"Local Mother Appointed To Commission"

May 23, 2002 - Novi. "It is an honor and a duty," says Novi mother Izumi Suzuki, "to be a member of Governor Engler's commission on Asia in the schools." Having grown up as a student in Japan, Suzuki knows something about educational duty. "We grew up knowing that our most important duty was to study, to learn about the world," she remembers.

Suzuki wanted their children to learn about the world, so they supplemented their public education with travel and language study. "it was not very expensive," she smiles, "but they learned about travel and foreign people. They learned four languages by the time they were fourteen, virtually on their own."

Suzuki plans to bring this same respect and zeal for education to her work on the commission. The commission has 120 days to conduct its survey of resources in Michigan schools on Asia, and make its report.