[Music]
hola hello everyone first of all thank
you so much for giving the honor to
speak here when I first began to start
to make my speech I was going to write
about choice and adversities and
experiences and then I figured that all
of you have probably gone through some
sort of adversity in your life or some
sort of experiences in your life that
you have gone through you’ve had support
and because because you probably
wouldn’t be here today so after months
of writing that speech I decided to
throw it out so I decided that I’m going
to tell you a story instead so I first
want to tell you about when I was 13
years old as a grade seven at that time
I had a great seven teacher his name is
mr. kijima he was an average height man
with dark hair and he was Caucasian he
took his wife’s last name after he got
married so hence his name is mr. kijima
and it was in grade seven that I
realized at that pivotal moment that I
was able to pursue and reach any dream
that I dreamt of and I’ll tell you that
story so first let me paint a picture
for you and I’d like you to go on a
journey with me so picture it’s 1991 I
don’t know maybe some of you are not
even born yet but tried to picture it’s
1991 and it’s a I went to a school that
has it’s long to floor it has two floors
and my classroom was on the second floor
and to get to my classroom you had to
walk up these stairs and with every step
that you took you can hear the creek in
the stairs and as you look down there
was this brown 1960s tile linoleum on
the ground and there were cracks and
holes everywhere that you walked and in
the hallway you can almost hear
the chatter of students talking about
what other than a half a lunch who their
latest crush was and then you appear
into my classroom so my classroom was an
average classroom had big bright windows
that overlooked a feel and feel was
gravel not grass and in front of the
classroom there were this big black
blackboards and on the ledge of the
blackboard I want you to imagine that
there’s a thick dust of chalk dust right
at the bottom and as you looked up to
the ceiling you can see industrial
fluorescent lights and with a whole maze
of plumbing pipes and I can still
remember my desk I walked to my desk and
there were one of those green ones that
have the little cubby space underneath
way right I could I could I can’t fit it
in now but at that time I could fit in
it and you could also hear friends
talking there were about 23 of us in
that classroom and I remembered a time
of us early in the school year when mr.
Kashima told us that we had to work on a
project pick a topic that interests you
he says so I decided to pick planes
planes and jets because I think I picked
that because I thought they were great
human inventions and perhaps I picked
them also because they were a great
interest of my dad and I wanted to like
the same things as my father at that
time and so what I decide to do for that
project is I decide to make a model of a
plane so I used toothpicks skewers paint
tissue paper and a-that’s decide to make
I decide to paint the plane gray and
white and after I worked on it at home I
decided to bring it to class and hand it
in
and it was raining at that time and if
you’ve ever been to Vancouver it’s
always raining and I had my umbrella and
that’s a kid it was really hard to avoid
puddles in the ground right so I arrived
in class the plane was a little bit wet
I was a little bit wet and I looked at
my plane I looked at it I was like it’s
not perfect it can’t fly it’s not to
scale so I walked across my classroom to
my desk and I was a little bit
disappointed
I put the plan onto my desk and I said
mr. cash my here’s my clean and so it’s
like okay good that’s for clean so the
next morning I came to class the same
way walked up those stairs through the
hallways into the class hung my coat up
and then as I want as I was walking
towards my desk in the field vision of
my in the periphery of my vision I
noticed there was something grey and
white hanging from a really thin wire
that span the classroom so I looked up
and I saw my plane hanging there mr.
kijima had decided to hang my imperfect
plane up on the wire for everyone to see
and whoever that walked in and for that
brief moment it almost looked like it
was flying maybe it’s because of a
little bit of gust of wind from the bent
in the class and also at that moment I
felt that he was proud of me and that he
cared for a student and to tell her that
she was the he was proud of he was proud
of me and so a couple days later mr.
kijima says okay you made a model so now
it’s time to talk about it give a
presentation about it how did you do it
and I would say presentation
do presentations I was so nervous so I
didn’t want to do it and so what I
decided to do was I told mr. Castro like
do I have to do this presentation I
didn’t like I make the model isn’t that
good enough so I know it’s important to
be able to communicate what you do and
like why we can just see it so so he
says nope oh it’s important to be able
to communicate your intent because then
change can happen and when I was 13 I
didn’t really understand what that meant
and so I still didn’t want to do the
presentation and I wrote about how I
felt about doing that presentation in my
class Journal and it’s these journals
I’ve been holding in my hand they’re
from when I’m 13 years old over 25 years
ago and I still keep my teaching and in
it I talk about how I don’t want it I
don’t want to express any presentation
because people will think it’s stupid
people will think that I’m not good
enough when things weren’t good enough
and I handed that journal in and the
next morning when I came in I picked
that up again because we write in it
every day
and as I was turning to the blank page I
saw a little bit of red writing in the
journal and there was a reply from mr.
kijima and I’m gonna read the quote that
he wrote to me he says Cole it is
through mistakes that we make that we
learn we are all a bit nervous in front
of other people
me too the more you do it the better you
will get I was very proud of you when
you did your speech I was very proud of
you so that particular three words four
words I was very proud of you made a
different
my life because these journals I didn’t
know what mr. casually had in mind when
he had us write this I don’t know if
it’s because he was trying to evaluate
our writing maybe he’s just trying to
find something was to do but these
journals are unspoken support
encouragement and belief in a student in
his classroom I mean in grade seven and
when you know thirteen years old you’re
all always under pressure you’re under
pressure to do well in school you’re
under pressure to live up to your
parents expectations you’re under
pressure to fit in with your friends and
for me at that time in in addition to
challenges as a great seven thirteen
year olds I was also a child survivor of
domestic violence in my family every day
there was violence in my family for the
18 years that I grew up I never spoke
about this from my journal and it’s
through these journals that I realized
that mr. kijima is not only a teacher
he’s a teacher that teaches beyond the
subject he’s a teacher that teaches
beyond discipline he’s a teacher that
cared cared for every student in his
classroom and especially cared for an
immigrant child that just immigrated to
Canada who didn’t really fit in the
culture and if he did and he cared to
ask how I was every day so he was a
teacher that taught from the heart and
more importantly with the heart so I’m
all grown up now as you can see I’m not
13 and I take what Mr Cashman has taught
me to heart and through him he he taught
us a lot of things he taught us how to
make changes in the world and I won
students one of his students that want
to change the world I’m pursuing my
second PhD in education my first PhD is
in stem cell biology I’m an entrepreneur
a mother of two I I mentor students in
business and volunteer and I do all this
because it was at that pivotal moment
that he told me that I can do the things
that I want to do mr. kijima is a
teacher that inspires teachers is a
teacher that inspires students he
generated a ripple in the water that
touched so many lives and as I end my
speech I think everyone in our lives
here in this audience here needs a mr.
kijima in their lives
choose the care choose to care for each
other
even though we’re different in our with
our skin colour or what we believe in
choose to care for each other even
though how subtle it is thank you
[Applause]
hola hello everyone first of all thank
you so much for giving the honor to
speak here when I first began to start
to make my speech I was going to write
about choice and adversities and
experiences and then I figured that all
of you have probably gone through some
sort of adversity in your life or some
sort of experiences in your life that
you have gone through you’ve had support
and because because you probably
wouldn’t be here today so after months
of writing that speech I decided to
throw it out so I decided that I’m going
to tell you a story instead so I first
want to tell you about when I was 13
years old as a grade seven at that time
I had a great seven teacher his name is
mr. kijima he was an average height man
with dark hair and he was Caucasian he
took his wife’s last name after he got
married so hence his name is mr. kijima
and it was in grade seven that I
realized at that pivotal moment that I
was able to pursue and reach any dream
that I dreamt of and I’ll tell you that
story so first let me paint a picture
for you and I’d like you to go on a
journey with me so picture it’s 1991 I
don’t know maybe some of you are not
even born yet but tried to picture it’s
1991 and it’s a I went to a school that
has it’s long to floor it has two floors
and my classroom was on the second floor
and to get to my classroom you had to
walk up these stairs and with every step
that you took you can hear the creek in
the stairs and as you look down there
was this brown 1960s tile linoleum on
the ground and there were cracks and
holes everywhere that you walked and in
the hallway you can almost hear
the chatter of students talking about
what other than a half a lunch who their
latest crush was and then you appear
into my classroom so my classroom was an
average classroom had big bright windows
that overlooked a feel and feel was
gravel not grass and in front of the
classroom there were this big black
blackboards and on the ledge of the
blackboard I want you to imagine that
there’s a thick dust of chalk dust right
at the bottom and as you looked up to
the ceiling you can see industrial
fluorescent lights and with a whole maze
of plumbing pipes and I can still
remember my desk I walked to my desk and
there were one of those green ones that
have the little cubby space underneath
way right I could I could I can’t fit it
in now but at that time I could fit in
it and you could also hear friends
talking there were about 23 of us in
that classroom and I remembered a time
of us early in the school year when mr.
Kashima told us that we had to work on a
project pick a topic that interests you
he says so I decided to pick planes
planes and jets because I think I picked
that because I thought they were great
human inventions and perhaps I picked
them also because they were a great
interest of my dad and I wanted to like
the same things as my father at that
time and so what I decide to do for that
project is I decide to make a model of a
plane so I used toothpicks skewers paint
tissue paper and a-that’s decide to make
I decide to paint the plane gray and
white and after I worked on it at home I
decided to bring it to class and hand it
in
and it was raining at that time and if
you’ve ever been to Vancouver it’s
always raining and I had my umbrella and
that’s a kid it was really hard to avoid
puddles in the ground right so I arrived
in class the plane was a little bit wet
I was a little bit wet and I looked at
my plane I looked at it I was like it’s
not perfect it can’t fly it’s not to
scale so I walked across my classroom to
my desk and I was a little bit
disappointed
I put the plan onto my desk and I said
mr. cash my here’s my clean and so it’s
like okay good that’s for clean so the
next morning I came to class the same
way walked up those stairs through the
hallways into the class hung my coat up
and then as I want as I was walking
towards my desk in the field vision of
my in the periphery of my vision I
noticed there was something grey and
white hanging from a really thin wire
that span the classroom so I looked up
and I saw my plane hanging there mr.
kijima had decided to hang my imperfect
plane up on the wire for everyone to see
and whoever that walked in and for that
brief moment it almost looked like it
was flying maybe it’s because of a
little bit of gust of wind from the bent
in the class and also at that moment I
felt that he was proud of me and that he
cared for a student and to tell her that
she was the he was proud of he was proud
of me and so a couple days later mr.
kijima says okay you made a model so now
it’s time to talk about it give a
presentation about it how did you do it
and I would say presentation
do presentations I was so nervous so I
didn’t want to do it and so what I
decided to do was I told mr. Castro like
do I have to do this presentation I
didn’t like I make the model isn’t that
good enough so I know it’s important to
be able to communicate what you do and
like why we can just see it so so he
says nope oh it’s important to be able
to communicate your intent because then
change can happen and when I was 13 I
didn’t really understand what that meant
and so I still didn’t want to do the
presentation and I wrote about how I
felt about doing that presentation in my
class Journal and it’s these journals
I’ve been holding in my hand they’re
from when I’m 13 years old over 25 years
ago and I still keep my teaching and in
it I talk about how I don’t want it I
don’t want to express any presentation
because people will think it’s stupid
people will think that I’m not good
enough when things weren’t good enough
and I handed that journal in and the
next morning when I came in I picked
that up again because we write in it
every day
and as I was turning to the blank page I
saw a little bit of red writing in the
journal and there was a reply from mr.
kijima and I’m gonna read the quote that
he wrote to me he says Cole it is
through mistakes that we make that we
learn we are all a bit nervous in front
of other people
me too the more you do it the better you
will get I was very proud of you when
you did your speech I was very proud of
you so that particular three words four
words I was very proud of you made a
different
my life because these journals I didn’t
know what mr. casually had in mind when
he had us write this I don’t know if
it’s because he was trying to evaluate
our writing maybe he’s just trying to
find something was to do but these
journals are unspoken support
encouragement and belief in a student in
his classroom I mean in grade seven and
when you know thirteen years old you’re
all always under pressure you’re under
pressure to do well in school you’re
under pressure to live up to your
parents expectations you’re under
pressure to fit in with your friends and
for me at that time in in addition to
challenges as a great seven thirteen
year olds I was also a child survivor of
domestic violence in my family every day
there was violence in my family for the
18 years that I grew up I never spoke
about this from my journal and it’s
through these journals that I realized
that mr. kijima is not only a teacher
he’s a teacher that teaches beyond the
subject he’s a teacher that teaches
beyond discipline he’s a teacher that
cared cared for every student in his
classroom and especially cared for an
immigrant child that just immigrated to
Canada who didn’t really fit in the
culture and if he did and he cared to
ask how I was every day so he was a
teacher that taught from the heart and
more importantly with the heart so I’m
all grown up now as you can see I’m not
13 and I take what Mr Cashman has taught
me to heart and through him he he taught
us a lot of things he taught us how to
make changes in the world and I won
students one of his students that want
to change the world I’m pursuing my
second PhD in education my first PhD is
in stem cell biology I’m an entrepreneur
a mother of two I I mentor students in
business and volunteer and I do all this
because it was at that pivotal moment
that he told me that I can do the things
that I want to do mr. kijima is a
teacher that inspires teachers is a
teacher that inspires students he
generated a ripple in the water that
touched so many lives and as I end my
speech I think everyone in our lives
here in this audience here needs a mr.
kijima in their lives
choose the care choose to care for each
other
even though we’re different in our with
our skin colour or what we believe in
choose to care for each other even
though how subtle it is thank you
[Applause]
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