|
July 2020
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Hello AdvOCAtes,
Thank you for supporting the work we do. Right now, it is a pivotal moment in our country to address, rebuild, and reimagine true racial equity and justice in light of the cases of police brutality and tensions from the past few months. At OCA, we are engaging in these conversations with our community partners, fellow organizations, and members like you. OCA is committed to racial equity and justice, and we will be working with organizations and leaders in the Black community on how we can be effective allies and advocates.
We hope you and your families are safe and healthy during the global COVID-19 pandemic. We have some updates and events to share with you below. As a reminder, the OCA Summit: Resilient Communities will take place this month from July 29 to August 2. We hope to see you there!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Meet our 2020 OCA Summer Interns!
The 2020 OCA Summer Internship Program officially began last month on June 8th!
This ten-week internship is one of OCA National's signature student leadership development programs in which Asian American and Pacific Islander college students from around the country are placed at various nonprofits, federal agencies, congressional offices, and other organizations for a full-time internship. Interns meet once a week every Friday for Sama Sama sessions (Tagalog for "together"), in which they participate in workshops, presentations, and group discussions on issues pertaining to AAPIs. Though the internship is completely virtual this summer, we are still excited to be able to host. Interns also participate in Advocacy Day, in which they meet with elected officials on The Hill to advocate for AAPI causes.
Learn more about our 2020 Internship Cohort here!
|
|
|
Deadline Extended for Spectrum Scholars
The deadline to apply to become a Spectrum Scholar has been extended to Sunday, July 12, 2020 at 11:59 PM PST. Spectrum Scholars awards qualified rising college juniors with financial need $20,000 in scholarships over their junior and senior year. Selected Scholars will participate in a structured, two-year program focusing on professional development and a potential career at Charter Communications Inc. Students will also receive a professional career mentor and opportunity to explore an internship at Charter. Learn more and apply here.
|
|
|
Save the Date! OCA Summit: Resilient Communities
In place of convention, OCA will be hosting the OCA Summit: Resilient Communities on July 29 - August 2. The event is free but registration is required. For more information and to RSVP please visit bit.ly/ocasummit. |
|
|
|
New! OCA-UPS Gold Mountain Scholarship for Rising College Seniors
The OCA-UPS Gold Mountain Scholarship for Rising College Seniors awards $2,500 to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) college students who are rising seniors. In order to be eligible students must identify as AAPI, be enrolled as an undergraduate student, starting their senior year during the Fall 2020 term, and attend our upcoming virtual event OCA Summit: Resilient Communities. The deadline to apply is Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 11:59 PM PST. Learn more about this scholarship here. |
|
|
|
SAVE THE DATE: Dismantling Ant-Blackness in the AAPI Community Workshop
OCA is holding a virtual workshop titled “Dismantling Anti-Blackness in the AAPI Community” on July 6th at 7 PM EST/4 PM PST. The workshop is open to OCA members and the general public. In this workshop, we will be interrogating how the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community has perpetuated anti-Blackness through analyzing critical examples in history. In light of current events, we will then move the conversation towards exploring ways in which our community can work to rebuild and strengthen solidarity with the Black community, specifically in the context of police brutality. We will delve into a quick history of police in America, unpack calls for police reform by grassroots Black organizers, and ways in which our community can further the mission of police reform at the local and national level. Register for this workshop by clicking this link. |
|
|
|
Womxn's Conference: Elevate the sHERO in You!
Monday, July 13 and Friday July 17, OCA and The Center for Asian Pacific American Women (CAPAW) will be hosting the AAPI Womxn’s Conference. Join us for a week full of discussions and workshops on the current state of AAPI womxn in the workforce, self care, financial literacy, professional coaching, and more! Registration is free for OCA and CAPAW members, with at-will donations. |
|
Save the Date: Women Moving our Country Forward
OCA will be co-hosting an event with ALLvanza and MMTC focusing on Women in Tech! The event will take place on July 14 at 4 PM EST. Here is the link to our Eventbrite; we hope to see you there!
|
|
Here's what our Policy team worked on in June:
- Brought in a new Policy intern, Kevin Quach.
- Created a petition to Congressional legislators to oppose President Trump’s ban of certain Chinese STEM students based on the SECURE CAMPUS Act, which could be used to ban Chinese students more broadly.
- Held a webinar with University of Indiana AAPI students to talk about anti-Asian sentiments and the rise of hate crimes/incidents during the COVID-19 crisis.
- Drafted legislation to establish a federal anti-Asian hate crimes task force, and submitted it to the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) to review for its possible introduction.
- Drafted an OCA resolution for supporting our Black allies and implementing police reforms, to be introduced at the next National Board Meeting.
|
|
|
OCA COVID-19 Toolkit & Website
Our Civil Rights Fellow, Matthew Nguyen-Ngo, worked tirelessly to create our much-anticipated COVID-19 resource toolkit. We have made slight updates to the toolkit as of June.
We also have a special landing page for COVID-19 resources for advocates and community members on our website. We will be updating this list of resources, media, corporate responses, and more. The website is https.://www.ocanational.org/oca-covid19-home
|
|
|
OCA National Public Events Calendar
The OCA National Public Events calendar is where we post OCA National and OCA Chapter events. You can check out events happening virtually near you! The link is here: bit.ly/ocaevents.
 |
|
|
If you, your family members, someone you know, or community members have experienced xenophobia, discrimination, or harassment (in light of COVID-19), please report the incident using our hate crime reporting tool at aapihatecrimes.org.
|
|
|
|
|
|
