I was a former international student. I grew up in Japan, studied at MIT, and I am currently working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
In the last couple of days, international students in US universities have suddenly become a hotly debated topic, but the debate is mainly from political or legal standpoints. So, I thought it’s worth telling a bit of my personal story to aid the discussion.
Space and Tucson
I have dreamed of America since I was little for two reasons. One is, of source, space. I’ve been a deep space geek since I was 6. America is the country that produced the greatest explorers of the cosmos – Voyager, Viking, Apollo, Space Shuttle, etc. It is also the country of my heroes – Carl Sagan, Ed Stone, and Neil Armstrong, just to name a few.
The second reason is Tucson, AZ. My father studied at the University of Arizona shortly after I was born, and my parents and baby me lived there for a year and a half. Sadly, I don’t remember anything since I was so little. But my parents often talked about all the good memories – about life in Tucson, the adventurous road trips in their subcompact car without A/C, and the people in Tucson who were so nice to them.
There was a family – the Loys – who were particularly kind to us. They often invited us to dinner and took us around Arizona; they even invited us to their farm near Flagstaff. And the Loy family treated baby me like their own nephew. Even after we moved back to Tokyo, they sent me Christmas ornaments and picture books every year, signed with beautiful cursive handwriting. My name was often misspelled as “Hero,” but I never felt bad for it. 40 years later, the ornaments are still hanging on our Christmas tree, and my son reads the books signed “For Hero.”
For most non-American people around the world, New York City or Hollywood represents the stereotype of the US. For me, it was Tucson. The saguaro forest in the desert, the blazing sun, and the kind people in the rural west – that was the image of America I had. And it was all the good memories of my parents from Tucson that made me think that America is such a wonderful place.
At MIT: What I took from, and gave back to, America
20 years later, I moved to Boston to study at MIT’s graduate school. I quickly realized that Boston is not quite like Tucson. The blazing sun is rare, and there was not a single saguaro. Instead, Boston offered lobstahs and the freezing cold wintah. I loved the former, but not so much the latter. And, because Boston is a busy big city, I found that not everyone is very kind. But eventually, I came to love Boston. It’s a beautiful city, rich in seasons, history, and culture. I think of Boston as my second hometown.
And I learned a lot at MIT. Students often say studying at MIT is like “drinking from a firehose.” In the hyper-competitive environment at MIT, I had substantial initial struggles. But in retrospect, it was perhaps the greatest growth opportunity I had in my life.
I was also fortunate financially. As in other research universities in the US, most graduate students at MIT in science and engineering are funded by research assistantship (RA), which covers tuition and living costs. I depended on my parents for the first semester since I could not find RA. In the next 1.5 years, my RA was funded by the Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA). The remaining 4.5 years were funded by Boeing. I literally owe a lot to America. I am and will be forever grateful.
But you may wonder what the US got. Sure, this Hiro Ono guy greatly benefitted by studying at MIT. But if we denied his F-1 visa, an American student somewhere could have studied at MIT and got a job at NASA. Even worse, the majority of his RA was funded by an American company. This Japanese space geek exploited the generosity of the US to advance his own career.
Yes, America gave me so much. It’s true that I might have pushed out an American student. But I’m also proud that I have been giving back to the US by producing unique research results and engineering products for my American sponsors.
At MIT, under the Boeing-funded project, I co-pioneered risk-aware optimal planning, which resulted in several high-impact publications. This technology would enable future aviation and space flight to operate safely under uncertainty. At NASA, I was one of the two main developers of the autonomous driving algorithm of Mars Rover Perseverance. (The other developer was also an international student.) This algorithm enabled the Perseverance rover to drive more difficult terrains over a substantially longer distance on the red planet than her predecessors could, which in turn resulted in a number of discoveries.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Future Elon Musk and Einstein
It is not just me. Over one million international students are currently studying in the US. They benefit from America. And give back in return through their career and contribute to the prosperity of the US.
For example, 44.8% of the Fortune 500 companies in 2023 were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants*1, many of who initially came to the US as a student. The list includes some of the most profitable companies in the US – for example, Apple, Google, Amazon, Costco, McDonald’s, Verizon, AT&T, JP Morgan Chase, Pfizer, and of course, Tesla and SpaceX, just to name a few.
If the US rescinded Elon Musk’s student visa in the early 1990s, an American kid somewhere would have been admitted to the University of Pennsylvania. But would that guy start the EV revolution and reclaim the US dominance in space launch? Rather, Musk would have founded his companies in Canada, where he first immigrated before coming to the US as a student. Or perhaps Tesla and Space would not have existed on Earth.
Approximately 35% of American Nobel Laureates were immigrants*2, including, of course, Albert Einstein. If the US kicked out the German scientist, an American scholar somewhere could have gotten the faculty job at Princeton. But would that guy make all the discoveries Einstein made? Rather, Einstein would have brought the Nobel prize to another country.
The intellectual and industrial prosperity of the US is built upon its ability to attract the best talents from all over the world. And universities function as the gateway. Among the ~7,000 current international Harvard students, there will probably be a couple of future Nobel Laureates or the founders of future Fortune 500 companies. It’s easy to argue whatever short-term reasons to kick them out. However, the negative impact will only materialize decades later.
My father’s case: International students funded by foreign countries
Unlike myself, my father was not paid by US companies or government for his study at the University of Arizona. Instead, it was paid 100% by Toshiba, a Japanese company that he worked for. Overall, about 60% of international students receive the majority of their funds from sources outside of the US*3. It is a pure gain for the US economy. And my father returned to Japan with strong favoritism for Tucson and the US. He told his kids, friends, and colleagues about all the wonderful experiences he had. Hence, his son came to dream of America.
Yes, it’s true that there are some international students who are anti-American or anti-semitic. But the vast majority of international students come to like and embrace America, and many of them take American values back home – the values written in the Constitution. There would be no better way to build allies within foreign countries than educating young folks in the US.
J. William Fullbright, a US senator from Arkansas who created the scholarship program that bears his name, once said: “There is nothing obscure about the objectives of educational exchange. Its purpose is to acquaint Americans with the world as it is and to acquaint students and scholars from many lands with America as it is—not as we wish it were or as we might wish foreigners to see it, but exactly as it is—which by my reckoning is an ‘image’ of which no American need be ashamed.”
Pilgrimage to Tucson
In 2016, I went on a road trip to Tucson in my subcompact car (but with A/C) with my wife and daughter, who was exactly at the age when I was there. For me, it was a trip to recollect the lost memory. Before the trip, I asked my parents to send their photos of Tucson. We visited the apartments where I lived with my parents, the park where I played, and the university lab where my father studied. Then, we located the exact spot in the 1983/84 photos and took a new one with my daughter. It was like a treasure hunt.
I could not see the Loy Family since we were out of contact for decades. Tucson had grown three times in population since the early 1980s, with bustling high-tech industries. But the kindness of people in Tucson did not seem to change. Everywhere we went – restaurants, stores, and tourist spots – they were very friendly and nice to us, particularly to my baby daughter. Tucson that my parents loved were still there.
In my very humble opinion, it is the kindness to foreigners, like the Loys in Tucson, rather than the alienation of them or the projection of economic might onto them, that makes the world like and respect America. I sincerely hope that America will continue to be a country that is dreamed of by children all over the world. And I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that America will keep its door open for future Albert Einsteins and Elon Musks.