The Asian American Youth Leaders (AAYL) program began as a joint project between the South Coast Chinese Cultural Association (SCCCA) and the University of California, Irvine (UCI), specifically the Humanities Center. The pilot program was implemented at the South Coast Chinese Cultural Center in the summer of 2022 as a way to address the rising wave of anti-Asian sentiment and hate crimes across the nation. Since then, SCCCA has adopted AAYL into its family of community service programs, and the partnership is expanding to include the City of Irvine.
The objectives of AAYL are to:
- Cultivate the next generation of Asian American leaders who can contribute to the social dialogue in developing just and equitable solutions to social challenges and needs.
- Develop leadership skill sets necessary to participate in civic engagement activities and effect positive change in society.
- Broadly increase awareness within the Asian American community on the shared and disparate histories of immigration by the various Asian ethnic and cultural groups.
- Increase and promote contributions of Asian Americans in the United States.
Project Description
Join us for a paid summer research fellowship (20 hours per week for 10 weeks, June 19-August 25) to teach and mentor community high school students. Specific tasks include:
- Work with an undergraduate instructor and high school student assistant to teach a week-long youth program that exposes high school students to Asian American studies and to mentor them in leadership projects.
- Mentor youth who apply for and are accepted for City of Irvine internship programs during the summer of 2023. The students will primarily work with the City of Irvine, but the graduate mentor will check-in regularly with the students about their progress.
- Work with the South Coast Chinese Cultural Association, UCI, and the City of Irvine to monitor student progress and assess the impact of the AAYL program.
- Help organize an end of summer recognition event for youth accomplishments.
- Any UCI affiliates who will interact with AAYL student participants will need to clear background screening and receive Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA) training.
Contact
The project will be supervised by:
- Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (j.wu@uci.edu), Professor of Asian American Studies and Director of the UCI Humanities Center
- Tony Hwang (tony@uci.edu), Executive Director of Enrollment Management
- Yulan Chung (principal@sccca.org), Executive Director of South Coast Chinese Cultural Center and Principal of Irvine Chinese School