In December, Superintendent Michael Matsuda will retire from his role as the Anaheim Union High School District’s (AUHSD) superintendent. His career highlights for the past 11 years as superintendent include developing the Anaheim Innovative Mentoring Experience (AIME) program and Servathon, an annual community service event.
Prior to his role as superintendent, Matsuda began at Orangeview Junior High before going on to teach at Oxford Academy. But before his journey as an educator, he had his own struggles as a student: despite being a “smart kid,” he had trouble finding his passions and believing in himself. Wanting to help students with the same struggles he had, Matsuda became a teacher.
“I’ve always considered myself a teacher before an administrator, and I’ve never been afraid of sort of going back into the classroom. In fact, I love working with young people. It gives me joy. That’s the reason why I came into education,” he said.
Matsuda mentioned his math teacher, who instilled confidence in him by tutoring during lunch, relating teachers to mentors.
“I think in life, we all need mentors, whatever profession you go into, you’re going to have to find someone that will help navigate a very complex, rapidly changing world… the other missing piece in education is for adults to see themselves as mentors, for students to see adults as mentors… really showing by example how they can be healthy, emotionally stable, and loving adults,” Matsuda said.
His own mentor was his fourth-grade teacher, who believed in him despite other’s frequent teasing.
“A lot of the kids [in the gifted program] were kind of teased because they’re super smart or whatever. I was teased because I was Asian. And I was able to connect with these kids. And the teacher — she was amazing — Mrs. Kranz… was the first one who said, she told me and told my mom: you’re gonna go to college… She actually believed in me. I didn’t believe in myself. It took me a long time to get there,” Matsuda said.
When met with failure, self- confidence seems like a luxury. But he emphasizes that failure is natural and should be accepted — not feared.
“Coming from Oxford, students, they’re always comparing each other, and that could be very unhealthy in terms of your mental health. Kids that get their first D in college [are] like, ‘Oh, I’m a failure.’ No, you’re not. You know, that’s part of life. In fact, kids that can accept failure are going to be better human beings because you grow, you learn from that, and the world is not perfect… as one of the founding teachers who saw firsthand, even way back then, there was a lot of pressure on young people,” the superintendent said.
After his retirement is official, he plans on going traveling since he couldn’t travel much as a kid, citing fresh perspectives.
“Even if you go to college, there’s a lot of opportunities to study abroad and it’s really cheap as a student. You should do that because the world really opens up your thinking about the possibilities, about people. And I would encourage people to think about traveling. I intend to go to a lot of places,” the superintendent said.
Summarizing his experience as an educator, he relates it to finding happiness in his life.
“Once I became a teacher, I really felt like this is a shoe that fits me. And I was really happy. And I think ultimately that’s what we want to get to: a place of happiness and joy with our own lives. We call it Ikigai — finding your purpose in life.”
