Leadership for kids

Based in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, there is an organization that works on community activities with the aim of nurturing local high school students. Its name is Nova Vita Foundation (commonly known as Nova Vita). Many of the students who are members of this organization, whose name means "New Life" in Latin, are Japanese-Americans whose parents have roots in Japan.

Nova Vita was founded in December 2019, but was forced to suspend operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic just as it was about to begin operations in 2020. The reason for its founding was not to develop young people, but to contribute to society by targeting homeless people and others. Miwako Shishon, one of the founders, looks back on the organization and says the following:

"Initially, our main members were adults. We started Nova Vita not to donate things or money to homeless people, but to provide them with education that would help them acquire skills and become independent. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic made our activities difficult and we began to consider closing the organization, we began to see children around us who were no longer able to go to school due to the pandemic being pushed to the brink by mental health issues. So we decided to change the purpose of our activities to developing children's leadership, with the aim of helping the children grow as individuals through our activities."

Since many of the members are of Japanese descent, in the summer of 2024 they hosted a grand Japanese-style summer festival at Tanaka Farm in Orange County, which attracted many visitors and dozens of cooperating sponsors.

Every year, a summer festival is held

Kaho Cichon, a member of the UCLA track and field team

Miwako's daughter, Kaho Shishon, a third-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), grew up through the group's activities and is now a leader among the high school members.

"We have been holding the summer festival for the past four years. At first it was small-scale, but this year the number of companies collaborating with us has increased, and it has grown in size every year. We plan to use the proceeds from sales (from booths and other sources) towards our future activities and to provide scholarships for outstanding high school students to go to college."

Kaho says she wants to stay involved with the organization long after she graduates, in order to help expand its current base in Orange County to a larger area and, in her words, "grow the NovaVita community."

So what motivates Kaho to participate in this project? "It's the growth of the high school students. When the high school student chosen as this year's MVP first participated, he was a shy person who would hide behind his mother. However, through our activities he began to show leadership and gained confidence. It was clear to see how much people can change in a short period of time, like a year or two, and I personally find it very rewarding."

I also asked how new members join the group: "Some people apply themselves after being introduced by an acquaintance, but sometimes we meet people at volunteer sites and feel that they will be a valuable asset, so we recruit them ourselves."

The number of Novavita volunteers who want to improve themselves and actively help their juniors to do so reached nearly 100 at this year's summer festival.

I want people to know about Japanese culture

Next, we asked Kaho, who has an American father and a Japanese mother, about her own identity and her Japanese language ability. First, we asked about identity.

Kaho (right) attended school in Kagoshima every summer vacation.

"If people ask me what nationality I am, I would answer Japanese American. Or Asian American. In fact, from the age of six until the COVID-19 pandemic, I went to school in Kagoshima, where my mother's family lives, during summer vacation. So I had a strong sense of being Japanese, and when people asked me what nationality I was, I would normally answer 'Japanese.' However, with hate crimes against Asians occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was not able to proudly state that I was of Asian descent, including Japanese descent. I was actually told by white people to 'go back to China.'

However, through his work with NovaVita, he believes he has gained the pride and confidence to proudly say, 'I am Japanese American.' He also believes that the reason he now refers to himself as Japanese American instead of Japanese is because, when he stayed in Japan a while ago, he represented the university he is affiliated with in California, and this gave him a stronger sense of being American (rather than Japanese)."

Her mother, Miwako, also explained why she started sending Kaho to a Japanese elementary school:

"I assumed that she would be able to learn Japanese at a Japanese-language supplementary school. However, my daughter's Japanese language skills were not good enough for her to even enroll in a Japanese-language supplementary school. I was worried that my daughter, who is Japanese, might no longer be able to speak Japanese, so I decided to send her to a school in Japan every summer. Not only did she increase her Japanese vocabulary, but she always returned having acquired Japanese customs such as cooperation."

In this way, Kaho learned the Japanese language and culture. "By working with Nova Vita, I want people to learn about the culture of Japan, my roots," Kaho said. And this fall, Nova Vita plans to run a Japanese-style sports day at a public school in Orange County. One of the goals of the event is to let Americans learn about the Japanese culture of sports days by inviting the general public to participate in it.

Official site: Nova Vita Foundation

© 2024 Keiko Fukuda