On May 23rd, Miaki Fukuhara will graduate with a high school diploma – and four college degrees. As improbable as that sounds, the fact that Miaki is even in school is a remarkable achievement for a 17-year-old who immigrated to the United States from Peru a decade ago, learned a new language and culture, experienced homelessness and domestic-violence shelters, and has spent much of her childhood and teenage years up against some of the most difficult lessons life has to offer.
“It was complete culture shock,” Miaki said. “I was scared that everyone’s expectations of me would become true – that no matter what I did, I would always be that homeless kid with no future and a life of destitution.”
Education, she quickly realized, would become her lifeline, and by her freshman year at Los Osos High School, Miaki was taking courses at Chaffey College. She started with sign language – figuring it was a way to help others while learning something new herself. That led to other courses and eventually more than 60 college units. Next month, the same day she receives her diploma from Los Osos, Miaki will receive associate degrees from Chaffey College in sign language, math and science, social science and arts and humanities. Along the way, she has earned certification as a nursing assistant, and plans to pursue a career in health care.
“When you consider everything Miaki has been through, it’s impossible not to be inspired by her strength and determination. It’s one of the most remarkable stories I’ve ever heard,” said Joshua Kirk, Principal at Los Osos.
Miaki’s journey began in Peru, where her mom was a caterer. It was, in Miaki’s words, “a decent life.” The family moved to the U.S. after her mom fell in love with and married an American, settling in Santa Barbara.
That relationship would soon turn toxic, however, and before long, Miaki, her mom and older brother were in shelters.
“The first months of homelessness were the roughest of all,” Miaki said. “Whenever I tried to speak to my brother, he grew irritated and distant. I remember hearing my mother’s sobs in the bathroom, which she attempted to cover up by telling me she had stomach pains. My family, the only thing that had stayed constant throughout my journey from Peru to U.S., was beginning to dissolve.”
They managed to hold it all together, and with the help of a teacher who was familiar with Los Osos, the family moved to the Inland Empire. Today, Miaki’s mom works for Walmart, her bother is working toward a master’s degree, and Miaki herself is balancing school and work at a senior center.
She credits the faculty and staff at Los Osos – notably her AP Chemistry teacher Dr. Chris Schempp – for the guidance and inspiration they provided these past four years. Despite her heavy workload, Miaki has earned a 4.1 grade-point average, is one of our finalists to attend the University of Michigan based on a partnership the Chaffey Joint Union High School District has with the university, and is a member of the yearbook staff.
Miaki hasn’t determined where she will continue her college education, and though money remains an issue, she doesn’t plan to stop now. The opportunity to help others is too important. She has written a children’s book and will donate any proceeds to children living on the outskirts of Chancay, Peru.
Then there are the deaf children and adults who helped inspire her sign language training, and the senior citizens she works with as a nursing assistant. Those experiences have taught her more than any classroom could about life – and death.
“Many times patients have diseases that are so severe the only thing they feel is pain. They see death as their only cure,” Miaki said. “It doesn’t mean that medicine failed them, but that the solution that they were looking for is something we can’t give.”
She wasn’t always so philosophical. The first time she experienced the death of a patient, she dropped a plate she had been holding and ran to the bathroom. “I would finish my eight-hour shift and sit in my car crying.”
She realizes how much she has grown from those experiences – and from the past 10 years generally.
“My disadvantages no longer bound me. Instead, they gave me space to learn and help others who were in similar situations,” Miaki recently wrote in a college essay. “I know that my purpose is dictated by how I want to see myself. These experiences are now tattooed onto my character as a symbol of my most powerful influence: myself.”