Akira Mally

Akira Mally

I had a pretty unique experience growing up. My mom is from Japan and my dad is from Iowa/California so growing up in my house I spoke both Japanese and English. My house was an intersection of Japanese and American culture, cuisine, and values that are still at the core of who I am today. For most of my life my dad worked for the government, so this meant we moved every 2 years. This included living in Japan 3 separate times, living in Germany, as well as all over the states. As a kid this was extremely hard, we’d stay in one place long enough for me to make really good friends and then we’d move, and I’d have to start all over again. Although it was tough, I’m grateful for my experiences as they helped me become the person I am today. I had the opportunity to experience different cultures, not as a tourist, but as a person actually living in the community. As a teacher I look back on my times moving from school to school and I have deep empathy towards kids in similar situations. My goal as a teacher is to create a classroom environment that's inclusive and welcoming to all students, while also integrating the things I learned from my experiences into my classes in order to give my students a more global perspective on the issues and content we talk about in class.