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Building Our Community's Heroes

After two years of delays, we finally hosted our first in-person National Convention since the onset of the pandemic. We couldn't have done this without the hard work of this amazing team pictured here (and many not pictured), including our OCA National Center staff, OCA-Las Vegas Chapter Board Members, interns, and volunteers.

Thank you to all of our wonderful speakers, members, supporters, and attendees for showing up and engaging in ways to build our community's heroes. And thank you again to our generous sponsors: Caesars Entertainment Inc, State Farm, AT&T, Comcast, MGM Resorts, T-Mobile, Verizon, Walmart, Wells Fargo, Sodexo USA, Coca-Cola, Warner Bros. Discovery, Civic Leadership USA, and Nielsen.

All workshops were recorded and will be uploaded within the next 2 weeks for virtual attendees, and will be released for the general public in 2023.

#OCACON2022 #FutureLeaders

UPDATES

News - Spectrum Announces $12,000 Spectrum Digital Education Grant for OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates
 

SAN DIEGO, CA (July 13, 2022) – Spectrum today announced OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates (OCA) received a $12,000 Spectrum Digital Education grant for their digital divide outreach and digital literacy program, as part of its five-year, $7 million commitment to digital education in Spectrum communities across the country.
 

OCA is one of 49 nonprofit organizations that Spectrum is supporting through 2021 Spectrum Digital Education grants. Since launching Spectrum Digital Education in 2017, Spectrum has donated $7 million in cash and in-kind contributions for digital literacy programs reaching nearly 70,000 people in 20 states and Washington, D.C. More information about Spectrum Digital Education is available here.
 

Charter sponsors several philanthropic programs in addition to Spectrum Digital Education, including Spectrum Scholars, a scholarship for under-represented college juniors in financial need; Spectrum Employee Community Grants, which supports Charter employees’ local volunteer activities; and the Spectrum Community Investment Loan Fund, which supports small and minority-owned businesses whose goods and services help meet core needs in financially underserved communities within the company’s footprint. More information about Charter’s philanthropic initiatives is available here.

READ MORE HERE
POLICY CORNER

News - More Awesome Americans 20 Citizens Who Enriched America


San Francisco, California—October 1, 2022—Immedium announces the publication of the non-fiction graphic novel More Awesome Asian Americans: 20 Citizens Who Enriched America written by Phil Amara and Oliver Chin and illustrated by Juan Calle. Due to popular demand, this is the marvelous sequel to the best illustrated children’s anthology about noteworthy Asian Americans ever (ISBN 978-1-59702-150-0, published 2020)!
 

Click here to read more.

K-12 AANHPI Curriculum Project

  • FOLLOW and SHARE our Instagram where we post a majority of our content! @k12aanhpi_project
  • VISIT our Linktree and donate to our project, sign our petition, and visit our website to learn more about our project in-depth!
If you have any questions, please email OCA's Associate Manager of Policy & Advocacy Michael Nguyen.
CHAPTER SPOTLIGHT
OCA-Greater Cleveland
 
OCA Greater Cleveland is honored to be part of the host committee for the Norman Y Mineta Leadership Institute (NYMLI) training in Ohio with Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote), Asian Services In Action - ASIA, TARGET:OHIO, Asian American Coalition of Ohio, and the Ohio Chinese American Association.
OCA-Greater Cleveland
 
OCA Greater Cleveland (OCAGC) hosted a VIP premiere of our documentary film “History of Cleveland’s Chinatown - An Oral History of Chinese Americans in Cleveland” on June 25, 2022. The private premiere attended by about 90 advocates and partners was held at the Old Stone Church due to the historical significance the church played in assisting and serving early Chinese-Americans. The film resonated with the audience as an intriguing and educational look into Cleveland’s past, a rich accounting of Chinese immigration and culture, documenting the transformation of Chinatown to the expanding present-day Asiatown Cleveland, and sharing of personal stories many for the first time.
The film is a passion project of the filmmakers to tell the 150-year journey of Chinese-Americans, their struggles, their triumphs, and the American dream. Many felt the emotional impact of the film as it tells a personal, close-to-home journey. It tells the story of “us.”

The documentary is presented by OCA Greater Cleveland, with funding provided by the
Cleveland Foundation's Minority Arts & Education Fund, Margaret W. Wong & Associates, and individual donors. OCAGC V.P. of communications Johnny K. Wu is director, producer, and director of photography; OCAGC President Lisa Wong is producer, researcher, and interviewer; Media Design Imaging handled production with Nick Muhlbach as editor and camera operator. Chris Tanaka Cleveland 19 News, News Anchor, serves as the Host of the documentary. Wayne Wong, OCAGC V.P. of Administration was the MC for the premiere and served as moderator for the Q&A session.
The documentary was available to attendees of the OCA National Convention.
OCA-Wisconsin
 
OCA-Wisconsin donated money to MCHH (Milwaukee Consortium for Hmong Health).  This donation helps the Hmong community in areas of health outreach, education and navigation.  Attached is a picture of Mayhoua Moua, executive director of MCHH (pink shirt) and me (green shirt)
Every year we give out scholarships.  This year we gave out 3 scholarships at our annual picnic.  There were 2 for graduating high school seniors: OCA-WI High School Merit Scholarship and OCA-WI Community Scholarship.  The OCA Wisconsin UWM Scholarship Fund was awarded to a college senior from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM).  Attached is a picture of the scholarship recipients.
We asked people to nominate a person with a short essay on their achievements and how that person has helped the AAPI community.  We received a good response. We voted to award 2 people with the AAPI Community Hero Recognition Program.  The recipients did not have to be OCA members.  Attached are pictures of the 2 recipients: Alex Hanesakda and Soumaly Bounket 
We had our annual pignic which was attended by 100+ guests on July 23rd.  The roast pig is our centerpiece hence we call our picnic - pignic.  Attached picture are 2 of our members Tony Lam (green shirt) and Gary Chan (blue shirt) ready to cut the roast pig.
EVENTS + OPPORTUNITIES

August 17 - Free Chol Soo Lee

Join us for the riveting documentary FREE CHOL SOO LEE, screening in theaters nationwide for one night only TOMORROW. A MUBI Release. This revelatory Sundance selection (from journalists Julie Ha & Eugene Yi) chronicles the story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean-American whose wrongful murder conviction ignited an unprecedented social movement. Drawing on rich archival footage and personal accounts, the film forms an urgent testament to the power of collective action and the human cost of incarceration.

Click here to learn more and get tickets now.

September 6 - Bruce Lee Ascends: UW Permanent Installation Debuts in September


“When one has reached maturity in the art, one will have a formless form.” Bruce Lee
 

Tuesday, September 6, 2022, will mark the official debut of Bruce Lee Ascending (飛小龍), a permanent installation at the Odegaard Undergraduate Library (OUGL) at the University of Washington. The event is sponsored by the American Ethnic Studies (AES) Department, OCA Asian Pacific Advocates of Greater Seattle (OCA-GS), and the Bruce Lee Foundation, with additional support provided by UW Libraries and the UW School of Art History and Design. Click here to read more.

The celebration outside OUGL library begins at 1p. As OUGL is designated as a “UW Only” site, a valid Husky card is required for entry to view the installation; however, a limited number of non-UW tickets are available. For non-UW people interested in viewing Bruce Lee Ascending, please click here to register at or contact Dylan Hartano at [email protected].

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