From Student to Steward: Matavai Asaeli’s Full-Circle Journey at Pierce College
What was your proudest moment as a student? Maybe it was walking across the stage, diploma in hand; maybe you aced a test you were nervous about; or maybe it was finding out you got into your dream school. For Matavai Asaeli, the moment that stands out is a basketball game at Pierce College, played on barely two hours of sleep with his four-year-old son in the crowd.
"I couldn't miss a shot," Asaeli recalled. "I think I had, like, 27 or 30 points and I walked away from that night just knowing, if I can do this, with everything going on in my life, I can do anything. I can do hard things.”
That belief has guided Asaeli from uncertain beginnings to becoming a dedicated student advocate at Pierce College, where he serves as College Access Manager for Student Achievement Support Services (SASS). His work centers on helping students from marginalized communities see college as an attainable, meaningful path — something he once struggled to believe himself.
From Uncertainty to Academic Confidence
Asaeli's student journey was anything but linear. After graduating high school, he enrolled at Saint Martin's University, but he didn’t know how to be a great student yet, and never felt like he truly belonged in the community at SMU. He chose to pause his pursuit of an education and focus on his family – in particular, his new role as a young father.
Basketball remained a through-line in his life, leading to a serendipitous encounter with a coach from Yakima Valley College who saw him play at HoopFest in Spokane. Despite the challenges of leaving home with two children and another on the way, Asaeli knew this was his chance to prove something to himself.
“It was controversial at the time, because I was a dad. Me and my partner had two kids, and another on the way, and here I was, 22 years old, asking for an opportunity to leave them,” he said. Despite the challenges of leaving home, Asaeli knew this was his chance to prove something to himself. "I told myself: if I'm going to miss a year with my kids, I need to be the best student there ever was. And at Yakima I flourished academically.”
Finding a Home at Pierce
After a successful year at YVC, Asaeli could no longer stand to be so far from his family and decided to transfer to Pierce College to finish his Associate of Arts degree and continue his college basketball career as a Raider.
Basketball brought Asaeli back to school, but it was also his anchor throughout.
"Being an athlete was about accountability for me," he said. "I know I can’t be happy and healthy without staying active. If I wasn’t playing basketball I’d probably have been sleeping. I probably would have taken a lot more naps."
His connection to the Pierce College community deepened through his involvement with ASPIRE, a student support program made possible through federal funding from the Department of Education Title III, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) grant. Through ASPIRE, Asaeli gained leadership experience and learned what it takes to be academically successful. He even helped plan ASPIRE’s annual summit, beginning as a student panelist, then emcee, and eventually serving as one of the lead planners.
"We get so much knowledge when we come to school, and we set a lot of goals, and push ourselves,” Asaeli said. “But with ASPIRE, I was given direction, and I was getting a constant reminder of the stewardship I have to my community and to my family.”
Asaeli graduated from Pierce College in 2018 with an Associate of Arts degree and transferred to the University of Washington - Tacoma, later earning a bachelor's degree in humanities with a minor in business. Today, he's pursuing a master's degree in student development and higher education administration at Seattle University, while working at Pierce College as a College Access Manager.
Returning to Serve
His return to Pierce as a staff member was, in his words, inevitable. For years, Asaeli worked in corporate management while still volunteering with ASPIRE and local Tacoma grassroots organizations helping Pacific Islander students.
"I knew I needed to go somewhere where I could help the people I was helping before they got to this point," he said. “I saw people fresh out of highschool and I saw people that were elderly working this hard labor job, barely being paid to eat, and I'd be like, ‘go to school, go to school, go to school.’”
Now, through his work in SASS, Asaeli helps students access the opportunities he once had to fight for. He also leads summer programs that expose young students to college early, helping them see themselves in higher education before they even get there.
"Pierce College has made the biggest lasting impact on my life,” Asaeli. “I’ve been to two-year schools, to four-year schools, and this is the standard. I measure every other college’s culture and staff and success to this. I feel like there just isn’t anything else like Pierce.”