This past week, we were treated to talks from a variety of different speakers. On Monday, we got to meet Professor Dan Schnur. Dan gave us a lot of important information about how exactly to create a message, not only for our campaign but also for ourselves. He talked about how our campaign rationale needs to be one sentence long, actually, half a sentence because the first part needs to be “I’m running for this office because …”. Instead of placing an emphasis on the specific rationale, he argued that the most important catalyst for our message is our biography - our personal life experiences, as well as our professional and political experiences. I appreciated the new framework he gave us for thinking about our own personal messaging. If the emphasis is on our experiences, it seems more important than ever that we make our future biographies more reflective of our values and the causes that are important to us. This idea was only reinforced by all the speakers we heard from on Friday.
When Dan holds court, it’s hard not to listen.
On Friday morning, we drove out to the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce and I was exposed to yet another way that someone can be impactful within their own community. We got to talk to John Bwarie, the CEO of the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce. He provided a lot of insight into the ways that a chamber of commerce can advocate for those living in a given city - from creating opportunities for networking sessions, to diligently advocating for favorable policies. Every day, I learn more and more the importance of actively participating in and constructing the wellbeing of those in my community.
Later on Friday, we heard from a few other speakers, including Professor Juily Phun and CAUSE Executive Director Nancy Yap. They told us about their experience fighting back against a redistricting campaign that would have minimized the political and legislative power of the AAPI community. I found it so interesting to learn about the bureaucratic processes that can slowly, almost unnoticeably be used in regressive ways. For example, Nancy and Juily talked about how the process for an individual to get on the redistricting commission essentially just required that someone apply for the job and assert that they could remain nonpartisan. And all it took was a few motivated or otherwise uninformed individuals on the commission to negatively impact the larger AAPI community in a significant way. Nancy and Juily’s ultimate success against the redistricting campaign strikes me as a really important example of how remaining entrenched and active in our immediate communities is a much more important step in creating progress than we may initially understand it to be.
Ultimately, I left this third week with a much broader understanding of the scope of public service - there are so many ways that we can be of use to our communities. It’s both heartening and daunting to think about. There are so many things that need to be done and so few people who want to take up this level of involvement. I really look forward to learning about other forms of involvement from all the speakers to come.