#repconnections

[apiasfrepresent]

By: Ngan Nguyen, APIASF/GMS Scholar

Long time no see! This will be a short post from me, but I’m just super excited to share with you a picture that fits repConnection perfectly. I met two wonderful Gates scholars, Lynn and Austin, through my study abroad program this February. CONNECTIONS right?!

We’ve been spending quite a bit of time with each other in the past week, studying for our midterms at Yonsei University in South Korea. We obviously failed at a study session selfie, but they’re still really great! :)

[apiasfrepresent]

/present voice of the month: Bo James Hwang

We are excited to announce Bo James as our /present Voice of the Month for April 2016!  In January, Bo James submitted an awesome spoken word video!  You can view the video here.  But first, here is Bo James in his own words!

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Bo James Hwang and I am a senior at UCLA majoring in Gender Studies and minoring in Asian American Studies. In addition, I am an aspiring Emergency Room Physician so I am applying to the UCLA Emergency Medical Service (EMS) team. Moreover, I am a transfer student who attended junior college.

Where are you from? Where are you now? 

I was born in Korea and moved to California at the age of four with my father and sister. I was raised in East Hollywood which is a predominately Latina/o neighborhood. I ran away home and lived on the streets of Hollywood for about eight months after experiencing physical and sexual violence. I eventually went back home after almost being sold as a child sex slave in Westwood which is where I attend school today. It is quite surreal to be attending University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) because of my experience with the pimp and because I struggled academically. It was mainly due to the model minority myth which negatively impacted my self-esteem about my ability to succeed. I remember making a conscious effort to fail my exams just to show that I was “different” from other high achieving Asians. Today, I care less about what others think about me and do my very best to give it my 110% in every aspect of my life. I have a 3.5 GPA at UCLA! I really love studying and learning. I am a total nerd. 8]

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

I represent multifaceted communities (i.e. Christian, feminist, Korean American, and LGBT). But all those identities are merely parts of me because I also love to lift weights, read, play basketball, and clean (I like to clean because it is a form of self-love and self-care for me). Moreover, I am a Korean who is a super ally for the Latina/o communities. I represent those communities by the community work that I do. I host workshops on writing personal statements and I also do a lot of spoken word and speeches about my oral history as a means to humanize trans folks.

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

My most significant event of my life was this quarter was when I looked at my class schedule and I actually love all my classes. I am starting on my Asian American Studies minor and I love it so much! This quarter is great because I am pursuing so much more stuff that I wanted to do such as presenting my honors research at a research conference, backpacking, starting a non-profit, and making a documentary about love and student activism.

What superhero power would you want? And why? 

I want to have the ability to fly because traveling cost a lot of money and I can save so much money!

[apiasfrepresent]

Code Switching

By Alexis Knaub, APIASF/GMS Scholar

While I always try to maintain being “me”, for better or worse, I do change how I discuss certain topics or the language I use depending on the folks present.

Being entrenched in academia and not being raised in that kind of environment, there is a bit of code switching going on for me. I’m very lucky to work with fantastic folks, past and present, but there is a difference in how I discuss certain topics or just interact with folks at work versus my friends. The best examples I can think of are race, gender, and socioeconomic class (and all the intersections of those identities). There are people with whom I feel perfectly comfortable being candid (and vice versa) and people with whom I feel I have to hold back. Those with whom I can be candid are not necessarily those who agree with me, but they can understand the anger and frustration; those who get a restrained version get it because I think the message gets lost in them feeling bad or trying to make me feel better, rather than mobilizing to do something or reconsider their stance.

Even then, I think the conversations, the most nuanced and walking-on-eggshells worded statements, the message is lost. Because of that, I’m not sure how I feel about the extra effort. I recognize it’s needed in the professional workplace (gotta pay my bills). The ideal would be that people would be reflective and figure out how to do better. Go beyond how they feel, think about why what they did was problematic and messy. With that said, you can’t control what others do or how they feel so I feel like continuing to maintain that balance is important in many situations.

Also, with that said, I feel incredibly lucky and so grateful for those in my life with whom I can let my hair down. Tapping into that community is so important.

[apiasfrepresent]

eventually everything connects

It’s only fitting to celebrate the third anniversary of re/present by closing out a month of incredible posts about how we connect with each other and our communities of choice. This virtual space was envisioned as a way for our diverse community of Scholars to share their lived experiences of what it means to be an AANHPI Scholar and leader and strengthening our community’s collective narrative.  Being a part of the AAPI community shapes our identities in so many ways. The legacies of our predecessors are evident in the languages we speak, the foods we love, and the issues dear to our hearts.

Join us next month as we #repAAPIHM in celebration of Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage month!  As we share our experiences, let’s be sure to reflect on the milestones in our communities that paved the way for us to be today’s leaders.

[apiasfrepresent]

intersecting communities

We all have multi-faceted identities that make us part of different communities - based around gender, geography, profession, ethnic or racial identity, faith, age, and sexual orientation, just to name a few. Some of these communities might intersect in your life, and some might be kept compartmentalized because it is natural to show different sides of yourself to different audiences. Have you ever recognized a shift in your personality or behavior depending on the community you inhabit at the moment? Is this something you accept or want to change?

[apiasfrepresent]

everybody needs a champion

As strong leaders, we know when to pitch in and offer support to others even if their needs do not match our own. Your cause may be for something conceptual, like voting rights, or in support of a marginalized friend, how did your connection develop into a call to action?  What or whom do you stand up for, and why?

[apiasfrepresent]

Reinforcing passion and purpose at the APhA Conference

By Meleane Moala, APIASF Scholar

During my spring break I had the privilege of attending the American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. I did not really know what to expect at the convention, but I was excited to be at an actual healthcare convention filled with some of the country’s leading healthcare professionals. I learned a lot about the body and the application of different pharmaceuticals, but I also got to learn about different people and their aspirations and accomplishments. There were exhibitors that talked to me for nearly an hour because they were so passionate about their products, not just trying to sell them.  There were pharmacists in the same room as I was who were handpicked to go to Liberia to work with Ebola patients for months. There were individuals who have been out of school for decades, but their passion for their work and to help people is still so potent.

Being surrounded by so many passionate healthcare professionals has encouraged me immensely to continue on with my dreams of becoming a medical missionary. Many of the speakers at the convention spoke about how difficult school can be, but to never give up because being in the field, and making an actual difference, are worth the entire struggle. It is always comforting to hear things like that from an actual healthcare professional because they understand what it is like to take rigorous courses, while maintaining jobs and/or social lives, and persevere. 

I am deeply grateful for being granted the opportunity to attend the American Pharmacists Association convention. It really is a humbling experience knowing that you are in the same room as some of the top healthcare professionals in the country, and even the world. At times it is even intimidating being around individuals who are so passionate and intelligent. I hope that the United Health Foundation continues to offer their scholars the opportunity to go to professional conferences. Attending this conference helped me solidify my strong desire to one day become a medical missionary. 

I strongly recommend future scholars to attend a professional conference. It is not everyday that scholars get to be surrounded by ambitious current and future healthcare leaders. From hearing their accomplishments and aspirations to watching them present on what they are so passionate about, it is all quite mesmerizing.

I would like to thank the United Health Foundation for allowing me to attend such an amazing conference. I learned a lot about what is going on in the pharmacy world, but more importantly, I met people who inspired me to the extent that I learned more about who I am, and who I want to become.​

[apiasfrepresent]

INTERCONNECTEDNESS

By Samuel Fok, APIASF/GMS Scholar

In my own journey in my academic career as well as in my professional dealings, a strong sense of interconnectedness and an understanding of the ways that different worlds intersect has been a consistent theme.  The world of technology and scientific endeavors crosses meaningful boundaries not only through scientific disciplines, but also in applications involving human interaction. My own interest in computer science and technology, for example, now crosses into applications through a wide variety of different fields, many of which seem at first glance to be entirely unrelated. 

This is just one of many examples I have noticed in my own life and career which show commonalities between areas that seem superficially distant to one another.  Furthermore, I am able to put this sense of interconnectedness into practice in my interests relating to environmental design, green technology, and green space engineering.  Knowing how people work together in an increasingly technological world is not only a consequence of the academic study of globalization – it is the result of compassion through understanding a deeper sense of how we are all alike.  Bringing people together for diverse reasons can always present challenges to a student or a leader– knowing how and why people share interests, values and processes can make these tasks significantly easier.