Justin Ogihara

Hi there and thanks for visiting my page! My name is Justin Ogihara and I graduated from Cal Poly—SLO with a B.S. in Liberal Studies and a minor in Political Science in 2018. I'm planning to become an elementary school teacher in the near future and preferably teaching 4th or 5th grade. After teaching for a couple of years, I’ll move up to administration, and hopefully become the U.S. Secretary of Education (*fingers crossed*).

September 2021 will mark my four-year anniversary at iFixit as an Educational (EDU) Assistant. As an EDU assistant, I help manage the Technical Writing Project (that spans over 80 universities and colleges) and correspond to students participating in the project. Aside from the onslaught of student emails, I’m deeply invested in creating and providing repair and sustainability curriculum into the K-12 space. I believe it’s important to introduce these concepts at a young age so future generations can grow and experience a better and more environmentally-friendly world.

In addition to the EDU program, I’m a part-time moderator on our own iFixit Meta forum! And whenever we’re invited to local school events, I enjoy being the face behind Rosie the Repair Bear.

At the start of the COVID pandemic, iFixit took on a big mission to help make repair service manuals for medical devices severely impacted by COVID more accessible and free for biomedical technicians all over the world. I helped manage and communicate with the group of librarians and individuals who volunteered to sort and organize the tens of thousands of repair manuals that passed through our hands. This project is one of the most fulfilling projects I’ve been a part of, and I could not be any happier to help do something that’s right for the world. You can read more on the project here.

Aside from education, I'm very passionate about sports and living a healthy lifestyle in general. During the pandemic, my roommate convinced me to start surfing with him, and it’s been really fun so far (don’t ask me for lessons, I’m not that good…yet). You can catch me watching and participating in most physical activities, especially baseball and basketball. Oh and my favorite sports teams? None other than the 2020 World Series Champions and the 2020 NBA Finals Champions (I bleed Los Angeles sports).

I also LOVE video games (who doesn’t?). Of course sports/fighting/shooter games are always fun when playing with friends, but I’m a sucker for single-player story games. During quarantine, I finally picked up and finished Breath of the Wild and WOW, what an amazing game! It’s definitely up there in my favorite games of all time. I’ll always have a soft spot for Pokémon, and hopefully someday I’ll be able to catch them all in Pokémon Go!

I’m also part-owner/ownee to two Shiba Inu residing with my parents in Los Angeles. Despite their cuteness and human-like personalities, they can sometimes be a handful to take care of. Shiba Inu are definitely not for first-time dog owners, so if you’re thinking of adopting one (or maybe two), I’d recommend watching this short video to see if you’re ready for the challenge!

Here’s a photo of my two cuties:

Left: Toyo Right: Sakura

…more to come!