#repservice

Join us as we #repService at APIASF this January.  Submit a blog post to let the community know how you act to make the world a better place.

january 7/ words to live by Words can carry a lot of meaning and motivate us to do better for ourselves, family or community. What’s your favorite quote or saying that has inspired you to serve others?

january 10/ what does service mean to you?  Service can take many forms. For some service can be a monetary or goods donation to an organization you support. For others it can be donating your time for a community service project. At APIASF, we encourage you to share what you are doing for others and the impact of your efforts. What does service look like to you? What types of activities have you participated in to make an impact in the community?

january 12/ serve on MLK Day 2015  

The 2017 MLK Day of Service is almost here – and Americans across the country are rolling up their sleeves in service. Are you ready to get out and serve? Making time to volunteer for the 2017 MLK Day of Service is a great way to engage with your community while honoring the legacy of Dr. King. Whether you plan on grabbing a paintbrush, mentoring a young person or helping to clean up a public space in the next few days, know that what you do makes a world of difference. Still looking for a way to participate? Sign up to volunteer with a project in your area.

january 17/ where did you serve?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’” By making service a part of our daily lives, we can help realize Dr. King’s dream and build a stronger, more vibrant America. Where did you serve on MLK Day? How did you honor the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?

january 19/ character counts 

By serving others, we better learn the needs that we all have individually and as a community. We learn the true meaning of loving your neighbor, respecting those around you, and we also learn a great deal about discipline and putting in sometimes hard work when no one is looking. How does service contribute to character building, and how has serving your community changed you?

january 24/ ways to serve 

There are many ways that one can serve. Serving doesn’t always have to be done in the traditional way of fighting for a cause that’s close to you, or volunteering at your favorite non-profit organization. Service can be helping members of your family when they are in need, or taking the time to help out a neighbor who can’t do their own grocery shopping. We believe that a true service is done in even the smallest of good deeds. How has service informed your understanding of the community around you?

january 26/ global citizenship & global awareness 

What has been the most significant event of your life thus far? We are excited to introduce APIASF/AANAPISI Scholar Maria Angela Sarte as our Present Voice of the Month for January 2017.  As we will focus on service this month, Maria Angela was the perfect Scholar to represent!  Here is Maria Angela in her own words:

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Maria Angela Sarte, and I am a 4th year student at California State University, Sacramento. I am a Pilipina American majoring in Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Asian American Studies. I am passionate about learning and teaching others what I have learned. I believe that there’s only so much that we can do with our thoughts and knowledge, so I live by sharing them with others in hopes of being inspired and inspiring as well. I am an advocate for those that are voiceless as I believe that everyone has the right to be heard. With my degree, I see a tremendous amount of potential as Ethnic Studies has only recently been implemented here in our Sacramento County for the K-12 public school education systems. I can only imagine it expanding nationwide, where I am determined to serve as an advocate to expose Ethnic Studies to other communities. I plan to become an educator with the desire of teaching students to discover the potential they have in themselves and to believe they are capable of achieving their goals with the actions of grit, love, and determination.

Where are you from? Where are you now?

I was born in South Sacramento, California where I spent my childhood days outdoors on bike trails adventuring alongside my father, brother, and sisters, and attending daily masses in prayer with my mother. My adolescent years here have exposed me to the diversity that Sacramento entails and I’ve only noticed this privilege now in my present-day. At age 21, I have become aware that this diversity that we have is not as prevalent in other counties, states, and even nations. Therefore, as a student studying at California State University, Sacramento and the knowledge that I learned is only a journey starting for me to see what else I can do in helping my own communities and communities different from mine.

Who or what do you re/present? And how?

I represent those communities that feel unheard, that feel trapped, and that have the potential to grow. As a little girl, I struggled with extreme low-self esteem and confidence issues. However, it only took one person to believe that I can all do things if I have that in my faith in myself. Unfortunately, around the world, I’ve discovered that sometimes people out there don’t have that one person to show them that there is so many things that they can do to make themselves out of something, even when they feel they cannot. I represent those that weren’t able to get the education that I have as I want to be the voice in ensuring that education is a possibility. I desire to fulfill the role in being that gateway of fostering a sense of belonging, a sense of comfort, and a sense of identity through achieving my goal of becoming an educator myself, as well as proceeding to work in Education Administration to ensure that the quality of education only strengthens for our future generations.

What has been the most significant event of your life thus far?

The most significant event of my life occurred during my stay in Hong Kong my summer of 2015 where I was granted sponsorship from the president of my university and my professor to attend a Service-Learning Conference along with other students and educators. I served as a panelist in presenting the importance of Ethnic Studies in our communities. With this being my first time traveling international as an adult and without my family, I was able to see Filipinos all over Central District, Hong Kong where I eventually learned that all of them serve as domestic workers in hopes of providing for their families back home. There were so many to count that spent time in this location every Sunday on their days off sitting on the ground with their banigs, or also known as Asian picnic mats. I couldn’t help but cry afterwards because of how overwhelmed I was in discovering that although we come from the same motherland, our lives are very different. They remind me of humility and perseverance as they sacrificed so much just to give what they can to their loved ones. Every time I study, I now think of these women as I hope that they continue to have the strength that pushed them this far in their lives. I am also reminded of the blessings that I have with having access to education, and the drive that is in me to pass this on in giving opportunity to those that don’t.

What superhero power would you want? And why?

By: Rebekah Loving, APIASF Scholar

Raindrops formed an opaque mosaic on my eyeglasses as I ran through the sheets of sweet, acidic Hamakua rain to my house, sitting on a slope of Maunakea. One step in front of me was all I could see, but, fortunately, my eyes were not my only vision. In my community, there were always many eyes watching over me. Despite my community being as far removed from homogeneous as honey is distant from poi, the bland, slightly sour ground taro root that was a staple of the ancient Hawaiians’ diet and is still widely eaten, we looked after one another, like families in a siege bound together through adversity. I am Rebekah Loving, recipient of the AANAPISI-APIASF scholarship in the Spring of 2016 and a rising sophomore at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. As a young woman of Native Hawaiian and Japanese descent with a multitude of other heritages, including African American, Puerto Rican, and Swedish, to name just a few, I’ve never per se fit into an ethnic community. I’m an oddball, but my community didn’t care.

When I began attending the University, I had two main goals in mind. One: I must take every opportunity to improve myself both intellectually and as a person. Two: I must be an encouragement to those less blessed than me through tutoring, mentoring, encouraging, and inspiring, but most importantly through loving. With these objectives in mind, I began to actively engage with my fellow students, which made me realize that I desired to build a community, not based on ethnicity or academic excellence, but founded on giving care and support. I wanted to create a community, as my family had in the neighbourhood I grew up in–one that managed to overlook differences and create an environment for growth and collaboration. My first goal has been surprisingly successful considering this year’s outcomes. I have collaborated on a paper published in the European Journal of Physics and will be participating in the Summer Program in Biostatistics and Computational Biology in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). My second goal is much more difficult to quantify success in, but examination showed me that the community is maturing.

By: Jean Abac, APIASF Scholar

Celebrating the accomplishment from the recent sixteen weeks brought a newer light to the upcoming adventures ahead. I had no idea how challenging nursing school could possibly be until I completed this past semester’s requirements ending at 10:59 AM after hitting the “Submit” button for our electronic Final Exam this morning.

I will never forget how one of my professors always told my classmates and I, “nursing school is supposed to be hard, you’re dealing with people’s lives.”

By: Anonymous

Being different was not an easy concept for me to grasp upon recalling my memories of high school and early adulthood. Whether it’s the color of my clothing; the way I parted my hair; the way I walked; the way I spoke tinged with an accent of mother-tongue’s dialect; the way I ate with a fork and a spoon simultaneously during nutrition and lunch; my separation from the word “cool” since I only knew it used for the temperature; or the way certain words spoken to me seem to just fly over my head as I feared the truth of my foreign ears not understanding what classmates just said; being different at the time felt like a disconnect, a dead end, a death of the possibility of being a part of something greater and larger than myself.

Emigrating from the Philippines at fifteen years old, I was horrified with the stigma I was bestowed upon in high school labeled with a capital F-O-B; FOB, pronounced /fɑːb/; or fresh off the boat. I despised this term. I felt so ashamed carrying it with me every day, day in and day out. From the moment I leave the doorsteps of our home, to my daily walks to the bus stop, to my bus rides filled with the reminder of how I am different as I saw everyone carrying other things with them (I was born here, I am an American citizen, I am part of a community, I am an individual thinking freely on my own), and up to my first seatings in first period synchronized to the bell ringing cringing my stomach, I felt burdened by this dilemma of being different as a resident of my new home country.

Fast-forward nine years later, after going through a great deal of assimilation and learning, I now find myself so grateful for being different. Knowing two languages is better than one. I am no longer limited to my choice of utensils—chopsticks, knives and forks, handle-less miso soup bowls, forks alone, spoons alone, hands—what a variety! Mother-tongue’s accent can be hidden or manifest—now it is a matter of “to speak or not to speak” with it. Saying “cool” has never been so liberating whether pertaining to the weather or trying to be nonchalant. And whether I catch what the speaker just said or not, I acquainted myself and became friends with honesty as I can now communicate: “I’m sorry. I did not quite get that. May I ask for you to repeat what you just said?” All the time I spent mourning a hypothetical death from feeling disconnected was remedied by simply learning that adaptation is all about learning. Hard work was also necessary in knowing the various tools (such as language) that one may use in being her own person in a new environment.

By Bo Hwang, APIASF Scholar

By Jessica Ellis, APIASF Scholar

Hey guys, it’s Jessica here! I’m a recent 2015 award winner of an APIASF scholarship! It’s super exciting. I’ll be attending the University of Idaho this year and I actually report there in exactly three weeks! The nerves are definitely starting to kick in.

Senior year was pretty crazy for me. I ran track, played soccer, participated in clubs and church, and still found time to work hard in school and do scholarships. I’m sure all of you know the feeling you get after graduation where you just want to sleep for two weeks straight. Although that would’ve been nice, unfortunately it wasn’t going to happen.