Yale College Voices Episode 06, Season 01 Transcription

Bridging Borders: A Journey from Neurosurgery Dreams to Global Education - A Conversation with Dr. Mya Fisher

00:00:00:26 - 00:00:15:01
Darice
Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's episode of Yale College Voices. I have Mya Fisher, Dr. Mya Fisher here with me today, and I'm really excited to to chat with you. So welcome, Mya.
 
00:00:15:04 - 00:00:16:22
Mya
Thank you Darice for having me.
 
00:00:16:25 - 00:00:26:08
Darice
So my I'm just going to read your bio and then we're going to jump right in and have a conversation. So. All right, let's do it here. Here's Mya's impressive bio, so.
 
00:00:26:09 - 00:00:27:17
Mya
Oh, boy.
 
00:00:27:19 - 00:00:57:19
Darice
Mya is a trained sociology Ms.. And passionate international educator with more than two decades of combined expertise as a cross-cultural trainer, program development and management specialist, nonprofit leader, international education and exchange professional specializing in programing related to Japan and China. She also identifies as a black woman who has greatly benefited from and been transformed by various international experiences.
 
00:00:57:21 - 00:01:27:19
Darice
She leverages these experiences, skills and knowledge together and into her current leadership roles. So Mya is director of the Richard Yu Light Fellowship at Yale University. The fellowship provides full funding support for intensive language study by Yale students in Japan, China, South Korea or Taiwan. As director, she is responsible for leading the administration and management, as well as setting the strategic vision of the fellowship.
 
00:01:27:21 - 00:01:54:07
Darice
She's passionate about international exchange and brings extensive experience studying and working in Japan, notably as founding administrator of the one time to be study abroad Scholarship and former director of Education in the TOMODACHI Initiative at the U.S. Japan Council. She has also worked for Youth for Understanding USA, Beloit College. Did I pronounce that? Beloit?. I'm so sorry.
 
00:01:54:08 - 00:01:54:22
Mya
Beloit. That's okay.
 
00:01:54:28 - 00:02:38:13
Darice
And Northwood University in 2020, Mya launched a consulting practice, Global Equity Forward, where she advises organizations and institutions on equity and inclusion through an international cross-cultural lens. In addition, she serves as a senior advisor and board member to various nonprofit and educational entities, including I Leapp in the McClellan School. So Meyers and an enthusiastic supporter of next generation leadership development, encouraging young people to embrace their leadership potential, pursue interests in international opportunities and discover their place and purpose in the world, motivates and inspires her every day.
 
00:02:38:16 - 00:03:14:05
Darice
Mya holds degrees from Williams College, a bachelor's in psychology and sociology, New York University, a master of arts in International Education, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a master of science and a Ph.D. in sociology. So Mai and I are also co-chairs on the DEIB Committee for Yale College Diversity Equity and Inclusion and Belonging. So the first time I met Mya was, let's see, a couple of years ago, right?
 
00:03:14:05 - 00:03:21:00
Darice
While we did some work on the committee and decided to launch our survey.
 
00:03:21:00 - 00:03:21:26
Mya
Yeah, Yeah.
 
00:03:22:02 - 00:04:03:08
Darice
And wow. And it seems like such a long time ago. Right? But yeah, it's a pleasure having you here today, and I appreciate all the support you've given the podcast. Over the summer we did some test runs, which was awesome and it was great just getting to know you. So I'm wondering, you know, we'll just start off with, you know, I'm wondering if you could tell me a little bit more about your journey, your your extensive academic background in sociology all the way up to your current role as director of the Richard Yu Light Fellowship here at Yale.
 
00:04:03:10 - 00:04:28:21
Mya
Wow. Well, thanks again Darice for having me. This is it's really a pleasure. And yes, it's been great working with you on the committee. And I think and also working with you more recently as co-chairs. It's been a very interesting adventure that I think still has ground in front of us to travel together.
 
00:04:28:23 - 00:04:38:04
Darice
W e're married haha. Or engaged, right haha.
 
00:04:38:07 - 00:04:54:03
Mya
Yeah. And it's it's always weird when people read your bios back to you and you're like, it sounds like it's all was straightforward and, like, intentional and you know that it made sense all the time. And it so did not.
 
00:04:54:05 - 00:04:55:28
Darice
Really.
 
00:04:56:01 - 00:05:33:04
Mya
And I will say I've, I'm still recently new to Yale, so I just finished my second year here last month. And so I'm going into my third year and I feel like I'm still getting to know the place, but I love, love, love my role here at Yale. I feel like this is my role as the director for the Fellowship is really the culmination of a lot of different things that had to come together, had to happen in order for me to sit in this particular place.
 
00:05:33:07 - 00:06:01:26
Mya
And if you had told that even college version of me that this is what I would be doing. When I started college, I wanted to be a pediatric neurosurgeon. And because I done science in high school. Yeah, very, very divergent. And but Japan has been a part of my life since high school. I started studying Japanese at my public high school in Prince George's County, Maryland.
 
00:06:01:29 - 00:06:28:04
Mya
Yay! Roosevelt Raiders. And at the time I had a Japanese teacher who had told me, had told me about different opportunities after college. Even in high school. And I sort of just kept those in the back of my mind. And she was a woman who loved to teach. She did not have to teach. She just she was native Japanese.
 
00:06:28:06 - 00:06:52:17
Mya
And she said that she just love sharing her culture with people. And so I was like, okay, I'll take Japanese in high school. And apparently I had a very good ear for it and good pronunciation for a foreigner. Most Japanese people, if I talk to them on the phone or if they see me, or if I've communicated with them previously and then they meet me, there's always this sort of surprise.
 
00:06:52:17 - 00:07:24:21
Mya
You're not Japanese, are you? Japanese? No, I'm not. So that's always an interesting situation. But I went through college really fully exploring college. I went in wanting to do Japanese and neuroscience. I came out with degrees in psychology and sociology because I discovered along the way that there were things that I really was interested in. And I just took those classes and they sort of created a major.
 
00:07:24:22 - 00:07:55:26
Mya
Yeah. And after college I spent a couple of years teaching English in Japan on the JET program, which is a U.S. Japanese government initiative that brings native English speakers into public schools in Japan. So I taught for two years there, and then I came back and I wanted to still stay connected to Japan but didn't know how because at the time anything related to Japan or East Asia was really in the policy security or economic realm.
 
00:07:55:28 - 00:08:28:11
Mya
And none of those things were my field. I so most of the job prospects were we're not really open to me. And so I ended up working at the Embassy of Japan in their congressional affairs section. Oh, wow. And it sounds impressive, but I think, honestly, I feel like I got the job because I grew up in and around D.C. My mother worked for Congress, so I knew how congressional offices worked.
 
00:08:28:11 - 00:08:50:05
Mya
I knew how the Hill worked, but I had absolutely no interest whatsoever. But I could do the job, and it allowed me to stay connected to Japan. And during that time, I got some really good advice that said, you know, go and volunteer and see if there are other things that you might want to do. And I ended up volunteering with the organization that sent me to Japan as a high school student.
 
00:08:50:11 - 00:08:58:10
Mya
Oh, so Youth for Understanding. So I volunteered to do their orientations and go to schools and talk to students about you should.
 
00:08:58:10 - 00:08:59:18
Mya
Go to Japan, you should go.
 
00:08:59:18 - 00:09:08:09
Mya
Abroad and then discover that that could be a job or a career. And that's how I sort of fell into international.
 
00:09:08:09 - 00:09:10:11
Mya
ED.
 
00:09:10:13 - 00:09:12:00
Darice
Wow that's amazing.
 
00:09:12:03 - 00:09:46:19
Darice
But it's so interesting when you when you mentioned your experience in high school that tied in to your your mom having that experience and in Congress and, you know, you you basically used all you know, you pulled all of your resources together and navigated that. I mean, that's amazing. I'm wondering if you could tell me since since you mentioned how folks are always surprised after, you know, if they speak to you on the phone and then they meet you in person, I'm wondering about your, you know, just your personal experience as a as a black woman.
 
00:09:46:19 - 00:10:04:23
Darice
Right. And you benefited from from all of these international experiences you've had. So how did that sort of influence your career path and your passion for international education and cross-cultural training?
 
00:10:04:25 - 00:10:49:01
Mya
Yeah, it's it's been interesting. So for most of the things that I've done in and related to Japan, especially early in my career, I often felt like or actually was the only black woman or person of color in most of the rooms or activities that I was involved in. And so when I came back and was sort of doing the the work at youth understanding and helping to promote international education and international opportunities, I really felt like it was important for me to find ways to encourage people who looked like me to do these things right.
 
00:10:49:01 - 00:11:28:18
Mya
And so if there was a school or if there was a group or if, you know, somebody came up to me and was like, I want to do this. At one point when I was in D.C., I was selected to be a goodwill ambassador for the National Cherry Blossom Festival. And so that meant my job was sort of the public relations of Japan in D.C. during this two week long festival of spring time in Washington and it gave me an opportunity to go out and talk to young people in schools or community members to talk about what it meant to host somebody from a foreign country in Japan in particular.
 
00:11:28:20 - 00:12:10:03
Mya
And so I've always felt like I wanted to see more people like me do these things. And also because I felt like my pathway was not really traditional. I came to most of this work from an educational field versus, as I said before, the political, economic or security fields. And I was just that sort of was my sort of my guiding principle was sort of, you know, encouraging and helping people to see themselves in these places and spaces and also to think about, okay, I've had a wonderful time in Japan.
 
00:12:10:05 - 00:12:35:25
Mya
Not saying it wasn't challenging, not saying I didn't have some bananas conversations with Japanese people, but I always have felt embraced. And I used to say that I had always, you know, befriended or met like your your atypical Japanese people, because people had been so welcoming and inviting. And I have now learned that is probably not what happened.
 
00:12:35:25 - 00:13:09:09
Mya
But it helped me to realize that I had a presumption about who Japanese people were, what they were like. And the Japanese people that I met are typical Japanese people. I'm very open, welcoming, not without their own, you know, challenges, opinions that we, you know, may have had to have some very highly debated conversations with. But, you know, I, I came from a place of most Japanese that I met who'd never met an American or never met a black person before.
 
00:13:09:11 - 00:13:35:26
Mya
I always approached with, okay, if I'm the first, then I understand they're going to be questions, they're going to be assumptions. They're going to be things that they don't know or understand. And I'm open to those questions, and I attribute that to my grandmother, who was on my dad's side, Martha Fisher, who was one of those people that she could be standing on the street outside of a concert and just start talking to people.
 
00:13:35:28 - 00:13:57:01
Mya
And, you know, and she was she was one of those people that, you know, even if she initiates a conversation, somehow, she still pulls people in to a conversation or wanting to have a conversation with her. And so I think that I have inherited a little bit of that from her, where I'm willing to have conversations with people I don't mind.
 
00:13:57:01 - 00:14:22:02
Mya
Ask me the questions. When I teach sociology, it's the same way. Ask me the questions that you've always wanted to ask, that you've been afraid of, that you thought somebody would be offended by. Nothing can offend me. I've heard it all pretty much straight, and I'm willing to answer those questions because those are the questions that people walk around the world with that impact their worldview and their behavior.
 
00:14:22:02 - 00:14:36:01
Mya
And if I can help people with an additional viewpoint, perspective, or information that maybe can influence their actions for better, then I'm okay with that.
 
00:14:36:04 - 00:15:08:09
Darice
That's awesome. I love that. And that that was probably the first thing that struck me about, you know, when we we did our work on the committee. But yeah, I noticed right away that you had you had no problem facing questions head on, but also quite, you know, questions that some folks may feel uncomfortable even approaching the subject or, you know, having a having a conversation.
 
00:15:08:09 - 00:15:34:28
Darice
And that yeah, that was one of the first things that stood out to me about you that that, you know, to be honest, I loved it because, you know, in order for this committee to sort of move forward, there has to be, you know, you can't have fear of having a conversation even if it's uncomfortable or, you know, maybe helping people debunk myths.
 
00:15:35:00 - 00:15:59:05
Darice
You know, like you said, you had an impression about Japanese people prior to some of your travel. And then you realize, oh, this is actually my experience was the everyday experience that wasn't so, you know, wasn't like unusual. And and that's great. That's one of the you know, I have to say, that's that's probably one of the first things I notice about you.
 
00:15:59:05 - 00:16:29:08
Darice
And it's an awesome quality because I think the more that you exhibit that quality, like you said, it pulls people in and and yeah, I think that's amazing because it not everyone has that that ability to stop and have a conversation with someone like you said at a concert and suddenly you're like, we have to go inside. We're here for a concert.
 
00:16:29:11 - 00:16:49:05
Darice
But, but that's great, right? Just be able to have a conversation and pull people in and and for it to be pleasant, you know, to be a pleasant exchange. And then, you know, one of the things I learned about just talking to everyone during the podcast was just that the few minutes that you interact with with someone can make an impression.
 
00:16:49:08 - 00:17:14:08
Darice
Yeah, much, much later or even ongoing. It's not just in that moment, but it could they could think about you, you know, for years to come, right? Like, like, oh, even it kind of a funny example that came to mind for me. This happened maybe a couple of years ago. So I was at a gas station and I you know, I'm techie, so I am trying to use my phone to pay for the gas.
 
00:17:14:10 - 00:17:27:21
Darice
And for some reason my bank kept declining it, thinking it was a fraudulent purchase. So every time I tried to hold my phone up, it kept declining and then eventually it like locked the account.
 
00:17:27:24 - 00:17:29:07
Darice
It locked the account.
 
00:17:29:10 - 00:17:49:24
Darice
And the, you know, the screen said, oh, see a gas attendant. And I was just like, really? You know, So I'm going inside. And I went inside to say, you know, I grab my wallet and I'm like, you know, 20 bucks or whatever. I'm on the gas pump. And the attendant was like, Oh, no, the the lady just now paid on that pump.
 
00:17:49:24 - 00:17:51:18
Darice
And I and at first I thought.
 
00:17:51:20 - 00:17:52:12
Mya
Was it a mistake?
 
00:17:52:12 - 00:17:59:22
Darice
Yeah, it wasn't a mistake that she on the wrong pump. And I'm like, oh, you know, and in my mind I'm like, oh, jeez, Now she paid on the wrong pump, and now I have.
 
00:17:59:23 - 00:18:00:17
Mya
To track her down.
 
00:18:00:17 - 00:18:02:01
Darice
Yeah, Yeah.
 
00:18:02:03 - 00:18:24:05
Darice
And so he pointed her out like he said, Oh, yeah. She went outside and so I saw her, you know, So I'm like, running out to her like, Hey, you, I think you paid on the wrong pump. And she says, No, I thought I thought you were in trouble. And I just wanted to help. And so I paid for your gas and I tried to pay her back and she said, No, no, no, no, no.
 
00:18:24:08 - 00:18:31:11
Darice
And and I thought that was so such a nice thing to do. And the fact that she did it and took off.
 
00:18:31:14 - 00:18:32:01
Darice
Right.
 
00:18:32:03 - 00:18:52:11
Mya
She's not looking for recognition. For recognition. It's basically like, you know, you see somebody as a human being. You see somebody in distress because they somebody, you know, where their humanity is on full display and you're thinking is okay, if there's something that I can do. Right, I will try to help. Will try that. Okay. She looks like she's in distress.
 
00:18:52:11 - 00:19:24:21
Mya
You ask the gas attendant. Okay. Is there a problem? Oh, yes. It's $23 or whatever. And you're like, okay, I can cover that. Right. You know, And it's like, you know, just helping. And I, I honestly think that that's the orientation that I understand we take as educators, right? Like we are in classrooms. We are hoping that whatever we are sharing or, you know, pouring out into our students, in their pouring into us is going to impact them in the world in some future way.
 
00:19:24:21 - 00:19:46:18
Mya
Right. We may not live to see it. We may not ever see them again after this, but we trust and have faith that that's going to benefit them or the world in some way, shape or form. And I think I both of my parents are trained educators. And so I think that's also the the mindset that I grew up with.
 
00:19:46:21 - 00:20:11:19
Mya
And so but I don't limit it to a classroom, right? You limit it to your experience as a human being in the world. And I feel like that is between my grandmothers perspective of being able to, you know, just have conversations with people about things that they're not used to talking about and sort of this trust and faith of, you know, trying to, you know, share things with people that will help to make the world better.
 
00:20:11:20 - 00:20:37:22
Mya
Right. Like between those two things, I think are what really came together during the pandemic for me, when I formed my my company before I got my job at Yale. But because a friend reminded me, she's like, you teach on these things because, you know, there was the the protests and sort of, you know, the racial reckoning and all these other things.
 
00:20:37:22 - 00:21:23:17
Mya
And as a sociologist at Wisconsin, when I was in grad school, I taught two classes. One, I was a teacher for human sexuality, and then I was an instructor for a course on race and race and ethnicity in American life. And so they were considered sort of controversial courses. And so but I really enjoyed them. And at that time, in that summer of 2020, when everything was erupting, something happened in Japan where the Japanese Broadcasting Service aired a video and it was an animated video to the Japanese public where they were trying to they were trying to explain what the protests were and also the looting.
 
00:21:23:22 - 00:22:00:00
Mya
But they conflated them as a sort of singular event. And the caricatures of the people who were doing it were people of darker complexions in sort of stereotypical outfits, sort of like wife beaters and things like that. And I remember my first I was like, Come on, Japan, we have to do better. And at the time also, there were a lot of Japanese friends who were trying to understand what was happening in the U.S. and I was like, There has to be something to be done.
 
00:22:00:00 - 00:22:23:14
Mya
And I decided to teach a course, an abbreviated version of a course that I taught at Wisconsin and adapted it for the pandemic. I adapted it for the current climate. And then I invited people in Japan who wanted to sort of better understand these things and anybody in the U.S. And then I taught it six weeks virtually for free.
 
00:22:23:16 - 00:22:55:21
Mya
And it was one of those things where it helped me to realize people have a lot of anxiety, they have a lot of thoughts, and people feel very strongly about a lot of these things, but they have no place or space to explore that, to talk about it. Everybody's afraid of saying the wrong thing. And so how can you know, how can we how can I help people sort of develop their own voices around these topics so that they can have engaged conversations with people in their lives about these things?
 
00:22:55:21 - 00:23:04:29
Mya
And so that was the origin of my company. And I was like, okay, this apparently is a thing that I can do and here is my contribution.
 
00:23:05:01 - 00:23:06:04
Darice
That's awesome. Yeah, I love that.
 
00:23:06:04 - 00:23:41:28
Darice
And you know, what it brings to mind is so as you know. Daisy it was my first guest on the podcast and Daisy who's parts a part of the arts, you know college arts and she mentioned on the podcast that her department, they hold sort of a it's not a staff meeting, it's a separate meeting for two you know, allow that sort of platform for folks to have a discussion and talk about issues that they're facing and all sorts of things.
 
00:23:42:00 - 00:24:17:03
Darice
And, you know, when she first mentioned that to me, I was like, that's amazing that, you know, the department is coming together to do that. And I wish it could happen more often. But just to have that, like you said, it's like a safe environment where it's not you don't feel like it's a stupid comment or a stupid question, but it's a an exchange and and a place to do it where, you know, at least you feel like you're you're learning or, you know, learning about other folks in their perspectives.
 
00:24:17:03 - 00:24:20:09
Mya
You're not judged for being who you are in your journey.
 
00:24:20:09 - 00:24:20:28
Darice
Right. Exactly.
 
00:24:21:03 - 00:24:31:15
Mya
And it's funny that you mention that because I actually just mentioned that on Monday is you to somebody on my team about doing that in our team meeting.
 
00:24:31:15 - 00:24:32:22
Darice
That's awesome.
 
00:24:32:22 - 00:25:08:28
Mya
And having a place for that. And I was like, I have a friend who suggested this because this is what had happened in her department. And so because I also felt like, yeah, it's a really it's a simple opportunity, right, to do that. And it can start small and it can just be an open portion of the meeting. But the fact that it stands as a sort of carved out time that if somebody has something that's come up that week, they can just say that right or share it or ask for advice or share resources.
 
00:25:09:00 - 00:25:28:06
Darice
Yeah, Yeah, exactly. That's awesome. And hopefully they're receptive to it. And you'll and like you said, you start small. Yeah. And you know what will be really interesting is to hear where things go like a year from now to find out like how, how do people feel? Like, how did it make you feel? Did it change your perspective?
 
00:25:28:06 - 00:25:51:11
Darice
Like from some of the comments we saw on the survey? Yeah. You know, how did it change? Did it make some sort of positive change? And I hope so. I think, you know, I'm just in hearing about it I think makes a difference that people are finally having conversations and feeling safe.
 
00:25:51:13 - 00:25:51:28
Mya
To do so.
 
00:25:51:28 - 00:26:05:21
Darice
To do so. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'd probably say, you know, I've been at Yale for 16 years and I've never been in an environment where it felt okay to do that.
 
00:26:05:28 - 00:26:39:19
Mya
Yeah. And, you know, a lot of it is, again, people, you know, there's a certain level of anxiety, discomfort, you know, whether we can do it or whether can say it. And but I think the goal, right, is to change the environment within which people are sitting right in which we are working. Yeah, right. And so if the environment feels more welcoming, if the environment just sort of the breathing space that we are in, that we all share, right?
 
00:26:39:21 - 00:27:05:09
Mya
If that is freer, less confining, less oppressive, then people can again more fully as their whole selves, their full humanity. Right, can be prison. And. And that's really what you want. Yeah. Because you know, you want a full employee, right? Because a full employee is the most productive version of our days. So.
 
00:27:05:11 - 00:27:07:22
Darice
Yeah. I see you more than I see my own family.
 
00:27:07:24 - 00:27:09:21
Darice
You know.
 
00:27:09:24 - 00:27:35:07
Darice
And, you know, honestly. And it's. And it's you wanted to you want people to feel like it's a positive environment to come to every day. Yes. And because yeah, like you said, it does affect our productivity. It affects our mental health. And so, so many different things that contribute to being a, you know, a good, productive employee.
 
00:27:35:11 - 00:27:35:20
Darice
Yeah.
 
00:27:35:20 - 00:27:40:02
Mya
So and it helps with keeping good, talented guests here.
 
00:27:40:02 - 00:27:41:07
Darice
Retention, right?
 
00:27:41:07 - 00:28:15:13
Mya
Yeah I and you know so I've spent most of my life outside of higher ed I've worked with institutions and but I've worked with nonprofit. And so, you know, it was a very interesting shift coming to Yale and coming to my particular role with the Fellowship, being able to, you know, we have the resources to be able to do the programing, the outreach, the advising of students, sort of all the things that outside of these hallowed halls, you had to fight for.
 
00:28:15:13 - 00:28:58:29
Mya
Right. Tooth and nail for for resources. Well, to do right and to be here and to have the opportunity to to really think about and put the pieces together in a way that you feel like is something that is part of a student's educational journey, not just in the classroom, but a fellowship is something that's external to their classes, but is still part of their broader educational journey and their developmental journey as productive, contributing members of society and humanity just broadly, which I know is sort of, you know, one of the things that Yale as an institution wants to produce and, you know, as an output.
 
00:28:58:29 - 00:29:16:08
Mya
So yeah, I feel like, you know, having the opportunity to do that and be a part of that and to contribute to, you know, helping students to be more conscientious, to develop empathy, particularly after the pandemic.
 
00:29:16:08 - 00:29:17:09
Darice
Yes.
 
00:29:17:11 - 00:29:22:23
Mya
In times when they didn't necessarily have the things that we assume that they're coming to college with.
 
00:29:22:23 - 00:29:23:07
Darice
Right.
 
00:29:23:07 - 00:29:24:04
Mya
Right.
 
00:29:24:09 - 00:29:47:00
Mya
And and being able to be nimble enough also in our roles and in our departments to be able to say, okay, well, okay, we our systems assume that they have this. We are seeing that they don't have this. So what can we do to adapt to the students that we do have, Right, so that we can continue to produce right.
 
00:29:47:03 - 00:29:48:03
Darice
Now and prepare them.
 
00:29:48:03 - 00:29:50:15
Mya
Prepare them for what is going to come after.
 
00:29:50:16 - 00:29:56:08
Darice
That's. So yeah, and so great segway because I.
 
00:29:56:08 - 00:29:56:23
Darice
Was I.
 
00:29:56:28 - 00:30:20:03
Darice
Wanted to ask you if you could elaborate on, on your work with, with the fellowship. Um, and also just, you know, and you just mentioned, uh, you know, promoting cross cultural understanding. What are there certain experiences that kind of stand out in your mind in terms of the work that you do with the fellowship.
 
00:30:20:03 - 00:30:22:00
Mya
Experiences for me, or experiences for students?
 
00:30:22:02 - 00:30:29:17
Darice
Why don't we start off with for you and then you could tell me maybe a student has shared a, uh, you know, a positive experience with you as well.
 
00:30:29:20 - 00:31:08:19
Mya
Um, Oh, boy, I did not. I did not prep for this. That's okay. So I think one of the one of the things that I am always just floored by with this fellowship opportunity is a lot of my experiences with Japan or China or things that I've done in international Ed didn't come with funding. And so I either had to seek out funding or, you know, take out student loans or whatever to cover it.
 
00:31:08:21 - 00:31:30:14
Mya
And so the fact that students at Yale have this competitive opportunity for funding and it's full funding to go and spend a period of time of their choice, right? They could do it in the summer. They could do it during term time. They could do it in some combination of all of those things, or they could do it more than once.
 
00:31:30:17 - 00:31:47:08
Mya
You have to apply and be awarded. But it's an opportunity that I think myself and all members of my team who've also had to seek other opportunities for funding to do the things that we've done are always just like, Wow, we're so lucky, like, or we wish we had this when we were students.
 
00:31:47:08 - 00:31:51:01
Darice
Yes, that's a common topic.
 
00:31:51:03 - 00:31:52:10
Darice
Yes.
 
00:31:52:12 - 00:32:25:25
Mya
You know, and and to be able to see students, the thing that I always get excited about is giving the opportunity or awarding students who as a nontraditional student or student who didn't go about things sort of the normative way. Um, I have a soft spot for people who, you know, who exhibit leadership potential in different ways than maybe be traditionally measured.
 
00:32:25:27 - 00:32:53:09
Mya
And so what I appreciate about this fellowship is that it really does look at your potential, it looks at your motivation, it looks at sort of these things that aren't exclusively grades, but, you know, are you going to fully embrace this experience? Is this just something that's going to be on your resume versus something that you really that is going to sort of fully inhabit you and stay with you?
 
00:32:53:16 - 00:33:33:18
Mya
Because ultimately what they want is that you come back and share what you've learned with other people and get them excited to go. And I had the opportunity to talk to to meet with and spend some time with Dr. Timothy Leight, who's the son of Richard Yu Leight, who gave the money to Yale. And, you know, in the conversations and hearing and talking about the fellowship and sort of learning about the history of the fellowship, one of the things that I always talk to students about, but now more explicitly than I did before, is this idea that, you know, we know that Yale graduates are going to go out and be leaders in the world.
 
00:33:33:18 - 00:34:07:12
Mya
We know that they're going to go out and impact the world and the lives of people, large numbers of people across the globe. Right. And so what we for the fellowship, want to make sure of is that if you're going to go into these fields or this region we want you to be able to understand the people, the culture, the nuance of language, and have that inform how you choose to be and act in those places and spaces.
 
00:34:07:13 - 00:34:39:05
Mya
Right? And so that's a responsibility that I take seriously and also a mission that I can get behind. Right? And so for me, that's the great opportunity of this, is that you can help you can help students develop that sense of responsibility, develop that sense of recognition of, oh, my gosh, you know, my work, my thinking, my presence is going to matter.
 
00:34:39:07 - 00:35:04:06
Mya
And what comes with that. And, you know, so when I the things that are rewarding is when we actually have a chance to go and visit our students in the middle of these programs and talk to them and see and hear, you know, what they have done with that experience, what they have done with their time. If they're only in country for the summer, I'm only here for eight weeks.
 
00:35:04:13 - 00:35:38:17
Mya
You know, I'm not spending any time in my apartment. I'm going in doing these things. I am meeting local students. I am, you know, exploring museums. I am, you know, trying different foods. I'm learning about, you know, history or pottery or painting, you know, the ways in which that they are fully embracing. The time I'm there is helps me to know that the work that we're doing in the way that we're doing it is in line with the mission.
 
00:35:38:17 - 00:35:46:13
Mya
So I feel like, okay, if I can continue to have that sort of check in, then I know that we're on the right track.
 
00:35:46:15 - 00:36:31:26
Darice
That's amazing. I mean, honestly, it almost gives me goose goose bumps, to imagine if, you know, I'm having an effect on a on a student who literally, you know, they're they're gaining all these experiences and knowledge that potentially can be world changing. Yeah. I mean, that that's that's amazing. It's an that's an awesome feeling to truly feel like you're contributing to, you know, not just someone's you know, not just their own personal world or their own their own circle, but, you know, the the the world, you know, globally.
 
00:36:31:26 - 00:37:09:00
Darice
I mean, that's an awesome way to think about, you know, coming to work every day and to think, you know, that that's the purpose of this podcast, right? We all have parts in contributing to Yale College student experience and hopefully a positive impact in terms of how they, you know, we give them all the tools and resources and and opportunities and things like that, and then they go off into the world and change, you know, change the world, really.
 
00:37:09:02 - 00:37:20:16
Darice
And yeah, I mean, literally, that does give me goosebumps because it's like, like, wow. I mean, to imagine you have you mean you have some part in so you do it, you know what I mean?
 
00:37:20:17 - 00:37:23:11
Mya
That makes me nervous. I don't think about that part.
 
00:37:23:14 - 00:37:25:09
Darice
You don't think about it?
 
00:37:25:11 - 00:37:55:19
Mya
I mean, what I what I do think about is, you know, so actually, this is a great story. So last week, a package came to our office and my colleague picked it up out of the mailroom, and she opened and she's like, this is a student who just came back from a time away or from one of our she was one of our fellows, and she had sent us just a simple like coaster.
 
00:37:55:22 - 00:38:35:29
Mya
She sent all three of us, of all three members of the Light Fellowship team, and she just sent a coaster with a note of thanks and said, I had the most wonderful experience. I couldn't have imagined, you know, any other opportunity being for me. This was and I just thank you for your support, your help. And, you know, that's the kind of stuff that, again, just helps us one, you know, not just not just the students to have a great time, but that they have reflected on what they have gotten out of it and how it has made them better.
 
00:38:36:01 - 00:39:02:27
Mya
Human humans not like better students, because, yes, language acquisition and development is part of the fellowship. I know. Yes. But, you know, again, we want them to be better humans. And one of the things that we do in our pre-departure orientations is we tell the students, look, there are a hundred other people behind the scenes of these programs who are supporting you, who are making the things that you are doing possible.
 
00:39:02:29 - 00:39:32:23
Mya
You may not see them, but if you do, please just say thank you. Just acknowledge their work on your to make what you are doing there possible. And I think, you know, gratitude, empathy, thanking, like just acknowledge and seeing people again for their humanity and for the work that they are doing for you is like, that's something that I want to put into the world.
 
00:39:32:23 - 00:39:59:18
Mya
So that's something that I want. That's my personal thing that I want our fellows to be able to exhibit. Right? So that's part of sort of what the types of people that we want to send out. Representing Yale, representing the fellowship are people who are gracious. Yes. And gratitude goes a long way. And, you know, it's really about acknowledging people's central humanity.
 
00:39:59:18 - 00:40:19:20
Mya
We may be different in a lot of different other ways, but one of the things that I talk about with my work is, you know, you connect with people as human beings first, like at heart, like, you know, you are human. I am human. Then what we do is we build the relationship, we build the layers upon that.
 
00:40:19:20 - 00:40:39:22
Mya
We understand each other's complexities and we expand beyond that central thing. But the first thing that you do is you acknowledge and recognize somebody as a human being first, and then you can ask what they do, or you know, what makes you happy or What are you passionate about? You build the complexity of understanding and the relationship on that.
 
00:40:39:22 - 00:40:49:13
Mya
Like, but you have to start there. Yeah. Where most people are like you go from the outside in like, actually no, you start from the inside the core of their heart, humanity, and then work your way out.
 
00:40:49:16 - 00:40:51:25
Darice
That's awesome.
 
00:40:51:28 - 00:41:08:19
Darice
I love that. And I yeah, absolutely. And it kind of brings me back and I know that you say you don't think about it, but I think I do. I think about it almost like I treat raising my kids. It's like I want you to be a good person. You know that? That's my big thing with my with my kids.
 
00:41:08:19 - 00:41:15:05
Darice
It's like, no matter what you do, whether you get straight A's or not.
 
00:41:15:07 - 00:41:15:26
Darice
You know.
 
00:41:15:29 - 00:41:28:13
Darice
Or not, you know, I. I want to raise my kids to be good people, you know, and just good, decent human beings. And that that's probably my ultimate goal.
 
00:41:28:13 - 00:41:30:05
Mya
And I don't have kids so this is this is my version.
 
00:41:30:06 - 00:41:36:21
Darice
Yeah. But these are these are your kids, you know, you do right. And, you mention I know you have guinea pigs.
 
00:41:36:21 - 00:41:37:02
Mya
I do.
 
00:41:37:02 - 00:41:38:26
Darice
So yes.
 
00:41:38:28 - 00:42:03:10
Darice
I'm sure you raised them to be good guinea pigs too. But. But no, seriously. Yeah, they're spoiled. But. But honestly, it's like whether they're, you know, your kids or the students that you work with, but they are your kids right there because you're influencing them to to be good human beings. And and to, you know, to be gracious and show gratitude.
 
00:42:03:10 - 00:42:31:20
Darice
And yeah, I think that's amazing because I, I honestly that when you like I said earlier, you have an experience with with someone, whether it's 5 minutes or you know you spend time with them for several weeks or months or whatever, it impacts how you go out into the world and your daily interactions. I honestly feel, like I said, the woman at the gas station, that's kind of changed.
 
00:42:31:21 - 00:42:55:20
Darice
You know, it changed me a little bit because I wouldn't I don't know. I was just really surprised that someone would do that, especially in that moment. And I was in a frustrated rush, you know, rushed moment. And the fact that someone just thought to be kind and to want to help someone they didn't even know and then they didn't even want to take credit for it.
 
00:42:55:23 - 00:43:12:18
Darice
Yeah. Yeah. If, you know, and I probably sound like, oh, it sounds so lofty, but, but imagine if you did one, you know, everyone did that at least one time a day. What a wonderful world it would be. Right. But, honestly.
 
00:43:12:19 - 00:43:20:14
Mya
Well, you know, it's funny because so I've done things like that before. Like, you know, people in the grocery line.
 
00:43:20:14 - 00:43:21:06
Darice
Right. Right.
 
00:43:21:12 - 00:44:01:09
Mya
Are frustrated or payment doesn't go through grade when I do. So I do a lot of driving on the road and road trips. And so what I will do sometimes is I will, too. Sometimes I'm like, maybe it's to help my travel karma, but sometimes it might be to like, you know, pay for the car behind you and on the toll road or this, this radio station that I that's down in the D.C. metro area, you know, has this thing where, you know, like once a week or like once every so often they'd be like, okay, well, today is the driveway or the drive through day where you pay for somebody in the drive thru
 
00:44:01:09 - 00:44:06:05
Mya
behind you or something like that. And so, you know, sometimes it's just fun.
 
00:44:06:05 - 00:44:07:04
Darice
Yeah, sometimes.
 
00:44:07:04 - 00:44:23:04
Mya
It's freaky because people, they're trying to track you down and then you don't know. And then it's a little weird. Yeah, but, you know, it's just one of those, like, simple. It's like a simple pleasure, right? It's just like, what you can do for a kindness. And for me, because I live alone. I don't have like, my family doesn't live here.
 
00:44:23:06 - 00:44:35:23
Mya
I don't have kids. Like, yes, my guinea pigs are the source of my joy. But, you know, sometimes you just want some human connection, too. So you want to feel like you are a useful human to other humans.
 
00:44:35:27 - 00:44:36:20
Darice
Right, right.
 
00:44:36:21 - 00:44:48:07
Mya
Outside of your job. Right. And so sometimes it's just, you know, and, you know, sometimes it is a sometimes it does make you feel better, right? But then sometimes, you know, you are helping out.
 
00:44:48:07 - 00:45:09:28
Darice
Yeah, absolutely. Um, and I truly believe in that because it does matter. Um, you know, acts of kindness. And even if you do bring it back into work, uh, how we interact with each other when you know, if you need something from me and, you know, whatever the task may involve, I appreciate a little gratitude, you know?
 
00:45:10:00 - 00:45:10:09
Darice
And.
 
00:45:10:14 - 00:45:23:15
Darice
And vice versa, Right? I think that people forget. Um, yeah, that's that. That could be a whole other conversation. But, but just in terms of how we treat each other as we're trying to get work done, right.
 
00:45:23:16 - 00:45:47:04
Mya
Yeah. And, you know, part of my, part of my role is outreach, right? But even though I consider myself an introvert, a lot of people argue with me that I'm not, but I, I get my energy mostly from being by myself, But I do enjoy meeting other people. But it has to be sort of like measured and, you know, over time.
 
00:45:47:04 - 00:46:11:00
Mya
But right, because I also invest a lot in relationships when I meet people. So I do often and I think I may have said this to you as like part of my job is outreach. I have a budget for outreach. And so I say, hey, let's have lunch, let's have coffee. I've done some different things around campus where I've said, Hey, let's meet up and continue this conversation.
 
00:46:11:02 - 00:46:22:09
Mya
And as a result, I've had a chance to meet people across the university, not just in Yale College which has been also cool to better understand this place as a whole.
 
00:46:22:11 - 00:46:25:18
Darice
It's very intricate.
 
00:46:25:20 - 00:46:55:09
Mya
And also to understand that different units, you know, operate differently. They have sort of different goals and agendas and things. But somehow we're all under the Yale, you know, university umbrella. But it also gives me an additional perspective of, you know, recognizing all of the competing interests that so many people are trying to manage. Right. But, you know, it's like, okay, but if somebody is having a hard day, let's go for ice cream.
 
00:46:55:09 - 00:47:37:03
Mya
I always like to combine these opportunities with food and it doesn't even have to be like dinner. It can be like a simple ice cream. You know, we've gone for ice cream and sat outside, you know, gone for walks with coffee. Yeah. And so I think that's also something that I enjoy about my work and I'm actually in the process right now of sending out a and an email to some people, to people that I've met across the university that, you know, hey, I know that there are experts in, you know, who have experience or have studied East Asian languages that aren't faculty.
 
00:47:37:03 - 00:47:53:00
Mya
Yeah, that may not be in Yale College, but I know you all are out there and I would love to meet you and learn about you. And similar to what you're doing with the podcast is like there are people that have expertise that have potentially, possibly nothing to do with their jobs, but they're passionate.
 
00:47:53:00 - 00:47:53:25
Mya
About these things.
 
00:47:54:00 - 00:48:35:01
Mya
And so, you know, and those are the people who I want, you know, our students to see these experiences can take you in directions that are, yes, the well-worn path, but they can also influence impact and be useful in so many other fields and disciplines and areas. And so, you know, I that is something also that I think is unique that I bring to the role and to the space is saying, hey, yes, you can all be State Department, you know, people if you want to be, but you could also be like an art restorer.
 
00:48:35:08 - 00:48:52:20
Mya
You could also be, you know, work in security like you can do a whole variety of things with this expertise and knowledge that you can also leverage in different ways. So that's the thing that actually makes me excited to come to work every day like that possibility.
 
00:48:52:22 - 00:49:28:00
Darice
That's great. That's great. So excuse me. So, yes, we know that you're deeply involved, right, in international education and exchange. So what are some of the big challenges that you see while you're promoting diversity and inclusion in these spaces and how, you know, have you thought about how to address them or are you or what are you actively addressing or or maybe something that you foresee?
 
00:49:28:03 - 00:49:56:25
Mya
So what I am, what I've continued to be to realize is that the light fellowship is not just a unique thing for Yale students, but it's unique in the field of funding related to study abroad or international opportunities. And so thinking about, okay, not every institution, not every organization can have a megadonor that gives money to be able to do this, right.
 
00:49:56:25 - 00:50:32:25
Mya
So, you know, how can we bring the knowledge of this opportunity or others like it to students who may not normally have access to it or information about it? That's been one of the things that I feel like has been sort of important to me. And in my previous in my previous role before I came to Yale, as you mentioned, I had the opportunity to create a scholarship, the Watanabe Study Abroad Scholarship at the U.S. Japan Council.
 
00:50:32:28 - 00:51:08:04
Mya
There was a donor and he did give money. And I got to build that program from the ground up. I got to he told me what he wanted, and then I got to build the criteria, the application. I got to promote it at schools across the U.S., across Japan. And it really, again, as somebody who was a student who did not exhibit their potential in a traditional way, made me really think about, okay, how do I how can we assess somebodys' potential without transcripts?
 
00:51:08:04 - 00:51:34:26
Mya
So that scholarship, which very much it was for Japanese to come to study in the U.S. and for Americans to study in Japan, had be credit bearing, which was different from the light fellowship. But one of the things that the application did not require was transcripts. The Japanese applicants were very flustered by this because a lot of things when you talk about merit, are all about your achievements in school, right?
 
00:51:34:26 - 00:51:59:15
Mya
And so but I designed an application that explicitly you could submit it, but it didn't factor into the decision at all. And so thinking about how we can assess somebody's potential, yes, it takes a little bit more time. It takes a little bit more effort. But we've learned that everybody comes to these places and opportunities in different ways.
 
00:51:59:18 - 00:52:25:29
Mya
Right. It doesn't mean that your journey is any, you know, more qualitatively better or worse than mine. They're different. So how do we account for those differences but be able to see somebody's potential for this opportunity being successful so that so thinking about how we our application process is one of the things that I really spend a lot of time thinking about.
 
00:52:26:04 - 00:52:48:18
Mya
We actually just revamped our one for the fellowship. To think about, to get students to really reflect on why they're doing this. A lot of people tell them this is what you should be doing, Right? But okay, is this the right time for me? Is this the right opportunity for me? Is this a good fit for me, you know, asking yourselves those questions.
 
00:52:48:18 - 00:53:15:04
Mya
And then because of the pandemic, travel has changed the context and situations the on the ground have changed in different places, particularly in East Asia. And so we also want students to be, you know, aware of and prepared and do some of their, you know, before they go work, like their homework to go and make sure that they understand what they're getting themselves into.
 
00:53:15:06 - 00:53:45:16
Mya
And so thinking about application processes and as I said earlier, our processes were assuming that their students were coming with certain things right? And so now we have to rethink that. So thinking about application processes, selections, I do some external trainings about how people can sort of be be mindful in selection so that they can account for potential in different ways.
 
00:53:45:19 - 00:54:08:09
Mya
Those are the two things money has always been. One, I wrote my dissertation on study abroad decision making, so because everybody had said, you know, lack of money is why students of color don't study abroad. And I was like, as a person of color, being told about me and my group of people, I was like, I felt like that was an incomplete statement.
 
00:54:08:11 - 00:54:29:24
Mya
And so I wanted to explore that more. And one of the things that I found out is money is an issue for everybody, but how money matters is different for different people, right? And so some people are very comfortable taking out loans for these opportunities. Some people are like, I'm going to get through college without having any debt.
 
00:54:29:27 - 00:55:05:28
Mya
That shapes the decisions that you make for college. I went to college not really planning to study abroad. I had plans to do other things because I knew I was planning to go abroad after college to teach in Japan. So, you know, we don't always understand people's motivations for doing things. And so trying to understand how money matters and what we can do to mitigate the things that matter related to money for students with respect to international opportunities is also sort of the second place where I feel like there's work to be done.
 
00:55:06:00 - 00:55:06:20
Darice
Wow.
 
00:55:06:23 - 00:55:36:05
Darice
Excellent. I'm curious, you know, when you mentioned some of your work prior to coming to Yale and also that you still go out into communities, right. And to talk to students, to let them know, like these are actual opportunities that that you could take advantage of that that maybe they either wouldn't have thought of before or thought that maybe it just wasn't an opportunity that was open to them.
 
00:55:36:07 - 00:56:09:01
Darice
So I'm curious, you know, what kind of advice do you give these students in terms of, you know, if those who are aspiring to become future leaders or, you know, they want to explore international opportunities, like what are some examples? Or maybe if you could think of the top two pieces of, you know, advice that you give students who are looking to get into this, into these programs?
 
00:56:09:04 - 00:56:36:00
Mya
I think so. Whenever I talk to I it's funny because I talked to like Japanese high school groups and then I talked to like American high school students as well, because I'm always thinking about entry points, right? So I came to study Japanese in high school because my high school had an absurd number of foreign languages offered and Japanese just seemed interesting.
 
00:56:36:07 - 00:56:53:03
Mya
And when I went to visit the different classes, the Japanese teacher seemed really nice and she had food. So like again, you just never know where the hook is going to be, Right? And that sort of has been my sort of, you know, has been in my life now since the age of 14.
 
00:56:53:05 - 00:56:56:24
Darice
And they always say food. It really does. It brings people together, right?
 
00:56:56:25 - 00:57:00:03
Mya
It does and if it's good and Japanese food is really good.
 
00:57:00:03 - 00:57:03:02
Darice
So food and music, right?
 
00:57:03:04 - 00:57:04:26
Mya
Yes, Food and music. Exactly.
 
00:57:04:26 - 00:57:06:26
Darice
It's kind of like a common language, but go ahead.
 
00:57:06:26 - 00:57:10:00
Darice
I'm sorry.
 
00:57:10:02 - 00:57:38:00
Mya
It's ok. So, you know, I always think about, you know what? And so for me, it was my teacher and just an interest in the material. And I love to learn. So that is what sort of kept me going. That is what, you know, kept me going despite, you know, not always great grades in grammar for Japanese or the tough times.
 
00:57:38:00 - 00:58:15:17
Mya
So the one thing is I ask students to think about what is your entry point, sort of where you know, what makes you interested in this? And you don't have to think about it necessarily in the long term, but keep, you know, keep that in the center of what interest you. You can stay true to it. So if you're if your interest to Japanese culture, as it was for many who came behind me, was like popular culture, anime or manga, the comic books, that can be the sort of core that brought you in.
 
00:58:15:20 - 00:58:38:16
Mya
It can even be the thing that makes you stay. But the thing is, you also want it to be the thing that helps you grow, right? So you can stay, you can come, you can stay, but, you know, expand beyond that to learn sort of, you know, okay, if you're interested in the stories, who are some of the writers?
 
00:58:38:23 - 00:59:03:23
Mya
What are they? What are the places that are referred to in these comic books? You know, what are some of the phrases? Is that who or who says those things? You know, what types of relationships are the people who say those things? So find ways to expand your knowledge. You can still keep that thing at the core, but you know, you eventually want to grow beyond that because that's the stuff.
 
00:59:03:24 - 00:59:26:12
Mya
And eventually those things will get you to people because people are what keep you connected. When I go back to Japan, I still visit. I make time to visit former colleagues, teachers that I used to teach with back when I was teaching in schools, my host family. I met up with my host sister a few years ago before the pandemic.
 
00:59:26:14 - 00:59:43:18
Mya
For the first time, we hadn't seen each other since we were 15 years old. I mean, it was kind of weird. Yeah, but it was fun, you know? So. But again, it's the people that keep you connected to these places and cultures. And so. So, you know, think about your entry point. It can be the thing that brought you can be the thing that stays, but also have it be the thing that helps you grow.
 
00:59:43:18 - 01:00:16:16
Mya
So that's the first piece of information we throw away. The second piece is I think, you know, don't let anybody make you feel bad for your passion. So when I told my parents I wanted to study Japanese, they were like, What you will never use it. Why do you need to study Japanese? You should take Spanish. And as I said, my parents were teachers, so they were like, have to give us a good reason why you want to study Japanese.
 
01:00:16:16 - 01:00:34:25
Mya
So I had to present. I had to give my parents a presentation as to why they would approve, because at that time they need to sign off on my schedule. So they were like, You need to. So I had to give a presentation. My mother says she has it still somewhere. So it wasn't a PowerPoint. This PowerPoint wasn't a thing, was it, in that day, right?
 
01:00:34:28 - 01:00:37:15
Mya
No. Yeah, we had word processors, right?
 
01:00:37:17 - 01:00:43:02
Darice
Oh, my gosh. Yes, I remember the slide.
 
01:00:43:04 - 01:00:46:11
Darice
Yeah. Oh, gosh. Those were painful, but go ahead.
 
01:00:46:13 - 01:01:07:19
Mya
Yeah. Computers. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, and then when I went to Japan for the first time, I had family members who were like, You're going to go over there and you're going to find, you know, you're going to come back with some Japanese person in a suitcase like, you know, So there's just this unknowing ness and also, like you're you're strange.
 
01:01:07:19 - 01:01:11:28
Mya
Or even to this day, people are always like, how did you get interested.
 
01:01:11:28 - 01:01:13:13
Mya
In Japan and where.
 
01:01:13:13 - 01:01:37:11
Mya
Did that come from? And, you know, there's always this sort of question of why. And if I had been a different person, it might have stopped me or made me think twice and change course. But I think because I am who I am, I was just like, you know, I'm not paying attention to yall. Yeah, I really enjoy this.
 
01:01:37:13 - 01:02:06:09
Mya
You know, I don't know where this is going to all end up in the end, but it's something that I really enjoy and I'm passionate about. And, you know, I'm sure it'll make sense in some way in the future. And it has, right? Yeah. Ah, exactly. This is. Yeah, now I'm here and doing this thing and so, you know, don't let anybody discourage you or make you feel bad for the things that you love or are passionate about.
 
01:02:06:12 - 01:02:35:09
Darice
That's awesome. Very true. Um. Wow so, so and I wish it's almost like we need another hour, but we're wrapping up our hour and, um, you know, it was awesome chatting with you today. And I honestly think. I think we need a part two. Um, so to wrap things up, I would love to hear. You know, you've shared actually lots of personal stories and moments from your career.
 
01:02:35:11 - 01:02:57:19
Darice
Um, but I'm wondering if there's one moment or story that you'd like to share that left, uh, you know, a lasting impact on you and then continues to inspire you. And I feel like our entire conversation really revolves around that. But I'm curious if there's just one more that you haven't shared with with me today.
 
01:02:57:21 - 01:03:01:07
Mya
Um.
 
01:03:01:09 - 01:03:05:02
Mya
Not a story, but a relationship. Okay, if that.
 
01:03:05:04 - 01:03:07:03
Darice
Yeah, that sounds even better.
 
01:03:07:05 - 01:03:42:01
Mya
So when I went to Japan during college or after college and I was teaching there, it was in the early 2000 and I worked for a city government. And in Japan it was before the days of things like direct deposit through your paychecks. So every month we teachers would have to go to the city center. Education center, and pick up our wads of money in our paychecks.
 
01:03:42:04 - 01:03:53:13
Mya
And then we would go there around lunchtime and then the lunch time we'd all bike across the river and deposit our cash into our bank accounts, which was an.
 
01:03:53:13 - 01:03:55:10
Darice
Experience.
 
01:03:55:12 - 01:04:23:28
Mya
Definitely a cultural experience. Yeah. And the person who used to pay us was he was just a central office employee. His name was Mr. Abe, and he is one of those people that I used to describe as a not typical Japanese person because he had an earring and he had like a gold chain and he like a thick gold chain.
 
01:04:24:01 - 01:04:50:10
Mya
And he spoke no English. Oh, but he loved the English teachers. And one like in the first six months or so, he invited me and one of the other English teachers. He had a weekend house in Nagano Prefecture, which was a prefecture that was about 2 hours away by car. And we were like, we I knew Japanese or some Japanese, but she didn't know a lot of Japanese.
 
01:04:50:10 - 01:04:53:22
Mya
And we were like, How are we going to spend a weekend with this dude.
 
01:04:53:24 - 01:04:53:28
Mya
Who.
 
01:04:53:28 - 01:05:12:00
Mya
Speaks no English? Right? What are we going to do for a weekend? How are you going to communicate? How are you going to do this? But the other teachers who had been there longer were like, He's really, really cool. It's a beautiful house. It's in the countryside. He also does pottery. And so, you know, you should just really, really go.
 
01:05:12:00 - 01:05:32:01
Mya
And his wife is a really, really good cook. You should go there. Really cool people. So we're like, okay, so we go our first, our first for a it's like in February and lo and behold we go. And that weekend there is a storm with six feet of snow. Oh my gosh. And we get snowed in. So we couldn't even go anywhere.
 
01:05:32:03 - 01:05:55:16
Mya
We couldn't leave the house and you know, the plows and stuff were coming through. It was this little, little tiny town. And we spend the weekend doing pottery. So he's a pottery teacher on the side. So he's teaching us how to do pottery. And then he decided that, okay, we're going to do this other project. So he pulls out these big sheets of paper and he starts helping.
 
01:05:55:16 - 01:06:23:00
Mya
He's like, you know, just write words. So he pulls out this dictionary and so he starts writing words in English. And then we start writing simplified words in Japanese and we're like, What is he? What are we doing? This is just like an exercise in like handwriting, like what's happening. And, you know, at the end of that, he let it dry overnight and then the next day the papers have disappeared and we're like, Where'd they go?
 
01:06:23:03 - 01:06:41:11
Mya
And his wife was making breakfast and whatever. So we sit down to breakfast and lo and behold, he had taken the papers, cut them down to size and used them to wallpaper the bathroom. Oh, wow. On the first floor of the house. And we were like.
 
01:06:41:14 - 01:06:42:20
Mya
What is.
 
01:06:42:20 - 01:07:08:26
Mya
Happening? Yes. And he was like, Well, he's like, this is your contribution to our house. And it was it's one of those things where I was just like, you never know where a risk, a choice or doing something that you never thought you would do could lead you and. This person became probably the most important person to me in Japan during those years.
 
01:07:08:28 - 01:07:29:21
Mya
He embraced me after that. You know, when my family came to visit, he invited my parents to the house. We spent a few days there when my parents were visiting Japan. He and my dad bonded. My dad doesn't speak any Japanese. Abe didn't begin English, but somehow they went on a walk in town and he introduced him. And it was just that.
 
01:07:29:21 - 01:07:54:12
Mya
This whole bonding thing. Yeah. And, you know, when I came back, it turns out he got sick and people from Japan were calling me, and they're like, Mya, you have to come. He's. He's dying. And I was able to go. That's why I need to take knitting needles on the airplane. And you. I was able to see him before he died.
 
01:07:54:12 - 01:08:24:13
Mya
And during that time, my his wife, who I didn't have a relationship with as much, she I spent a lot of time talking in the dayroom outside, and we began a relationship. And to this day, she and I are still in communication. And so it's one of those things where, as said, the people are what keep me connected to Japan.
 
01:08:24:16 - 01:08:50:27
Mya
And had I not said, yeah, I don't know how this is going to work, but let's do it. I would have never had the the joy of that relationship, that friendship with me for the length of time that I did. And so that is, I think, the risk, the joy and the reward of, you know, doing things across cultures just with people in general.
 
01:08:50:27 - 01:09:00:19
Mya
Yeah. And so that's the thing, that relationship, the origin, the existence and even the ending to some respect, I think are the things that stay with me.
 
01:09:00:21 - 01:09:29:08
Darice
Oh, that's, that's a beautiful story. I love that. And it kind of brings me to my my final question. I do have one more question for you related to that, because I'm glad that really was a beautiful story. How how does that experience affect what you foresee or what you would like to happen with the DEIB Committee here, at Yale College?
 
01:09:29:08 - 01:09:41:26
Darice
And if you could in one year, tell me where one thing you'd like us to accomplish together on the committee. What would that be?
 
01:09:41:28 - 01:09:54:27
Mya
Well, I think we've already accomplished one of the things that we've talked about, which is more people wanting to engage. We've seen a number of people who've showed interest in joining the committee, which we're like Yay.
 
01:09:54:27 - 01:10:00:15
Darice
Yeah, I know, it's awesome. Keep them coming. My people, by the way, right? Yeah, So far.
 
01:10:00:15 - 01:10:53:25
Mya
Yeah. So, you know, that interest I think speaks to people's interest, but also to your earlier point of people's feelings of safety to being able to do that. Right? So I think that was one of the things that we, that was one of our goals. And so I think that's an ongoing thing in a year. I, I think what I would like to see is, you know, I would like to see the conversations, the Interacactions and just the feeling of belonging and people feeling like they belong and the actions of including people so that they feel to include belonging.
 
01:10:53:27 - 01:11:24:01
Mya
Um, I would like to see that more embedded in the day to day, not just our interactions as colleagues, but between the institution and the people. Yes. And so we can start small, whether that is, you know, some of the things that we saw in the survey, whether that transparency, whether that's just understanding what people do, here's communication.
 
01:11:24:01 - 01:11:48:26
Mya
Like whatever it is, if there are three demonstrated areas where inclusion and belonging, the sentiment and is embedded visibly in between institution and the people, that would be success that would be a good start.
 
01:11:48:29 - 01:11:52:20
Darice
That's awesome. And we have our work cut out for us, right?
 
01:11:52:21 - 01:12:14:21
Mya
Oh, yes. The work is never done. It took us how many years to get here. Yes, hundreds of years to here. Right. It'll be a long time to get out of this, but. Oh, I don't know about you, but I do not tire. I am energized by the work ahead. Yes, And I always say that I don't think Yale knew what they were getting into and when they said yes to hiring me.
 
01:12:14:24 - 01:12:18:16
Mya
So I am here as long as they will let me stay.
 
01:12:18:16 - 01:12:19:06
Darice
Yes.
 
01:12:19:06 - 01:12:47:18
Darice
That is awesome. And yes, absolutely. I am excited about where things can go from from here. Um, you know, this will be this past summer was my my 16th year here at Yale. Um, and yeah, I'm excited. Like, even just doing this podcast has been a great experience. It's been amazing actually, just to talk to different people.
 
01:12:47:18 - 01:13:12:13
Darice
And then the feedback that we've been getting on the episodes is it's been awesome and amazing. It's even, you know, it's been rewarding for me because it's like, you know, people who give me compliments and, and, you know, to be honest, this was outside of my comfort zone. This wasn't something that I, I really just wanted to be behind the scenes.
 
01:13:12:13 - 01:13:36:12
Darice
And can I just buy some cameras and I'll set you up, but I'll sit behind the scenes, you know, I'll post this stuff on the on the site and, you know, and somehow it became this and but it's been it's been wonderful because I've had a chance to get to know lots of folks, including including you and, you know, made some new friends.
 
01:13:36:15 - 01:13:37:22
Darice
Um.
 
01:13:37:24 - 01:13:49:29
Mya
And you're our superstar now. You're you're the voice of the Yale College voices. And I love the I have it on Spotify and I get the updates when a new episode is sort of like, yes.
 
01:13:50:01 - 01:13:50:19
Darice
Perfect.
 
01:13:50:19 - 01:14:13:08
Mya
And it's cool. Now also because being a member of the Yale community, these are people who are here, right? And so like so often for podcasts, it's like people who are, you know, seven degrees of Kevin Bacon way from you, right Exactly. But here it's like, wow, these are actually people that if I wanted to follow up, I would invite for coffee because I'm like, I heard you on your podcast and you said, it's really interesting.
 
01:14:13:08 - 01:14:37:23
Darice
Ticket station starts. Exactly, which I love that. And I love you know, I love that we've gotten to know be beyond, okay, here's what you do for Yale or here here's your job. But I love that I've learned so much about people you know what you do outside of Yale with your time and some, you know, truly amazing folks and yourself included.
 
01:14:37:23 - 01:15:03:00
Darice
I mean, it's the the amount of experience and knowledge that we have, you know, Yeah. Odds impact in our Yale College staff. I mean, it's pretty cool to think we have so many different backgrounds, things that people do for the community here in New Haven and internationally and yeah this this has been an awesome experience so.
 
01:15:03:02 - 01:15:40:20
Mya
And I hope it I hope one of the things that I hope is that it helps people to have a sense of, you know, people's dimensions like the wholeness. So when you ask people of their time, when you ask people to do things like you have a sense that or just gets you to think that, oh maybe this person has more than just extra time outside of work because everybody is doing all of these things, because then it actually also changes how you interact, respect people's time, ask people for help, you know, call on people for advice or whatever.
 
01:15:40:22 - 01:15:48:14
Mya
And I think that again, adds to people feeling seen, heard and felt like people respect.
 
01:15:48:21 - 01:15:49:15
Darice
Them.
 
01:15:49:17 - 01:15:52:13
Mya
In their fullness, not just this one dimension.
 
01:15:52:13 - 01:16:33:06
Darice
Exactly. So yeah, that's been my goal is just, you know, getting to know people hear it here at Yale College and who knows I'm like, who knows, maybe this will expand, you know, beyond your college. I don't know. But yeah, getting to know folks so that attaching faces and actual, you know, we are human beings that contribute to this wonderful place and hopefully, you know, whether it's students or other staff or whomever and they cross paths with with the folks I've interviewed so far, that it is a conversation starter and it's a way to connect.
 
01:16:33:13 - 01:16:34:02
Mya
Yeah.
 
01:16:34:04 - 01:16:48:03
Darice
And make you feel more comfortable to have a conversation, you know, no matter what that conversation may be. So yeah, if I affect one person, then I've been successful in doing this.
 
01:16:48:03 - 01:16:52:03
Mya
So now we just have to figure out who's going to interview you.
 
01:16:52:03 - 01:17:02:06
Darice
I mean, I do. So I did get one volunteer, actually, believe it or not. So. So I don't know. I have to I have to schedule that. I don't know if I'm ready.
 
01:17:02:06 - 01:17:03:05
Darice
For it yet.
 
01:17:03:08 - 01:17:12:12
Mya
We have to put that like, as you know, that's like the New Year's or a Bermuda edition or something in New Years. It's a special edition of the podcast.
 
01:17:12:14 - 01:17:25:03
Darice
I know. And that's the other thing too, because I, you know, the folks I've reached out to, to schedule podcasts, interviews, they're like, I'm not that interesting.
 
01:17:25:06 - 01:17:28:09
Darice
And I'm like, Yes, you are.
 
01:17:28:11 - 01:17:47:25
Darice
You know? And I think some people felt initially like, I don't know, I mean, what would I talk about? And, and in some ways kind of feel that way. But, but, you know, I think what has been awesome about doing this, again, is just attaching the human side of, you know, we're all people. We all do different things.
 
01:17:47:25 - 01:17:48:23
Mya
We all have a story to tell.
 
01:17:48:23 - 01:18:15:27
Darice
And they're all amazing stories. I mean, honestly, that like all of the episodes recorded so far and upcoming episodes, I'm just I'm actually really proud that I am that, you know, to to have this kaleidoscope of stories from from our staff. So but anyway, I can go on and on. We're going to run out of time.
 
01:18:15:27 - 01:18:18:19
Mya
So we just carry this on until lunch.
 
01:18:18:25 - 01:18:20:14
Darice
I know that we need to go to lunch.
 
01:18:20:14 - 01:18:23:27
Darice
No perfect timing, you know.
 
01:18:24:00 - 01:18:51:00
Darice
So, Mya, thank you so much. Again, I number one, appreciate your, you know, your friendship, being able to work with you on the advisory committee and just being able to interact with you and have you on the podcast. I really appreciate that and I appreciate your support. Um, you know, you're wonderful. You're wonderful. It's a great marriage.
 
01:18:51:06 - 01:18:53:10
Mya
Always here.
 
01:18:53:13 - 01:19:21:00
Darice
So thank you very much for today. So of course I have to plug you. You mentioned Spotify, so we are on Spotify, we're on SoundCloud and also Apple Podcasts. Please check us out and the episode will be posted soon. I'm hoping to to at least at least a few more before the holiday break, before the winter break. So check us out and don't forget to follow us on Instagram.
 
01:19:21:02 - 01:19:24:22
Darice
I hope you're following me.
 
01:19:24:22 - 01:19:25:12
Mya
I don't have an instagram.
 
01:19:25:15 - 01:19:29:11
Darice
You have to create one now. See, now I'm going to help you create one.
 
01:19:29:13 - 01:19:30:15
Mya
Okay. That's my homework.
 
01:19:30:17 - 01:19:34:13
Darice
That's. That's your homework. We need you one more follower.
 
01:19:34:15 - 01:19:36:16
Darice
So.
 
01:19:36:18 - 01:19:43:29
Darice
So, Yale college voices. That's that's the account on Instagram. So, uh, again, thank you so much for today, and.
 
01:19:44:01 - 01:19:44:21
Mya
This is great.
 
01:19:44:22 - 01:19:48:07
Darice
My pleasure. My pleasure. It was fun. We need to see. We need another hour.
 
01:19:48:07 - 01:19:49:14
Mya
A great way to end the week.
 
01:19:49:14 - 01:19:56:01
Darice
It is. It is. So I appreciate that. And now we're going to end here. So thank you. My thanks. All right.