What Am I Doing Here?

Some Personal History

My family history goes far back to Nippon (Japan), where I have blood ties to various types of farmers, a pearl diver, business owners and samurai. My grandparents came to America in the early 1900's to 1920's.

Both of my parents Kenneth Kenji Matsuura and Masako Nancy Konishi were born prisoners of war in the WWII Japanese internment camps. I was born the 2ND son of Ken and Nancy Matsuura, and my brother Darren Kenneth Matsuura is 2.5 years older.

I grew up in Almaden Valley of San Jose, CA and I have some amazing friends and fond memories from this area. I was fortunate to have a supportive community and have a lot of my father's family close by. My mother's family lives in Fresno, CA, and we mostly visited them for special occasions.

The technological boom really impacted this area and I started moving to areas like Lake Tahoe, CA and Santa Cruz, CA. Smaller communities and the preservation of a slow and simple lifestyle were appealing, so I ventured off to Utah. For about 4 years, I lived out of my truck and worked in the Utah desert and high mountains.

I decided to return to California to attend the MSW program at Humboldt State. I was drawn to school in Northern California, because I enjoy the rural life of California and there's a strong culture of community exchange and local support in the area.

Why Social Work?

Sociology

I really think it's been a calling for a long time, because I had a deep knowing that I wanted to work with the youth. I started to stray from this gut intuition, when I first attended community college at De Anza College. Still chasing a pipe dream in football, I was derailed, when I blew out my left knee and my inner knowings started to resurface. I stumbled across sociology at Lake Tahoe Community College and received a B.A. in Sociology at the University California Santa Cruz. I developed a strong interest in "social psychology," and enjoyed the study of personal and social identities.

Professional Background

At Santa Cruz, I volunteered at the Walnut Avenue Women's Center working in the Mom and Kid's Program. On top of this, I worked part time for a non-profit after school program at Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary. Observing children and their behaviors, I started forming some of my own beliefs around capitalism and how it was impacting family structures and children's development. Later in life, I worked in a group home serving adjudicated youth for a nonprofit organization Tahoe Turning Point (TTP). TTP was the gateway to one of the most impactful decisions in my life, where I decided to pack up a 2 bedroom home, donate most of my belongings and move into my truck. I traveled to Utah to attend a week long training for a therapeutic wilderness program, Second Nature Wilderness Program, where I ended started working. Visit http://snwp.com/ to learn more about the program. For almost four years, I lived outside with "at risk" (I call mis-guided) adolescents and other field instructors. I was amazed by the transformation I witnessed in others, the development of group culture and seeing the power of nature work it's way with humans. I believe getting back to the human basics and spending time outdoors is essential to our overall well being. I hope this becomes more widely accepted in this field.

MSW Program

I decided to attend a MSW program with the hope to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and continue serving youth. Currently, my field placement in the program is Men and Women Experiencing Non-Abusive Directions (MEND/WEND). MEND/WEND provides individual and group counseling, domestic violence prevention, child abuse prevention, and anger management. I help facilitate two of the men's groups and one of the women's group for the batterers intervention program. I also conduct intakes and assessments for MEND/WEND. I would like to work with youth again, and I'm in hopes of starting a program or group for adolescents.