Adventure Time with KC

Today's my first day back at the internship since our retreat this past weekend. Yesterday kind of flew by, since I just napped all day and watched cartoons and helped my mom make lunch for me to bring to the office for the week. I almost forgot until this morning that the youth are coming in today, because our regular summer programming starts! So we meet with them every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The retreat was long and tiring but really great. We were slightly delayed on Friday because the van reservations were messed up. But we moved along anyway and got things started. Everyone was a little tired but in good spirits. We got started on checking in, agendas, and logistics. Then we started on workshops on systems of oppression and white supremacy, which is pretty heavy stuff. Over the course of the weekend, we learned a lot about the history of CAAAV, the history of Asian Americans in the U.S., how and why youth should organize, and the gender and sexuality workshop I ...

Through CAAAV, I found out about an opportunity to attend an organizing symposium held by another grassroots nonprofit in NYC - Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio (Movement for Justice in El Barrio). The first day of the symposium was Wednesday, and it was pretty interesting. There were about 20 or so of us, mostly interns and organizers from different non profits all over the city, including the Education from the Inside Out Coalition, Citadel Global (Spelling?), Damayan, Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance, and Children and Youth First, represented by my dear friend, Amanda Brown! We went over some basics of organizing and got on the same page as everyone else since we all come from different backgrounds and organizations. We went over things like the role of organizers, the role of facilitators, and the role of members. We learned about the politics of listening and how important it is to listen when we are doing grassroots work with local communities. The Zapatistas in Mexic...

On Friday, a couple of people from CAAAV and I volunteered as security marshals for the Trans Day of Action. I had never done security stuff before, especially not for a big rally that deals with actual police. I was pretty nervous to do the security training before heading out to the action. The training helped give me an idea of what it will be like, but the rest is still rather unclear. It sounded like it won't cause too much trouble though, so I remained optimistic and headed out to the event. It was a great sunny Friday and people were gathering on the pier for the rally, to volunteer, or just tanning on the lawn in general. As security marshal, I got a free t-shirt to wear. I was so excited to DIY design my free tshirt with the scissors they provided. I missed getting free t-shirts at Rice all the time and being able to let my creative juices flow! People complimented my t-shirt afterwards, and it made me feel great. We had further security training, after which we bega...

Since I returned home two nights ago, I've slept, ate, unpacked, and began exploring the city I call home again. In some ways, I feel like things are starting over as I settle into this winter break. I have to readjust to home life and New York City life again, I have to find something new to do this summer, and to top it off, I have to start a new academic semester with an entirely new group of strangers, traveling to new countries I have no experiences with.  I would be remiss to not mention that I intended to start things over by taking time out to study abroad for a semester. Life inside the hedges has been fulfilling, exciting, and particularly challenging. I see myself grow every semester, bigger and better as the days and weeks push me to a different level. While I'm proud of all that I've done and feel that I've used my time well, I also feel that everything I've accomplished is beginning to wear on me. Between classes, extracurricular activities, an...

At the beginning of the school year, I was contacted by a graduate student writing the Student Spotlights for the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality's website. She briefly wrote about my trip in April to the Women in the World Summit held in NYC, and requested a photo of me. I was really flattered that my experience was being honored on the center's website, so take a look at her brief summary here  http://swg.rice.edu/ho/  and feel free to look at the essay that I wrote reflecting on this experience. The link is provided at the end of the article and also here  http://swg.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/People/Student_Spotlights/ho_wiwreport.pdf I strongly encourage any one, specifically students, interested in poverty, marginalized populations, and women to check out this summit. It is held every year and a great learning opportunity to be inspired by what's already been done. In other news relate to the Center, they have a lecture coming up on unequal c...