Pasadena Student, Kaiya Jota, Is Goalie in 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

Kaiya Jota (Photo – Felita Kealing)

As parents, we protect and provide for our kids, then we make sure we promote great character.

By Jim Jota

I believe that is what my wife Ali and I have done for our daughters Asia and Kaiya. Our goal was to build the type of character that crossed all perceived boundaries of ethnicity, gender, religion, and social status. So, plenty of patience was vital as we tried to teach them qualities that integrated respect, optimism, and love as key components in providing objective principles in working through life’s challenges. We are proud of both of our daughters, both are scholar-athletes playing soccer, and both are high academic achievers.

Both my wife and I are immigrants, me from the Philippines and Ali from England. It was important to us that our kids embraced social diversity at school. Our key decision in sending them to public school over private school was easy; they started in the Pasadena Unified School District at Daniel Webster. As we considered middle and high school options, staying in public was imperative and our choice of Marshall was effortless. Marshall Fundamental’s culture possessed the right context we wanted for our kids to learn and develop.

Asia graduated from Marshall Fundamental in 2020 and Kaiya will graduate in 2024. Their experiences at Marshall have prepared them well through academics, programs, clubs, social networks. Sports and have been top notch.

Asia played for the Marshall Girls Soccer Team and now attends Bethany Lutheran College in Minnesota where she is the current midfielder and Captain of the Bethany Viking Women’s Soccer Team. She was named to the Academic All-Conference and was on the Dean’s list. She is scheduled to complete her BA in Biochemistry in 2024.

Kaiya is entering her senior year at Marshall Fundamental. She is a member of the Marshall Fundamental Girls Soccer Team. She has been named to the Mission Valley League First Team for three consecutive years, and in 2022 she was named to the CIF All-League. Kaiya is committed to attending Stanford University and plans to play with the Stanford Cardinal Women’s Soccer Team. Even before graduating from high school, Kaiya was named to the 2023 Philippine Women’s World Cup National Team as a goalkeeper.  She is playing for the Philippine National Team in the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers in Vientiane, Laos, as I write this article.

Jim Jota is a marketing director living in Pasadena.

Kaiya Jota (Photo – Stanford Women’s Soccer)