As I continue my time at the nonprofit EPIC, I am learning many lessons. I have weekly check-ins with my supervisor, Karla, and during this time dedicated to reflection she asked how I felt about the tasks I had during the previous week and how they went. I had taken a lot of meeting notes, and I wasn’t given much instruction or guidance on how to take these. I had never taken meeting notes, and I was not informed of what the meetings were on or the role of the people that would be attending. Once my supervisor heard about my experience, she immediately changed my responsibilities. I was able to take on assignments tailored to my interests as well as within areas that I expressed a desire to explore and learn more about. Attending meetings that I was more likely to be interested in and that had descriptions of the event and/or organization hosting them made a huge difference in my performance and attitude. I really appreciated the invitation from Karla to share my interests and dislikes, and I also learned that I should advocate for myself. If I’m having trouble on something or am not interested, I can speak my mind. The weekly check-ins are also run by and structured with a template that I have access to and I’m encouraged to run the meeting myself rather than relying on my supervisor to guide everything. I thought that was a really cool and empowering aspect.
I’m also witnessing how Zoom can bring a small dispersed community together. EPIC is unique compared to other host offices in that it does not have an office. They are remote and we connect over Gmail and Zoom. EPIC is one of the only entirely Pacific Islander community organizations/nonprofits, and I’d say the most well-known when it comes to those outside our community. Especially through and post-Covid, working online has the ability to bring so many more people together. The internet makes things much more accessible and many more of us are able to join forces and unite. Being a small minority, it can be difficult to make your voice heard, especially in a group that caters to and contains other communities. There truly is power in numbers and organization. So to have this entity that is truly our own and with the capabilities of advocating and operating on the same level as other community organizations is a truly special thing to witness.
This week at EPIC I got to attend a joint LA county and city livestream on a proposal for utilizing a state grant for immigrant communities. This was an introduction for me to how local government functions and how they connect with the community. They definitely have room for improvement given that this was more of a presentation on what they are going to do with the money rather than an open call for advisory and truly hearing from the community. They also had a really quick turnaround for their application deadline for the grant, so this did not allow much time for feedback and adjustment to the feedback. I was given an opportunity by my supervisor to get civically engaged by drafting EPIC’s answers to the livestream post-attendance survey. This was really the only route for the community’s voices to be heard and to give these offices feedback. There were questions with open-ended responses, so I got the opportunity to make suggestions and describe some of the challenges and needs of our PI community in hopes that someone from the county or city would read it and take it into account. I appreciated this opportunity from my supervisor–it allowed me to try my hand at civic engagement and use my voice and knowledge for the good of my community.
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.