Angela Yamamoto double-tapes the framed photo in her room so it doesn’t tumble.
She wants to make sure it’s one of the first things she sees every morning when she wakes up – the two of them, side by side, smiling, she in the wide-brimmed red hat; he in a lime-green bow tie.
Better times, she always thinks. Better times with her best friend.
Three years ago when she arrived from Long Island, she wondered if she’d make any friends so far from home.
She has, and she has done well. Her campus accomplishments have helped her earn her another accolade: Extraordinary Leader for the month of November.
Yamamoto is a Student Justice and a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. She plays flute in the HPU pep band and volunteers as a Peer Mentor. She loves helping freshmen because she sees so much of her timid younger self in them.
“Everyone has been in your shoes,” she tells them. “There is no reason to worry.”
She has connected with so many people on campus her friends say, “I hope I know as many people as you know at High Point one day.”
One of those people she connected with was Mario Mayorga. He’s the guy in the framed photo beside her bed.
In April, he was killed in a tragic accident off campus. Today, her heart still aches over the loss of her best friend. But his death brought into focus for her how life can be so fleeting, how friendships are so important and how we all need support.
During one of the emotional times in her life, High Point University was there for her. If she didn’t know it before, she knew it then.
She came to the right place.
“A Selfless Servant Leader”
Today, Yamamoto calls HPU her second home.
She is vice president of the Peer Mentor program, and for the past two years as a Student Justice, she has helped her classmates navigate the uncomfortable and the unknown.
This once shy girl has turned into an advocate and a coach students need.
Dr. Paul Kittle, assistant vice president of Student Life and Dean of Students, has seen Yamamoto’s growth up close.
“She puts her heart into it – she verbally hugs them – and that takes a very special person to do that,” he says. “But she’s not about Angela. She’s about others. She’s very self-confident, and she has immersed herself in the HPU experience. And how much she has put into it, she has gotten out of it.
“She’s truly a selfless servant leader. Those qualities show through.”
When she came to HPU, Yamamoto knew only one other student. Plus, she leaned on her friends back home to help her with everything about college, from SAT to the college essay.
Her mom went to college in Japan, and her dad dropped out of high school to become a sushi chef. So, Yamamoto – their only daughter, their oldest of three children – was a bit blind about the whole college application process.
But she found her vision at HPU, and she can look back and see how the school helped her mature and grow into who she is today.
“In high school, I was a people pleaser, but now, this is me,” she says. “I get to do my own thing. I got to take on leadership possibilities, I got to juggle responsibilities and now I’m getting close to the real world.
“See, before I left high school, I freaked out. I started crying because I was leaving all my friends. Now, I’m ready. I’m ready to start my life after college. High Point University has helped me think, ‘I can do this.’”
Yamamoto will graduate in May with a degree in business administration with a minor in marketing. She plans to go into the hospitality industry because of the passion of one professor and the intrigue of one class.
That’s Operations and Supply Chain Management taught by Dr. David Little.
So, when people ask now what she wants to do after college, she knows what to say: “Let me tell you.’”
She is a different woman, a smiling example of confidence. But last spring, she needed help. And once again, HPU was there.
In more ways than one.
HPU Reaches Out
Yamamoto and Mayorga were tight.
They washed clothes together, shopped together, studied together and ate at restaurants together. They were both so much alike. They hailed from Long Island, and they liked to be social.
She asked him to her sorority’s formal, and they traveled south for the Carolina Cup, one of South Carolina’s most venerable social traditions.
The framed photo across from her bed captures the fun time she had with Mayorga at the Carolina Cup. Written below the picture are these words: Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
Yamamoto drove 10 hours to attend Mayorga’s memorial service. She sat up front, and she eulogized her best friend.
But before she spoke, she looked over and saw two familiar faces far from campus: Gail Tuttle, senior vice president for student life; and Dr. Beth Holder, associate dean for the Student Success Program.
They came.
“It was everything I could ask for,” Yamamoto says. “I’m not a religious person, but if somebody said, ‘Let’s pray,’ that would be exactly what I would pray for – this kind of support. Dr. Holder and Gail Tuttle would ask, ‘Are you OK?’ or “Do you need to talk to anybody?’, and I knew they would always be there for me.”
And they were – for her and the other students shaken by Mayorga’s death.
“If this happened at another school, no administration would be at the funeral, and no one would have gotten that kind of support,” she says. “And what I saw at Mario’s funeral said something to me. They really care about their students here.”
At HPU, Yamamoto found her confidence. But she also found one of the priceless intangibles of life, of how friendships can blossom in unlikely places and lead to lessons remembered forever.
She does know that.