by Trevor Hass
Sports Reporter
As Kimika Padilla delivered her valedictorian speech Wednesday night at Zimmerman High, a familiar face sat in the audience and watched with great pride.
Padilla’s grandfather, who lives in Japan, traveled to Minnesota to see his granddaughter speak at graduation. Her journey to becoming valedictorian at Zimmerman had many stops along the way, the first of which was her birthplace of Japan.
Her American father, who owned a school in Japan, met her Japanese mother there, and Padilla spent the first two years of her life in Japan. She didn’t remember any interactions with her grandfather, but the two reunited when he visited Minnesota in 2013 and she flew to his home, an hour south of Tokyo, by herself last summer.
She and her grandfather Skype about once a month now, but having him here for graduation meant so much to Padilla, who said she lost that part of her identity until they reunited a few years back.
When Padilla and her family moved from Japan to Michigan in the early 2000s, Kimika and her mother were both attempting to master their English. Padilla quickly became infatuated with the language and everything about it, and over the years she developed a zest for reading, grammar, literary analysis and all other elements of the subject.
Though she has to work harder to understand math and science, she said she enjoys both subjects. Math can get tedious, but applying the concepts in science classes makes it worthwhile. Padilla has never gotten an A-, and her grade point average is a 4.159.
She finished at the top of her class, and shared valedictorian honors with Christina Jacobson, who finished No. 2. Zimmerman High School officials decided to go with co-valedictorians, when Padilla and Jacobson were neck and neck heading into the final grading period.
Padilla’s approach is that as long as she stays above a 94 (the cut-off is 93), she’ll be just fine.
“It sounds like I’m obsessed with my grades,” Padilla said. “I do care about them, but at the end of the day, for me, it’s more about the intrinsic value of learning.”
Angie Bickman, who taught Padilla in English class and coached her on the speech team, called Padilla “one in a million.” Bickman said nothing Padilla does is mediocre because she holds herself to such a high standard.
Padilla embraces new opportunities, Bickman said, and she even seeks them out herself. That’s just who she is. She’s always looking for a fresh challenge or an exciting obstacle to overcome. Padilla said her only regret from high school is that she didn’t join the speech team earlier.
“She leaves her mark wherever she goes,” Bickman said. “That’s what I find really inspiring. “She’s done more in 17 years than I’ve done in my whole frickin’ life, and she’s looking for more. Who constantly challenges themselves like that? I certainly don’t, and I’m not a slouch.”
Bickman said other students at Zimmerman High constantly seek Padilla out for academic help. Padilla never shies away or says she’s busy, and she’s always eager to help students who come her way.
Next year, Padilla will be surrounded by a plethora of students who operate under a similar, motivated mindset when she attends the University of Chicago. She received a scholarship through QuestBridge, an organization that also enabled her to participate in a business program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania last summer.
That summer was a special one for Padilla, as she expanded her network and made friends at Penn and reconnected with her roots in Japan just days later.
Wednesday night merged every aspect of Padilla’s life into one, as she, her family and friends shared a special moment they’ll likely never forget.