Reflections from the ED and Cohort

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Dear advocate,

I think summer is one of the most beautiful seasons of the year. (As a Houstonian in DC, I don’t mean the weather.)

Summer is beautiful to me because it is the season of internships, including the OCA National Summer Internship. After a nearly five month process, which included two rounds of application reads and a single round of Zoom interviews, thirteen Asian American students from across the country arrived in Washington, D.C. ([link removed]) Many had never been to Capitol City and, for some, this was their first exposure to a big city as well. Representing nine ethnicities, ten states in four U.S. regions, various religious and spiritual backgrounds, a spectrum of gender identities, and many other identities, these young leaders would spend the next ten weeks expanding each others’ horizons and forming unique friendships.

Perhaps you’ve had the privilege of participating in an internship program before. If so, you may understand just how critical internships are in nurturing interpersonal relationships and interpersonal development. If you haven’t had an internship before, it’s an opportunity to sharpen hard skills but also pick up relevant and necessary soft skills for personal and professional leadership.

The kind of growth and positive change that OCA interns experience during their ten weeks in our program never ceases to amaze me, and is a continued source of inspiration for me. I’m not biased because I am a former OCA-Greater Houston chapter intern. I truly believe that the OCA National Summer Internship is one of the most transformative programs in the country for students looking to explore their AAPI identity, gain clarity on their career path, or to just find chosen family.

One of the most frequently asked questions by intern candidates to staff during the Zoom interview round was, “What keeps you going? What inspires you to continue working at OCA?”

For our answer, I encourage you to watch (at least the first 60 seconds) the recap video below:
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2022 OCA Summer Intern Recap Video by Molly Moran (10min)
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In one of our best internship recap videos yet, produced by the OCA National Communications Intern Molly Moran, you hopefully see just how beautiful this summer has been.

First, I want to thank our Manager of Programs, Kent Tong, for his outstanding dedication to our youth leaders and the OCA Internship program. His leadership and selflessness provides an incredible foundation for the intern cohort to lean upon as they navigate new experiences and life changes.

Second, I want to thank the Coca-Cola Foundation, the Comcast Foundation, the Mary Ann & Paul C. Yu Internship Fund, the Ken & Ashley Lee Foundation, Stan Lou, and individual donors like you for your continued support of the next generation of AAPI leaders.

And last, but not least, I want to wish all of our interns the best of luck as they start school again or new chapters of their lives. We’ll see you again, here in DC or wherever you may be in the future.

Sincerely,

Thu Nguyen
Executive Director, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates
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