Hiro is a young woman determined to be heard. She is most comfortable and at home in the world of leadership where she “feels an indescribable sense of liberation.” Home is a place she feels constraints of conversations not discussed. She loves her family, coming from a heritage of a proud Japanese mother and a Caucasian father who had her go to Saturday school for twelve years, learning all her subjects in Japanese. This meant taking everything from literature to calculus in Japanese, studying for both worlds simultaneously. She graduated from this rigorous program as she graduated from Granada Hills Charter School, itself a successful public charter school, proud of the strong academics required of all its students.

For Hiro, this academic rigor, which would have been enough to fill anyone’s days and nights, left Hiro with the burning desire to be a leader. She became an officer in Student Government and a leader in CASC, the California Association of Student Councils. Last summer she was a counselor for new members of this powerful student driven political machine, as her experience on the Student Advisory Board on Legislation in Education is valuable to all. She continues her work in CASC at UC Santa Barbara. Hiro is a sophomore in her collegiate journey at UC Santa Barbara majoring in Political Science and Communications. She has remained a leader among her peers in her dorm and on campus.

Along with her required essay in the Robert and Susan Kozlowski L.I.F.T. application, Hiro wrote a poem that she “believes encapsulated my true feelings towards the ultimate spirit of “L.I.F.T.”” Here is an excerpt of her poem.

“… Of the voice inside, the one that would yearn
I want
to Learn…
to Inspire…
a Freedom…
for Tomorrow.
I want to LIFT these chains that tie me to a world I have yet to understand.
I want to immerse myself with thinkers and spit on the despicable “plan.”
I will LIFT the world onto my shoulders and make it my feat.
To create a chaos.
One that will be so kind and so neat.
It shall produce a zeal that will live in my lust for life.
It shall push me forward and fill me with strife.
Until I find myself in a land where I have shed my sorrow,
Until I find myself safe, in the freedom
of tomorrow.”