West Des Moines Valley Grad Raised to Honor Mom; Her Death Strengthened Commitment: 2012 in Review

Editor’s Note: As 2012 draws to a close, West Des Moines Patch is bringing back some of the stories that made you talk, laugh, cry or just scratch your head. This was originally published on May 27.
____________________

Sunday will be a tough day for West Des Moines Valley High School graduate Takashi Yanagi, no doubt about that.

Every step he takes from this point on – whether across the dais Sunday to receive his high school diploma, winding along the paths to the ivy-covered gothic architecture of the Notre Dame campus, or in a professional career helping others achieve secure financial futures – will be to honor his mother, the soft-spoken Valley senior said.

He plans to live well, to live honorably. After all Emi Yanagii did for him, it is his duty.

Takashi’s story is “humbling,” said Larry Mandernach, a guidance counselor at Valley.

The son of a Chinese couple living in Japan, he immigrated with his mother to America as a 6-year-old when they split. He’s had no contact with his father since. Last spring when his mother, Emi, a software engineer at John Deere in Johnston, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, it was just him and her.  

No one at Valley knew until later that for several months, he had been paying the bills, keeping track of finances and looking after his mother.

Maybe it was because Takashi’s grades never dipped and he was carrying straight A’s, or that he was born into a culture where feelings are not freely expressed, but school officials never knew the burden he was carrying, Mandernach said.

Mandernach doesn’t specifically recall the circumstances that caused Takashi to finally acknowledge to school officials that he was “essentially living on his own for a long time.” The guidance counselor thinks it may have been when Takashi needed his mother’s signature and she was hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and unable to give it.

Once they knew his circumstances, school officials reached out to Takashi’s church family.

When they opened their arms, some of them traveled to Mayo to help Takashi’s critically ill mother sort through a labyrinth of legal documents to ensure her son’s security. When Takashi’s mother lost her battle on Oct. 21, Mark and Priscilla Zenor of Urbandale opened their home.

Letting Down the Barriers

“I like to hide my emotions,” Takashi said. “From my mom and Asian culture, I was taught that you have to keep yourself in, and not show your emotions.”

One of the top students in his class, that may be the one thing he’s unsuccessful at. “It became too much,” he said.

The bond between mother and son was strong, and the grief is still raw.

“One of her last wishes for me was to attend a prestigious university. She worked tirelessly to try to support me by herself. I have to do the same to repay her,” he said haltingly, wiping away tears.

“All through high school, I knew I had to get A’s and excel in academics,” he said. “After her death, it propelled me forward, and gave me a whole new mindset. My actions are to honor her and hope she will be proud.”

This fall, he’ll enter the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, the No. 1 undergraduate business school in the country in a 2012 Bloomberg Businessweek ranking. He was among 200 students from across the country who received all-expenses-paid trips to the South Bend, IN, campus.

Commitment to Serve Others

Valley Associate Principal David Maxwell said many words come to mind to describe Takashi.

“Of course, he is focused. Of course, he is driven. But he’s also humble and very intelligent,” said Maxwell. “I don’t know where he finds that inner strength, the perseverance – here’s the word: resilient.

“You wish all students had it, but not all do,” Maxwell said. “He just has the ability to thrive and succeed amidst extremely difficult circumstances.”

One of the other remarkable things Maxwell noticed about Takashi:

Though he was carrying a burden that might crush other students, Takashi never lost his commitment to others. He remained active in Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Valley chapter of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and his church activities.

And the Free Rice Society, a group he created on FreeRice.com, is feeding hungry people around the world.

For each vocabulary question successfully answered, the World Food Programme donates 10 grains of rice. So far, 94 trillion grains of rice have been donated – enough to feed more than 5 million starving people – and 250,000 of them came from Takashi’s group.

He started the group last spring, when his mother was gravely ill.

“Everyone talks about how they want to solve world hunger and global poverty, but that’s just words and no action,” he said. “This is a simple, 10-minute way you can actually make a difference. Our small actions might seem like nothing, but when they are combined, the evidence is there that we are making a difference.”

Takashi says community service is another way to honor his mother. She gave him the tools, he said, with an upbringing that emphasized small actions as steps toward big results.

“Your small actions can make a big difference in the community,” he said. “I am doing all of this hard work in her memory,” he said. “It’s my goal to honor her and make her proud of who I become.”