#ncapa

SEARAC Leadership Advocacy Training: I didn’t expect this training to be exhausting and empowering at the same time. This three-day intensive training enabled me to be in a space with Southeast Asian American advocates where I learned about health, education, and immigration issues facing our community. I’m grateful to have this experience because this was the moment when I learned the privilege of being in Washington D.C. and advocating for my community, who are the ones who should be here but can’t be here. Since the training, I kept this concept in mind to motivate and remind myself that I am doing this for AAPIs and my community back in Oklahoma.

Advocating and lobbying for the All Students Count Act amendment:From scheduling visits with legislative offices to counting down the votes at the Senate hearing, this experience is hands down the most valuable and memorable moment of the summer. I will never forget the rush of adrenaline at the Senate hearing and then feeling disappointed when the vote was 47–50 because I definitely wish I could have done better to get those extra votes. However, multiple people have told me that this is the closest vote and I shouldn’t be too hard on myself because this is still progress on an issue that people have been working on for years. Since then, I still think about the ‘what if’, but I finally acknowledge that this is long-term work, and I’m extremely grateful to be part of this progress. For my in-depth experience, read my blog post here.

Spending a day with Dr. Ho Luong Tran, President & CEO of NCAPIP, her staff members, and Dr. Kenneth Moritsugu: During this day, I attended a congressional briefing where Dr. Tran was on the panel. I stayed a little bit after to chat with Emily Zhou, NCAPIP’s intern, and I wanted to meet Dr. Tran because I thought it was incredible to have a Vietnamese American woman as the President and CEO. Little did I know that she would invite me to dinner, and I would spend the entire day with David, Policy Manager of NCAPIP, Emily, Dr. Moritsugu and his family. There came a point where I asked for advice on my career path and family. Since this summer, I had a very a hard time wondering how to reconnect with my parents and manage my career path, especially when my family has high expectations for me to go into a high-paying field. The conversation with Dr. Tran was very much needed me for me because she is a Vietnamese refugee, became a doctor, and now, focuses her work on policy and advocacy issues for the AAPI community. She told me two things: have an honest and truthful conversation with my parents about what I want to do as opposed to what they want me to do. By doing this, I would ease my parents into this transition, since ultimately, they just want me to be happy. Secondly, Dr. Tran said to me, “I don’t care if you want to become an urban planner or a doctor, whatever you do, just make sure you’re advocating for the AAPI community.” The moment she said this, I felt a sense of relief, almost like an approval, because hearing this from someone who became a doctor and is from a different generation means so much to me. It’s no doubt that talking to her lifted a weight off my shoulders. It’s even better to be around her because she is the exact replica of me (or I’m the exact replica of her), and when we were together, it was a crazy, weird moment.

Advocacy Day with OCA: For the advocacy day, OCA interns went to Congress to advocate for Pell Grants and the AAPI community. This day allowed me to realize that I have knowledge and experience advocating on the Hill because in my group, I was the most experienced, which forced me to take lead. And I loved every single moment of it. I had Annie Liu and Elizabeth Ma in my group, and each of them did a wonderful job when we visited my representative from Oklahoma. Even though I went on several office visits with Kelly for the All Students Count Act amendment, this was my first time leading and speaking at legislative visits. On this day, I was able to combine my experiences with SEARAC and Kelly to effectively share my story and guide my group.

Quality time with friends & people: Of course, I will never forget the moments with people here. From living in a house with 12 people to a spontaneous Baltimore trip to random breaks for frozen yogurt with NCAPA to feeling empowered in progressive spaces, I wouldn’t have this summer any other way.

Tiffany Chen:

Angie and I arrived at the Senate gallery in sweltering 92-degree heat in time to hear Senator Hirono introduce the All Students Count Act, affectionately referred to as Amendment 2109. From my vantage point, I could see Angie’s fingers twitch as she fought the impulse to inundate Senators Inhofe and Lankford’s Twitter feed with as much passive aggression as she could fit in 140 characters.

Even sitting in the outskirts among restless middle school tours, the enormity of this moment struck me. Senator Hirono, the first Asian American woman to serve in the Senate and the only currently serving Asian American member of the Senate, explained the very familiar narrative of the Asian model minority myth to an audience of about three other Senators. She described the obvious limitations of being defined by a single checkbox representative of nearly 18 million individuals, 30 countries of origin, and more than 100 unique cultures and languages. As a second generation Taiwanese American, data disaggregation is not only necessary for those students masked by high achieving AAPIs, but also as a small symbolic victory for me, having grown up referred to as the token ‘Chinese’ girl to my peers and teachers.

We came back to the gallery after a brief recess to watch the Senators vote on the All Students Count Act. The small airless space in the gallery grew increasingly more constricting as senators slowly trickled in, glanced at the bill, and cast their vote. Our small band of five lost count after around 40 votes were cast, so we resigned to watching the small figures of big individuals chat with other senators in attendance such as Senators Bernie Sanders, Harry Reid, John McCain, and other distinguished figures.

Ultimately, the amendment was rejected, with a final vote of 47-50. The weight and length of the day suddenly caught up to us, and we were all tired, upset, and a little discouraged. However, despite the outcome, I came away from this experience with three emotions in particular. First, gratitude towards the Senators who represent my home state of New Jersey, Senators Booker and Menendez, for demonstrating their dedication and support to serving the AAPI community. Second, pride in the voice of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders represented by Senator Mazie Hirono, whose incredible leadership, activism, and perseverance resulted in this immense display of intersectional mobilization across the country. And finally, hope for the achievements to come for the AAPI community. 

Attending the meetings and hearing the conversations surrounding the mobilization for this amendment helped reinvigorate my faith in these grassroot operations advocating for our community interests and reinforce my own decision to come to DC to fight for these small victories. As Parag Mehta, chief of staff to the Surgeon General, stated in his address to the WHIAAPI Youth Forum, “Progress doesn’t happen in a moment. Progress happens in a movement,” and if the past month is any indication of the determination of the our community, this movement is just beginning.

Angie Tran:

After learning the importance of data disaggregation when I arrived in DC three weeks ago, I began to reflect on my own experiences growing up in the Oklahoma City Public Schools system. It was only the past couple of weeks when everything clicked - Southeast Asian groups fall through the cracks because Asian communities are grouped into one category, obviously skewing the disparities. I am part of the Southeast Asian group. That’s why this amendment was extremely important for the AAPI community. And keep in mind, this would have impacted  only 500 of 10,000 school districts. Of course, this is not ‘all’, but this is the compromise because ideally, we’d want all school districts to disaggregate data for the AAPI community.

One of the best parts was recognizing the Senators on the floor, especially those offices we lobbied.. Unfortunately, the offices we visited – majority voted ‘nay’, even the Oklahomies (Inhofe & Lankford). No doubt I was filled with anger inside, and I was tempted to stand up in the gallery and yell, “I’m an constituent from Oklahoma, and I cannot believe that you voted against this amendment.” As much as I was tempted to do so, I didn’t do it. However, we did get Senator Kirk from Illinois to vote in favor for the amendment. My heart was beyond happy. Nonetheless, the amendment didn’t pass because we were short by three votes. See who voted for and against the amendment here. Afterwards, I had many, many emotions & questions going through me: disappointment, anger, empowerment.

What would have happened if this amendment passed?

Even though we have one more chance, what are our next steps to advocate for this bill?

Why didn’t three Senators vote? We could have had a chance.

To those who worked on data disaggregation, how are they feeling?

I helped scheduled the visits, what could have I done better?

I have been reflecting on these questions since last week, asking myself: “What could have I done better? What if I just emailed or called them one more time? What if I pushed the support out more on social media? What if I put more pressure on the Oklahoma Senators? Would it have made it difference?” This feeling is still lingering. However, my friends and the NCAPA staff & members have said this is “the closest” vote ever. The efforts that everyone has put in have made a difference. Then they would ask me, “What did you think? or “How was your experience?” At that moment, I reflect, and I tell them: this was probably one of the most valuable experiences because my role in this was important, and I learned that the preparation, the advocacy, the letters, the social media, the research, the support system, and the people do really make a difference. It may not be quick and easy as I want this amendment to pass and to give relief to those who have been working hard, but I realized that all of this cannot be done within one month, and this is a long process.

As the NCAPA education committee co-chair Monica Thammarath said: “The work we’re doing is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.” She couldn’t have said that at a better moment because this is an ongoing experience, and I only got a taste of it.