#lia2016

I mean no one ever saw me cry like that but this is exactly what I’ve been feeling (inside) since I said my goodbyes to my friends, family, bomb Mexican food, and community. Gosh I miss the Mexican food. As I’m listening to Miguel’s Sure Thing,  I can’t help but miss home. This song reminds me of an ex-lover. Ahahaha Pfffft jk. It reminds me of my high school English teacher. Buuuuhh since I graduated from high school 4 years ago, I’ve been planning to move out to Washington. It wasn’t until last winter that I finalized the move. Today marks 2 weeks since I moved here to Tacoma, Washington and I can honestly say that I miss home and especially my parents. This is the longest I’ve ever been away from home but during my time here I’ve been able to reflect on this past summer, year, and just my whole life in general.

Don’t mind the “The Fault in Our Stars” sign on the GIF. Lol It was a cute GIF. The book was okay. Lol Okay, back to reflection time.

It’s been 7 weeks since LIA graduation and I can only remember everything that happened during the first half of the day. My cohort was the only cohort in LIA history that has done not only 1 but 2 community impact projects! I think. One project was a promotional video that LEAP can use for outreach for next year’s LIA program. Angie, Tony, and Dee did a really great job in putting together the video. Our second project was a zine. We named it Unnoted and it focuses on the narratives of people from the marginalized communities of the larger API community. We’ve had over 20 entries and Aian, Tony, and I submitted a piece too. The zine was created to uplift the voices of these marginalized communities, give a platform for these voices to express themselves, and show visibility of these communities to corporations, political leaders, and organizations who serve our communities so they can better serve us. All hands were on deck when we were putting together the zine hours before graduation. We weren’t able to have the actual product ready to make copies for all the attendees at the graduation, but we laid the pages of the original copy out on a table for our friends and families to look at. Graduation was bittersweet. I cried. Ew. I think I cried at graduation more than when I moved here. Feelings are annoying I guess. But I do miss my LIA family. There were times I wanted to yell at them or slap them, except for Danny, but now they know it’s all love. Now we’re all off doing big thangs!

Quick cohort update: Aian is now in Inland Empire and just started their first day of their senior year at UCR. Tony is back in LA putting in work both in the books at Cal State LA and at work. Ryan is up north in the Bay Area finishing up his senior year at Berkley and was elected the Executive Director of the REACH the Asian and Pacific Islander Recruitment and Retention Center on campus. Angie has been back home in some Midwest state (ahahahaha) for 6 weeks and helped organize a protest for Terence Crutcher on her campus. Danny was home in Fresno, CA for a few weeks before he got a job in Minnesota. Told him I’ll miss him the most and that still stands true. Everyone else can be annoying. Lol jk Dee was looking for jobs up until the end of August and landed a job with the Asian Pacific Islander Scholarship Fund (APISF) in DC. I’m here in Tacoma waiting for school to start in January but in the mean time looking for jobs that’ll keep me connected to the Pacific Islander community out here. We’re all scattered over the country doing big thangs now and I’m so proud of everyone! Peep my Google Maps skills, though! Made it so I can refer to it during a job interview so I can get hired. Lol

Yooooooo! Backstreet Boys just came on!

Okay I’m back! One of the biggest things I take away from this internship is basking in my glory and accepting that I’m the bee’s knees, yo! After looking back at all the work I’ve done and how much I’ve grown as a person in the short span of 8 weeks, I realized that I’m freaking amazeballs! The pre-LIA Ray-Ray wouldn’t have done half of the things I did this summer. It’s been drilled into me since I was a kid to be humble and work hard because it was mataga (ugly) to see someone boast, especially a womxn. But nah Gina, I did that this summer! Lol

Excuse me while I twerk my life away cuz Pop, Lock & Drop It just came on. Ahahaha

Okay I’m back and hella out of breath. Lol It went from Backstreet Boys to Huey real quick. Annywaaayyss! One of my goals I set on the first day of this internship was to heal. Shout out to the gods with healing powers for giving me opportunities to open up and receive love from all these Asians (ahahaha)―who at first had NOTHING in common with me but now they do―and for allowing me the blessing to go through the painful yet relieving process. Since my first experience of community work, I’ve slowly opened up about who I am. I was given the chance to be a part of a space where I didn’t have to divorce all my experiences both good and bad at the door. I’ve laid my cards out on the table so that my cohort knew who I am, where I come from, how I work, and how passionate I am about the work. I don’t think my cohort understands how much they’ve helped me this summer and continue to help me throughout this big change I’m experiencing. Only a few people can honestly say they know me and they’ve been granted the holy gift of knowing the real Ray-Ray. Consider yourselves lucky!

This summer was filled with laughter, tears, sweat, lots of food, and good company. Deciding to apply to this program was one of the best decisions I’ve made so far. Thank you to all the Pacific Islander leaders that were in LIA before me for leading the way. Special thanks to Lawrence Lan and Richard Chang aka my dad, for helping me out with the application process. I don’t think I would have even been considered if y’all didn’t tell LEAP how you think I’m awesome. Lol Thank you to the best mentor in the world, Alisi Tulua, for helping and shaping me into the person I am today. I’d be really stupid not to thank my parents for all the love, lectures, support, nagging, and full belief in me. I am nothing without the love and support of my family. I haven’t really grasped that concept until I moved here. Mom and Dad: Ou te alofa ma misia outou uma. Faafetai mo le tausiga o au i le tamaitai sa ou te i aso nei. Le mafai ona ou faia i ai e aunoa ma outou. Ou te faamoemoe o le a ou faia ia te oe uma e faamaualuluga ma e le mafai ona faatali e asiasi vave Na o outou. Ou te alofa tele ia oe! Thank you to my cohort who have now become family to me. Y’all will always have a special place in the heart you helped heal. Special love and appreciation to my best friends Val, Isa, and Deesh for grounding me and allowing me to be petty when I needed to. I love y’all!

Yo, Pandora’s 2000′s Hip Hop station is hella lit! These songs remind me of Danny, Ryan, and Tony. Lol

I was scared to finish this last blog entry because that just means #Summer2016 is officially over. But as I write these last few words, I can’t help but think of this Tongan proverb I learned through a Tongan culture-based program I participated in last year. The proverb goes like this: ‘Osiki a velenga. It means completing our duties. As people belonging to society, we each have duty to achieve our greater purpose. I have a duty to myself, my family (including my ancestors whose names I carry), and my community. I believe that this summer, I’ve completed my velenga of challenging myself to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. I’ve participated in an API program that was full of nothing but Asians. Thank God they were awesome Asians. Lol My projects for this internship served the youth of the Pilipinx community in Los Angeles even though all I knew about Pilipinx was that they made bomb lumpias and some identified as Pacific Islanders. But I still managed to do work and in the process learned to love the Pilipinx community. I also learned how closely connected our communities are which was a bonus! I shared some really private and personal things with my cohort and they turned around and surprised me with understanding. Lol This summer was just super amazing and I loved every single part of it. With that, I’m dedicating this post to my damn self because I deserve it. Lol Cheers to you being the baddest baddie this summer, boo boo! I’m proud of you! Hope y’all enjoy the video I put together because I’m too lazy to post all of them one at a time.

My experience this past summer was one that when I looked back on it, was more transformational than it seemed in those moments. I can’t begin to explain how many questions I had going in and how many more I had coming out which, is a good thing. The more I learned the more questions I had. Now having completed the program, there are two pieces of advice that my wise supervisor Nancy has left me with:

1. Speak Up For Yourself

Something Nancy constantly asked me was, “What do you need?” Although it seems like a simple question, it was the first time anyone had asked me that before. I think it was her way of saying that what I needed from my group was just as important as what they needed from me. There really is no one who is going to be there to advocate on your behalf, except yourself.

This whole summer I spent more time TRYING (major keyword) trying to be a leader I wasn’t. I tried being flexible and chill when I realized, I am much better at having processes, timelines and sticking to the plan (I know, I’m THAT person). Due to this, I realized that its why I had such a hard time adapting to some of the other group members work styles. I didn’t truly own up to mine. I wanted everyone to be the same as me and to have their definition of accountability equate to mine when the reality was, nit wasn’t. This isn’t a bad thing but I wish I would have realized this sooner so that I could have communicated it with the team.

2. Own your Assignments:

Often times I found myself dreading some of the work I had to do because it just didn’t interest me or quite frankly, I just didn’t know how to go about it. What I found myself doing was putting in half the effort into it than needed. Something she also brought to my attention was that somethings need to be done and when they are, that’s great. But when something needs to be done but its done amazingly well, people notice. This point has been more real than I ever imagined especially as I am starting a new job.

Besides all of the work-life lessons I’ve learned, I was also blessed with a wonderful cohort. Admittedly, there were times when we were at the brink of breaking apart but each and every time we always found ways to prevent that from happening. Throughout this journey I’ve had the pleasure to better understand each individual and their passions which along the way helped me reignite mine. The amount of joy Aian, Angie, Danny, Ray-Ray, Ryan and Tony have given me is something I never expected and something I will never forget. I can’t wait for these peoples to become the person they have set out to be.

While most people spend their whole lives looking for treasures, I was lucky to have found mine this summer.

After collecting the all necessary data through observing traffic violations in Chinatown, I spent the earlier part of this week analyzing the data and here’s a little snippet: There was a total of 776 recorded traffic violations at both observing locations. The data shows varying number of violations at the two intersections. Broadway and Ord had 52% (174) of motorists failing to properly yield to pedestrians, while Broadway and Alpine only had 32% (141).

Next week, I will finalize the report to supplement APIOPA’s plan to build support for structural changes in Chinatown LA to improve pedestrian safety and access.

This Thursday, was also LEAP’s Leadership Awards Gala. It was amazing to see the breadth of LEAP’s networks and I commend LEAP for bringing together API leaders from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. I also had rich conversations with many folks from various sectors, who held prestigious positions.  

(Above is a photo of me with some folks from APIOPA. From left to right: Paul Nguyen, Danny Yang, Kyle Tsukahira, Scott Chan)

(Above is a photo of the amazing 2016 LIA Cohort!)

Chinatown traffic observations were under way. This week, my observations took place on the intersection of Broadway and Alpine and next week, I will alternate back to observe traffic on Broadway and Ord.

(Above is a motorist making a right turn from the wrong lane)

(Motorist not properly yielding for pedestrians & approaching traffic)

(traffic congestion on westbound Alpine) Here is the sheet that was used to record traffic violations:

Friday was packed with back to back workshops about public speaking and interviewing techniques. Through the public speaking workshop, I learned that mastering the skill of public speaking can elevate my career and personal life. I also discovered that I tend to say “umm” a lot but the workshop facilitator gave me some tips on how to eliminate my tendencies. Additionally, during the interview workshop, I practiced using the Challenge, Action, Result (CAR) technique to quantify my work experience.

The thing about event planning is that, you work so hard for this idea, this thing that doesn’t quite exist yet. However, everything that you are doing in the moment will eventually lead you to this thing. The team you are working with are the ones who will ultimately bring it to life. That is not only the most exciting thing about event planning but the also scariest. 

I’ll begin this post with a few photos of the week:

The week started like any other. I got into the office, began working on tasks and continued assisting where I was needed. However, the difference with this week was that there was so much pressure from every angle to get our tasks done. No longer was I able to only focus only on my tasks but I had to help out wherever it was necessary. It first was helping Mayta with nametags and name tents then went over to Lillian in helping her put together silent auction collages and everything else in between. On Monday night, we had a committee meeting in which some of the committee members came out to help us with creating our materials! Also, shoutout to Danny and Tony from the cohort for coming through. The night was great in that everyone was happily working together and we got everything done! By the time we left though, it was 10pm. As what I said to Mayta, in Minnesota time, I can say I stayed at the office until 12am! lol

Fast forward to Thursday, the day of the Gala. The moment I walked into the office the atmosphere was much different than usual days - something I cannot quite explain. It was as if everyone was extremely worried but also extremely calm. I guess I’m used to the “run around with your head cut off” type of people so it was refreshing to be around people who can keep it calm under pressure. Anywho, when we got to the Omni, let me tell ya, time flew by. 

I was relieved of my work duties and was thrown into the networking space. Naturally, I am an awkward person so I despise being in spaces where I am forced to network. HOWEVER, i do realize the importance of it - I guess I just don’t like the idea of going up to someone unless I have a reason to (but that is networking? im confusing, I know). Through this though, I was able to meet some awesome people. By chance, I ran into Bradley Cooper, the new Chair of LEAP and we ended up talking about his history, his future living plans and how he’s pretty much been to every part of the country. He actually brought up the fact that he read my bio, something that was sent to him prior to the Gala which I thought was interesting. In general, it was refreshing to have a real conversation with someone of his prestige. At the dinner, I was placed at Jim Lactaoen’s, another LEAP board member’s, table. To my surprise, he and his wife Nina are also alums of the U of MN. GO GOPHERS! We ended up talking about that for quite sometime and Nina gave me some reassuring advice about being a fresh graduate. Unfortunately, I was unable to take photos of the event, however these are some of the photos I was able to take: 

Also, I would like to take this time to give a huge shoutout to the LEAP intern team for everything that they did during these past couple of months. We were all in a collective struggle however, found solace in leaning on each other for support. Not to mention, API Women Leaders ftw. Cheers to a successful gala! 

The next morning was the Leadership Breakfast. I would be lying if I said I was super excited for this. After a long night of Gala, getting up at 6:00am to head over did not sound appealing but, it was worth it! One of my greatest takeaways was meeting Julie, another one of LEAP’s board members. Low key, I’ve been wanting to meet her since I found out there was a Hmong woman on LEAP’s board so the moment I had the chance, I went straight to her. We talked about the stigma that the Hmong culture puts on women who want to have successful careers but also recognized our privileges that we did not come from the most traditional households which is why we are able to be where we are. Julie works for General Motors and so it was great to meet someone who was as high level as she is working in the Corporate world. There aren’t very many Hmong woman who are doing that. In general, it was great to be able to connect with another Hmong woman who is on a completely different path than I but still be able to relate in many other ways. That, is the power of representation. 

General takeaways from the Gala: 

- As much as i dislike networking, i have come to learn that I do not know anyone else’s intentions however, I do know mine. I approach everyone with genuinity even if my gut feeling is telling me this person and I have nothing in common. I believe that in order to get genuity, you have to be geniuine.  

- Community comes in many different forms. Like how I cannot convince all my friends to show up to a rally, I cannot convince them to come to a Gala either. However, that doesn’t mean that one form of gathering is better than the other. Community is about coming together to celebrate, to heal, to advocate for the betterment of it regardless of what the platform is. 

ONE WEEK TO GO UNTIL THE GALA. TIME IS TIKING. 

And with all of that in mind, this week was definitely strenuous in that there are still very many little things that need to get done. One of them being name tags. dun dun dun. Now, on the surface, the tasks of nametags may seem trivial BUT NO, these bad boys are super important. If you have a spelling error, have the wrong title or even have a beat up holder, that can really come back and hit the image of your organization. So, if there’s anything I’ve learned this week, NAMETAG CREATION IS NEVER ENDING. 

For the first half of this week, I went out to collect data in Chinatown LA through observing and noting common traffic violations. APIOPA recently did some community surveys with folks in Chinatown LA and found that many of the community members saw pedestrian safety as a major concern. I was eager to see the situation in Chinatown for myself. 

(Above is a motorist not properly yielding for pedestrians crossing on Broadway and Ord) In Chinatown, I saw many motorists not properly yielding for pedestrians and other motorists. Many drivers were making turns without allowing ample room for pedestrians to cross safely, as well as, running red lights in order to make unprotected left turns. I gained a better understanding of why Chinatown community members were concerned about pedestrian safety and as a result, I had a newfound appreciation for the work that APIOPA is doing with API communities. 

On Thursday morning, I went to Lennox for the Asian American Environmental Academy, which is a program that APIOPA coordinates in collaboration with Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council (A3PCON). In the academy program, youth learn about environmental justice and how they can advocate for healthier environments. It was great to see high school and college students learn about how particulate matter in the atmosphere could be hazardous to their health. For this particular session, the students used an instrument to measure particulate matter waste from aircraft. Particulate matter waste from aircraft emissions negatively affect the environment. The Los Angeles International Airport is right next to Lennox, so airplanes would fly over every 10-15 minutes, with many of the airplanes flying over residential areas. As a result, many residents in Lennox are breathing in harmful particulate matter without having a say in the matter. It was inspiring to see youth learn about the environment and importance of preserving green spaces for ourselves and our future generations.

(Above is an aircraft flying over Lennox park) Thursday night was also the Faith Advisory Board (FAB) meeting. FAB is a program under APIOPA that brings together the Tongan community from all around Los Angeles in order to foster leadership and learning in a safe space. It was humbling to attend FAB and learn more about the Tongan and Samoan cultures. The participants were very welcoming and made me feel right at home. Through FAB, I learned how food and family were an integral part of the Tongan and Samoan cultures. Additionally, I got to eat some traditional Tongan food and it was delicious! 

Week 3 of LIA? Check.

This week at LEAP, we got the ball rolling in terms of getting requests out for the Bid For Empowerment. All of that database updating is finally over!!! Well, for now.... 

Something awesome I got to experience this week was a TASTE TESTING. We toured the venue for the Gala and chose our dishes for the evening. Unfortunately, I was unable to take photos because I was too busy enjoying the moment but i ensure you, it was beautifully delicious. 

With two weeks left before the gala, stress levels are high but I’m certain that the outcome will be well worth it! 

In other news, FRIDAY WORKSHOP UPDATE TIME!

This week we went to the California Community Foundation where we met John Kobara who (i think) inadvertently taught us about the importance of having confidence in your story. The greatest lesson I took back from it was that despite the fact that people may not support the things you do, they will believe you when your passion shows through. This idea of “people can tell when you are lying” is so cliche but so true. As I start to embark onto the next step in my life, these words mean so much more to me than I would have ever assumed.