Summit Reflection
Hello! My name is Maria Angela Sarte and I am a student scholar of the APIASF AANAPISI and Wells Fargo scholarship representing California State University, Sacramento. I would first like to express my deepest gratitude for all who contributed to planning and making the 7th Annual APIASF Higher Education Summit a success. Upon my return in Sacramento, I am still in awe of the knowledge and mentorships that I’ve gained upon participating as a scholar representative in the Summit. As I reflect on my experience, I am amazed to learn of the many educators who strive to represent our AAPI community. In addition, although I learned upon AAPIs having been described as the “Invisible minorities,” I never realized how prevalent and detrimental that is not only in my state of California but also nationwide for our populations until coming to the Summit. This brings upon the ripple effects of many problems from high suicidal and ideation rates to a continued stimulus of poverty. However, attending this Summit has made me realized that it is up to our generation and collected voices to bring about a change in improving the rights of our communities.
This resonates upon my own experiences as I reflect on who I am as an API woman in America. Growing up, I felt that I was to stay subservient and quiet because of being API. I often received stereotypes from people of not only different backgrounds of me, but of my own and this just shows that we too as APIs are experiencing internalized oppression that is put from colonialism. One quote that I will especially remember is from Dr. Curtiss Takada Rooks who said, “See the ball. Hit the ball. See suffering. End suffering.” Something so straightforward yet so powerful is what we need more of within our API backgrounds. It is our call to stand a stand and remember to take action to constantly keep in reminder of helping others acknowledge the identities that we have and to educate others who don’t understand our histories. This is what I hope to do and bring back to my university of California State University, Sacramento as I want to pass on the stone into the waters of my community and create that ripple effect.
Throughout this Summit, I heard numerous discussions and felt my own sense of community with the openness of the various professionals that I’ve met who took the initiative to offer their input on how they can improve the educational rates upon our AAPI populations as well as eagerly listened to us as scholars in Higher Education. I believe that I will apply what I learned by starting my own discussions with the communities I am involved with. Sometimes within my own university that I attend to, we solely as students don’t follow up or discuss on what more we can do to improve our representations as AAPI. I am currently involved as a student and staff member of the Full Circle Project of Sacramento State which was funded by the AANAPISI grant that helps cater toward increasing the graduation and retention rates of our API student populations through hosting community forums and workshops, and I am honored and humbled to have a connection personally with my supervisors and professors who are closely knit with the AAPI community in Sacramento. However, because I have the advantage being a Full Circle Project I often feel that there are students out there who are going through obstacles that put a barrier upon finishing their educations because of the lack of awareness of the resources that are available to them. In addition, there are numbers of students who are afraid to take the initiative in making connections with professionals to help guide them. Thus, I believe that this Summit has made me much more aware of the advantage that I have as a student and now a scholar, and I plan to pass this on by offering mentorships to those who have not felt the support that I’ve felt throughout my college journey.
I plan to stay engaged with APIASF by following on social media. Technology plays such a key role in our educational systems and work forces today. Thus, it is crucial to use it the advantage that will help enhance our own professional and personal knowledge. Thank you so much to the APIASF community for inspiring me to build on bigger communities!