My Story
From Childhood Struggles to Life in a Children’s Home
Moto Garcia was born into a poor single-mother household, often left alone at home due to his mother’s work at night. By the time he was in the 3rd or 4th grade, he stopped attending school and even experienced living with cardboard boxes and candles. During his elementary school years, he turned to delinquency, which led to him becoming a regular patient in psychiatric counseling. By his upper elementary years, he had been placed in temporary shelters under Child Protective Services several times and was eventually relocated to a children’s home. He was forcibly separated from his mother and was not allowed to see her for several years.
From Children’s Home to High School Graduation
He lived for over five years in a children’s home in Tokyo. Due to being ostracized because of where he was from and his experiences of abuse within the facility, he became even more involved in delinquency. His grades in junior high school were almost all failing. Miraculously, he was accepted into a technical high school that was holding a second round of admissions. After entering high school, he repeatedly engaged in problematic behaviors, such as tearing test papers in front of teachers. He also stayed hidden at the home of a girlfriend for several months, skipping school and nearly facing dropout due to police involvement. Subsequently, he was kicked out of the children’s home for being an uncontrollable problem child. After leaving the facility, he barely graduated high school thanks to the support of an understanding homeroom teacher, but he was unable to attend the graduation ceremony.
Reinventing My Life: Moving to the U.S.
After graduating from high school, he got married and experienced a divorce. Following the loss of child custody to Child Protective Services, he fell into a state of depression and was driven to the point of contemplating suicide. However, with the support of best friends, he resolved to turn his life around. Frustrated by the difficulty for the vulnerable to rise up in a society that oppresses me, he decided to change his life in America instead of Japan. For a year, he worked from morning until late at night to save money, fueled by a hatred for the societal system in Japan, and began his studies abroad in the United States.
Pursuing Education in the U.S. with No English Skills
Studying abroad with no English skills, he started from the lowest class at an ESL program in California. He significantly improved his English by making friends with Americans. After four months in ESL, he passed the English proficiency exam required for community college admission and enrolled. Immersed in studying for a year, he achieved a high GPA and decided to aim for transfer before graduation. With no money, he moved to Mexico to save up tuition while transferring to a Big Ten university. Balancing work and study, he graduated from university and then decided to challenge himself further by applying for graduate school.
From Japan to the Ivy League and Beyond
To aim for even higher goals, he applied to three Ivy League schools and was accepted to all of them. He went on to attend Harvard Graduate School, his dream school. Focusing on leadership, entrepreneurship, and technology programs, he graduated successfully in 2024 and restarted his life in three locations: the United States, Mexico, and Peru. He launched multiple startups and began supporting low-income families, foster care individuals, and those from high-crime areas as a social entrepreneur in Latin America.
