What are your main responsibilities at your position? What are some of your big projects? (this can include projects at your internship, your specific CAP project, etc)
Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF), a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the leading voice for the Asian American and immigrant scientific and academic community. AASF represents the individuals, families, and communities most directly affected by the profiling of Asian American scientists, researchers, and scholars and unjust prosecutions conducted before and under the now defunct Department of Justice’s “China Initiative.” As the AASF Policy and Programs Intern, I am tasked to assist with AASF’s policy analysis, advocacy, and community engagement efforts. I help monitor and analyze legislation/regulations/policies, write policy memorandums summarizing my findings, inform students and educators about ongoing occurrences, draft community educational materials/social media posts, and more.
One big project that I have lies at the intersection of policy and storytelling. During my internship, I have worked to create a directory of all the accomplished scholars that are members of AASF. The goal with this directory is to pinpoint individuals with unique stories that I can help uplift and share with the larger Asian American community. This is important because no matter how much work goes into policy analysis and advocacy for specific changes, it is still imperative to understand and humanize the individuals being impacted by such legislation; storytelling is at the core of making this happen.
How does this internship fit with your professional and career goals?
As a prospective Public Policy major and Communication and TAPS double minor, my interests in government, law, public service, and media are still wide-ranging and developing. Interning at AASF fits with my professional and career goals because it lies at the convergence of these seemingly different categories, specifically allowing my love for stories, people, and policy to thrive. Although my future career is unclear, serving as the AASF Policy and Programs Intern has shown me that there is an avenue that fulfills my numerous ambitions; it broadens the scope of careers I can pursue. This internship has also given me specific experience with Asian American advocacy and civil rights, which is something I hope will continue to be at the core of all of my future professional (and personal) endeavors. Some areas I am looking to work in within my career include non-profit spaces, law, the entertainment industry, media/communication, government, and more. AASF helps me explore many, if not all, of these possibilities, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with them.
What do you hope to achieve this summer as a part of CAPAL’s 2023 cohort?
As a first-generation Chinese American woman, I have often saw my identity as a barrier to entry and impact. However, being a part of CAPAL’s 2023 cohort, I am determined to ground my passions in my heritage and culture, learning how my identity can inform my work in public service spaces. As a CAPAL scholar, I hope to learn how other AANHPI individuals engage in the public service sector; I am excited to connect with a diverse group of individuals and discover how they use their backgrounds to inform their projects and ambitions. Moreover, I am eager to participate in the mentorship program and learn from AANHPI leaders who are already deeply involved in public service. Their guidance will be invaluable as I navigate my own path in this field. Through connecting with a diverse group of Asian American leaders, I want to understand how I can ground my passions in my identity and use it as a source of inspiration and empowerment. I also want to discover how I can confidently take space while also intentionally making space for others. Overall, I hope that my participation in CAPAL’s 2023 cohort will allow me to see public service with a new sense of purpose and confidence. I no longer want to see my identity as a barrier to impact, but rather as an asset that I can use to make a difference in my own ways.
What does public service mean to you? What sparked your interest or desire to get involved with public service?
My passion for public service began when I joined Key Club, a high school service organization. Key Club taught me the value of working with other motivated leaders to improve our community, as well as listening and collaborating intentionally to achieve our service goals. The leadership, communication, and organizing skills I developed during my time in the club continue to impact and inform my work today. As I pursued more opportunities in public service, I learned that public service is not just about helping communities in need, but also about understanding their stories and using that knowledge to guide one’s service ambitions. This lesson was reinforced during my summer internship at San Jose City Hall (Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services Department) as their Park Equity Intern, where I was able to engage directly with community gardeners and listen to their various anecdotes (after conducting a thorough data-based equity analysis of community gardens). Although I had already done an analysis of the gardens, speaking with people directly reinforced my findings and helped bring a lot of color to the problem; it allowed me to consider perspectives that I had not even thought about or knew existed. In this experience, I realized that public service goes beyond the numbers and tasks at hand; we must dig deeper and connect with the people we are helping in order to truly make an impact. Moving forward, I want to continue to ground my public service experiences in community, stories, and people, carrying on the lessons I learned from my earliest leadership and service experiences in Key Club.
What are some hobbies or interests you like to do outside of work?
Outside of work, one of my biggest interests is in the performing arts, specifically Asian American representation in creative spaces. In high school, I founded my own organization called Creatively Asian aimed and diversifying artistic communities and dispelling stereotypes; it remains one of my biggest passion projects to this day. Moreover, at Stanford, I am involved with Stanford Talisman (an A Cappella group focused on storytelling across cultures) and Ram’s Head Theatrical Society (as a performer and Assistant producer). Singing and acting allow me to communicate stories and emotions beyond their face value and transform experiences into something accessible for nearly everyone. In the future, I hope to find more ways to intersect my love for performing with my passion for the performing arts.