Joanne Araki is known for her her tears and laughter — she says so herself. When she was presented with De Anza’s Distinguished Educator award, “Judy Miner came in and told me that my students had nominated me for this award. As usual, I started crying,” she said. Araki plans to retire at the end of the quarter after 25 years with the De Anza College nursing program. Her speech is punctuated with laughter and she ends most sentences with “ya?” She says, “Laughing is so important. I always remember to laugh.”
The Distinguished Educator award honors one De Anza educator each month for displaying substantial, significant and sustained excellence, commitment and enthusiasm to their teaching and is selected from student nominations.
Araki’s life and nursing career began in Hawaii where she grew up as a third generation Japanese Hawaiian.
“I always wanted to be a nurse and just kind of pursued it. You know like how some kids play ‘cowboys and Indians?’ I always played doctor and nurse.”
Araki obtained her bachelor’s in nursing from University of Hawaii. The picture of her graduating class, outfitted in white dresses and adorned with leis, hangs on the wall of her office. She moved to California with her first husband so he could participate in a Berkeley computer program. While he studied, she worked as a nurse practitioner in El Camino, Good Samaritan, and Valley Medical hospitals. “I like blood and guts … I’m a real blood and guts person.” After spending time in the medical field, Araki began considering teaching at the encouragement of others who recognized her natural aptitude.
While pregnant with her first child, she studied for her master’s at San Jose State University. Jason was born a week after graduation. Araki taught at San Jose State for two years, Araki began working part-time at De Anza in 1980, where she developed and taught a RN refresher program. She never wants to take a similar program herself and has continued to practice and teach throughout the entire time her children were growing up.
“I never stopped practicing no matter what. The nursing department at De Anza is credible because we still [practice].”
Below the Bachelor’s graduation portrait hangs a poster of Jason, who performs under the name “J Turtle.” Jason had earned his Associate’s Degree from the same school his mother taught at, and now makes a living as a singer/songwriter. Araki finds time to work as his booking agent and displays a bumper sticker with his logo on her car.
“They call him ‘Turtle’ because he eventually gets to where he wants to go, but it takes him awhile. They call me ‘Mama Turtle.” Jason has come back to perform at De Anza and has a booking to perform today.
After working part-time, Araki was hired as a full-time faculty member in 1989.
“I like nursing because you can dabble in a lot of different things” she says of her career and not-so-easily expected jobs, such as a booking agent.
“I get bored easily. I like variety. Not in men, though.” While working at De Anza, Araki was divorced from her first husband, and found a change of life direction in her second husband.
On the wall opposite the graduation portrait and the “J Turtle” poster is a second, “Men in Endolite” poster, a humorous take-off of “Men in Black” for amputees. Araki has taped her husband’s picture over the face of one of the pictured actors. After losing his right leg as a result of a motorcycle accident and spending much time in the hospital, Araki’s second husband, Michael Faulkner, was inspired to become a nurse himself and joined De Anza’s nursing program. The loss of his leg resulted in a new relationship.
Friends had been encouraging Araki to begin dating again. After Faulkner graduated from the program, Araki, who had been his former teacher, called him up.
“We were amazed how much we had in common,” she says. The two have been married for 11 years. When Faulkner decided to move away from California, the two decided on a half-way point: Nevada. Currently Araki makes the five hour commute every other week, but looks forward to retirement so she can spend time with her husband and sons.
Retirement doesn’t mean and end to nursing or teaching. Araki presently spends her time away from De Anza giving medical care to the Washoe, Paiute, and Shoshone Native American Indian tribes in Nevada. In the future, she will work with the tribes three days a week.
“I want to empower the Indians,” she says. Araki only has a few weeks left at the place she has worked at for 25 years.
“I’m going to miss the people, but not the early hours. I had to get up at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m.” She has been selected as the keynote speaker for the nursing program’s pinning ceremony on June 24 and has a chance for a final goodbye. She says, “I’ve been practicing so I don’t cry.”
