Anthony Ishisaka has no recollection of the Colorado internment camp where he was born. But perhaps it was the experiences of his parents and thousands of other Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned in such camps during World War II that planted the seed of social awareness.

Or maybe it was being exposed early on to the plight of Native Americans, Mexican migrant laborers and poor white refugees from the Dust Bowl.

It wasn’t until the mid 1960s, though, during his senior year at the University of California, that the bush planted more than 20 years earlier finally sprouted. Now it is in full bloom and has earned for Ishisaka the University of Washington’s S. Sterling Munro Public Service Teaching Award.

Ishisaka joined the UW School of Social Work in 1971 and promptly led a small group of community activists, students and faculty members in creating programs to reach out to ethnic minority communities in Seattle neighborhoods such as Rainier Valley, the Central District and the International District.

Before long, he had helped create Asian Counseling and Referral Services, a multi-service mental health and social services agency. Today it has grown into the largest not-for-profit community-based organization in the country, providing services in more than 20 languages. Ties from the agency to the School of Social Work were a major part of efforts to recruit students from minority communities who might not otherwise consider higher education as an option. He has worked with a variety of other community-based organizations, including the Seattle Indian Center.

“At a time of public cynicism about certain kinds of roles, it’s good to have these kinds of seamless connections that show people what opportunities exist,” Ishisaka said. “I think our recruitment efforts have to be coupled with strong support throughout the educational process.”

But he noted that higher education can be alienating to a minority community, particularly one that has only recently established roots in this country and still faces a variety of barriers, including language. A key to recruiting students for university study, he said, is to help them maintain their ties to their own communities throughout their college lives, “so they’re not seen as some alien coming back.”

It comes as no surprise that Ishisaka, who grew up in farm country near Sacramento, Calif., is passionate about diversity. The surprise is that while in college at Berkeley, he was headed for medical school, or perhaps a degree in anthropology, one of his major youthful interests.

It wasn’t until his last year as an undergraduate, when he saw a flier for the social work program, that he changed courses. It was the first time he had heard of social work, he said, and it seemed to be a vocation that matched his developing interest in a more socially directed career. However, he found that, like many college programs, this one didn’t quite live up to the description on the flier. For instance, it paid scant attention to social justice or development of minority voices, he said, instead focusing on how to help minorities fit into the status quo of mainstream society. That experience, Ishisaka recalls, shaped the path he would follow.

“I felt that since I took such umbrage to that approach as a student, in my own career I could damn well do something better,” he said.

As an associate professor and former associate dean, he has spent his UW career pursuing ways of opening educational doors in otherwise-ignored communities. Such efforts, he believes, can help to counter the effects of Initiative 200, a measure passed by voters in 1998 that barred the use of race and ethnicity as factors in student admissions decisions.

“Providing access to people who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to come to school is very important, I think,” Ishisaka said.

– Vince Stricherz

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