Adventure Time with KC

It's been a week or so since I started working on the patriarchy workshop, and I can feel myself getting lost in it. Are the materials interesting? Am I involving the youth enough in this segment? Is this too complex? How can I make it more interactive? Is this going to take too long? A few days ago, my host mom from Nepal, the amazing badass woman who has taken care of refugees and me and my classmate, who hosts a radio talk show about sex and the raunchy things, shared a blog post from her friend, Jemima, who is an amazing country coordinator, an insightful and heartwarming woman. I first read Jemima's writings when the avalanche happened on Mt. Everest, an unfortunate event that hit close to home for her since she is a Sherpa. Jemima's writings were a breath of fresh air, full of sensory details but not in an overdone way, full of dignity and conviction but not in a bitter way that sours the reading experience. This time, Jemima wrote about what it is like to live ...

After interviews are over, the AYA team is in full gear to develop workshops and flesh out the summer program's schedule. We've had more meetings since then to make sure we are on track and to plan out what the summer looks like. We had to really think to fit different workshops and skills trainings in as well as the extra activities we want to do. It's going to be a packed summer! It's not finalized yet since the youth leaders will get to look at it and give feedback as well. Watch out summer, we are doing a lot every time we meet! I'm responsible for developing four workshops, and I'm pretty excited about them. One is on ableism and the other is on environmental justice. These two are issues that I do not know a lot about but I'm interested in and I think they're issues that deserve to be on the table. Researching for curriculum development materials has definitely taught me a lot about these topics, though. My favorite workshop and biggest priorit...

Things are moving along! We are getting closer one step at a time to the beginning of AYA's summer program. On Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday, I helped with the interviews to find a great bunch of youth for the summer. There was a learning curve and we improved along the way. Interviews are always so exciting. I'm irrationally excited about group interviews because it feels great to hold so much power in my hands and to make people do whatever you want. I am really proud of the three interviewers who are current youths in AYA. They are confident, helpful, team players through and through and very thoughtful about what they value. They are fair in their judgments and opinions after every round of interview, and they are delightful to work with. We basically spent all of Saturday and Sunday doing interviews. The interviewees are very unique and had great things to share. Their personalities are probably somewhat less apparent due to the time constraints and the nerve-wrecking ...

It’s been a week since I first started at CAAAV! I feel like I’m slowing getting the hang of things as days go by. On Friday I went to Vladeck public housing nearby Chinatown to gauge the amount of Asian American tenants there and John and I sure learned a lot. Social conditions there go beyond just housing, but also how the Asian tenants are organized. Apparently there are social workers that work with Asian tenants there, and they can be a great influence or a nuisance. For the most part, I have been working on AYA (Asian Youth in Action) stuff, including helping with planning the summer schedule, developing curriculum for the various political education workshops, and more pressingly, working with youth leaders on the group interview structure for this summer’s AYA youth. The interviews are tomorrow and Sunday, and I am super excited. I enjoyed working with the three girls who came in for long hours to work out how they want the group interview to go. I think it is incredible that...

Today was my first day at CAAAV! I arrived on time at 10:30am for the intern orientation, despite the fact that it was raining pretty hard this morning. Vivian, the project manager, and Anj, the lead organizer, led the orientation for me and John, and the other intern, Jeff, sat in since he started at CAAAV a few months ago already. The work environment is very casual and caring. I really like that when we introduce ourselves, we have to say not only our name but also our preferred gender pronouns. A lot of groups fight for social justice but neglect justice and sensitivity for those who do not fit in conventional gender identities. So it made me feel comfortable knowing that I am interning at an organization that truly seeks to make space for everyone regardless of race, class, gender, or sexuality. Besides introductions to all the staff and learning about the office space and logistics, we also had to talk about what we want out of this internship, what we bring to it, and what...