Growing up in Japan, Nikki always wanted to go somewhere far, somewhere her parents or teachers couldn’t tell her what to do and not to do. Nikki went to Korea with Korean Blind Volleyball team. where she first tasted of using English as a common language to communicate with someone who didn’t speak Japanese. Nikki came to the US for the first time as a short-term exchange student when she was in college.
Nikki then come to the US again through a year-long leadership development program for people with disabilities, sponsored by a large Japanese firm. Nikki was one of the interns chosen from all over Japan to learn about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and services available for the disabled in the U.S. pertaining to her own disability, which is blindness. She traveled to New Orleans, LA, San Francisco, CA, and San Diego, CA, and worked as an intern at blind services agencies in the community. Nikki received her BA from SDSU and got married soon after graduation. In fact, Nikki met her husband on the day of her graduation!