Anne Awaya (Awaya Sensei) joined Culver City Middle School on Halloween of 2022 as a long-term substitute for Japanese Language Arts and Exploration of Japanese while in the middle of her teaching credential program at Cal State Long Beach. She completed her internship in the spring of that school year and has been full-time at the middle school ever since.

 

Awaya Sensei was born in Los Angeles to two Japanese parents who had her attend Saturday Japanese school for ten years. Her mom took her and her sister to Okayama, Japan in the summertime as children. After earning a B.A. in English literature from U.C. Berkeley, she taught English in Japan on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program for 3 years. After returning to California, she earned an M.A. at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Japanese Translation and worked as a translator at 2K Games for the WWE games as well as freelance. She then decided to go back into education and hasn't turned back.

 

In her free time, Awaya Sensei loves playing with her new kittens Simba and Nala, going to musicals like MJ the Musical, reading, hiking, and learning new hip hop dance moves.