Intern Olivia Anderson's slide for her recent lifeline presentation for her host office.
This week I started my host office placement position with the non-profit Empowering Pacific Islander Communities, or EPIC for short. With three days of the work week being allotted to host office placement, this will be the majority of my internship. I am very pleased with this precisely because I have yearned for and dreamt of the day I would get the opportunity to be a part of an organization that serves my community. Ever since I began to receive the question of what I want to do for a career and in the future more seriously and regularly, I envisioned and responded with “helping my community,” “community work,” or “nonprofit.”
My onboarding was led by two other staff, Isa and Jada–both of whom are Chamoru. They shared the core values and goals of EPIC, all of which are titled in a different Pasifika language. They have staff covering advocacy and policy at local, state, and nationwide levels as well, headed by their staff in D.C. I was surprised but also very pleased to hear that EPIC organizes and advocates on the national level. I was introduced to the organization and the work environment this week, which is entirely remote, and I really appreciated how they structured meetings and interactions. The team includes land acknowledgements, cultural background, pronouns, and pronunciation of names in their introductions, Zoom backgrounds, and email signatures. I truly appreciate how culturally and socially aware and progressive they are. EPIC’s team is extremely small, but composed entirely of women and nonbinary folks. My shared identity with this group made me feel at ease and a lot more comfortable than I would normally be with strangers and a new work environment. The knowledge and cultural competence that community holds greatly demonstrates the importance of representation. Representation can mean the difference between adequate advocacy and uninformed intentions. Our community is aware of our needs and concerns and how to interact amongst ourselves.
I also got a glimpse of the nonprofit world this week and how small of a scale some community nonprofits are judging from the size of the EPIC team. Funding is also a limitation with some projects and capacities. For instance, there is a survey geared toward PI’s in Sacramento with the incentive being a $50 gift card for participants. However, there is limited capacity because there are only enough funds for around 60 participants at the most. EPIC is also funded by and falls under a company called Community Partners. Upon some quick research, I found that while this organization offers them employee benefit plans and funding, this also means that EPIC must share a portion of their funds raised and they are also legally a part of this larger organization. I feel this situation exemplifies the hardships and complexities of the nonprofit sector.
The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not reflect the views or positions of CAUSE or the CAUSE network.
Written by Olivia Diaz Anderson, Leadership Academy 2023 Intern.
The CAUSE Leadership Academy (CLA) for students is a nine-week, paid, internship program that prepares college undergraduates to lead and advocate for the Asian Pacific Islander community on their campuses and beyond.