Erika Yagi is a PhD student in Social Science & Comparative Education at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Her research field focuses on Third Culture Kids’ (TCK) home-language retention in the context of learning barriers. TCKs are often defined as persons who grow up outside of their parents’ cultural environment(s) whose intention is to return to their passport nations. Erika identifies as a TCK herself, as she spent most of her formative school years in Egypt and Kenya. She also received her master’s degree in Education from UCLA. Prior to attending UCLA, Erika obtained her B.A. in Elementary Education and German, and worked as an elementary school teacher at an international school in Cameroon. She currently works as a classroom teacher and as an assistant administrator at a community based, non-profit weekend Japanese language school in LA. She is passionate about teaching in both of her home languages; English and Japanese.
