nations such as North Korea, Iran and Syria, and thinks it's time for Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, to be dismissed.

Mayor Cliff Thompson proclaimed Oct. 19 "Senator Dianne Feinstein Day" and gave her a key to the city.

She was touched.

"I do a lot of different events. I will tell you being here is a day I will not forget," she said.