05/09/2024
As Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) month begins, we’d like to shine a light on an incredibly special person — ’s mother, Yukiyo Moorman.
Yukiyo has spent most of her professional life teaching Japanese Language at Walt Whitman High School in Washington, D.C. Her contributions to the study of Japanese in the United States are vast — including spearheading her own reading and writing curriculum, organizing student trips with the Japanese embassy, and, most notably, developing the Japanese AP exam, which encouraged American high schools to invest in Japanese Language courses and helped students pursue university language studies.
Her lifetime of service culminated last year, when Yukiyo was presented with The Order of The Rising Sun, Japan’s highest honor conferred to civilians outside of the government or the nobility. She is the only high school teacher in America to have received this award.
An octogenarian, Yukiyo still teaches and diligently refines her coursework for the betterment of her students and the appreciation of the Japanese language.
Thank you, Yukiyo, for your decades of dedication.
