Scholarship Awardees

2024 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

The APIQWTC Scholarship Committee is proud to announce the 2024 Scholarship Recipients:

Brittany Ladion-Lucero, Michelle Vong, Veronica Takenaka, & Zibanur Turfan

(read more about the awardees below!)

✨🎊 APIQWTC & Terri Higa Memorial Scholarship Celebration 2024 🎊✨

Thanks for joining us for an in-person celebration & fundraising party

When: Saturday, August 3, 2024 from 4:00-6:00 PM

Where: Oakland Bloom, 528 8th St, Oakland, 94607 (7 min walk from 12th St Bart)
Light appetizers and drinks will be served (GF, VG options available)

Accessibility: ADA accessible. Outdoor dining option available; we highly encourage everyone to be masked while indoors if you are not eating or drinking. Please stay home if you are sick!

Donate: To continue our efforts to sustain the APIQWTC scholarship, please consider donating!

⭐ About our Award Winners ⭐

Brittany Ladion-Lucero (she/her) is a queer, second-generation Filipino-American born and raised in Stockton, CA. Starting in the summer of 2023, she returned to school to pursue an A.S. in Automotive Technology at Skyline College. She also interns at a Hybrid and EV specialist shop located in San Francisco, CA. Besides her internship and studies, she helps the on-campus lab technician with the school’s fleet vehicles and is working towards becoming an ASE (the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence) Master Certified Technician. In the future, she hopes to either work in public transportation or open up an auto repair and coffee shop. She is extremely grateful and honored to be the first recipient of the Terri Higa Memorial Scholarship.

Michelle Vong (she/her) is an incoming freshman at Yale University majoring in Ethics, Politics, and Economics, with a potential minor in English. Being raised in the Bay Area, Michelle has immersed herself in diverse communities and narratives that have profoundly influenced her work as the writer and artist she is today. As the 2023 Vice Oakland Youth Poet Laureate, Michelle has actively engaged in writing workshops, book giveaways, and open mic events tailored for Bay Area youth, channeling her queer and Asian-American voice through her poetry. Off-stage, she serves as the prop master and theater technician for her school’s theater program that primarily serves queer youth. In the future, Michelle aims to integrate her interests in storytelling and economics to explore the legal and technical aspects of entertainment and media. Michelle plans to attend law school after her undergraduate studies, leveraging her advocacy skills to effect systemic change, particularly in immigrant communities. Whether as a lawyer, professor, journalist, novelist, or legal advocate, she remains committed to amplifying underrepresented voices and advocating for equity, rooted in her dedication to community engagement and social justice.

Veronica Takenaka (she/her) is a transgender, fourth generation Japanese American woman from Salt Lake City, Utah. She is excited to be going to the University of Utah this fall, going in Undeclared. Some of her favorite highlights have been her work for the community as drag persona “Aiko Thee Empress”, as well as being the President of the Women’s Alliance Club and Queer History Club at her school. She is also the Head Manager of West Winds, the literary arts club at her school. This goes alongside her work as an activist, inspiring countless walkouts and protests in her local community. Some of her proudest achievements of her career have been as the main cohost of Youth Utah Pride in 2023, as well as being featured in the Teen Vogue article, “This Teen Activist Is Taking on Anti-Trans Laws in Utah.” She is hoping to work towards becoming a Clinical Therapist and help queer youth find community and comfort, and to work towards better mental health for all. She also hopes to continue her work as an activist, and continue to spread her message to the world.

Zibanur Turfan (she/her) is a queer, first-generation Uyghur-American student attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), College of Arts and Sciences in August as a first-year student. During her senior year of high school, Zibanur dedicated her capstone project to spreading awareness of the Uyghur genocide. Uyghurs are the ingenious people of Xinjiang, China, which was forcibly annexed in 1955. Things grew worse in 2013 as they began sending Uyghurs to concentration camps, put them through forced labor, and even massacred them in organ farms. She wrote a paper on her research and spoke to full-time activists such as Jewher Ilham and Rushan Abbas and received advice. She then reached out to her school to ensure they weren’t using any products linked to Uyghur forced labor. She was also invited to present her research at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). Although she is new to the world of activism, this entire experience has opened a door for Zibanur; it proved that anyone could initiate action and make concrete change. With this hope, she looks forward to doing more activism work from college and onward.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2023 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

The APIQWTC Scholarship Committee is proud to announce the 2023 Scholarship Recipients:

Carolyn Lau and Jacqueline Pham

Please join us at the first in-person banquet since 2019 to celebrate our awardees on April 15, 2023 @ 5PM in Oakland! (tickets here)

Donate: To continue our efforts to sustain the APIQWTC scholarship, please consider donating!

Carolyn Lau (they/she) is a queer, fourth-generation Chinese American born and raised in Queens, New York. They will graduate in May from Columbia University with an MA in American Studies. Carolyn currently works at Wing on Wo & Co., the oldest operating store in New York’s Chinatown selling porcelain and cultural goods. They also assist with operations at the W.O.W. Project, a QTPOC-led community initiative that uses art and activism to protect Chinatown’s creative culture and history from gentrification and rapid displacement. They also teach introductory classes to American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Barnard and Columbia College. In the fall, they will begin their PhD program in American Studies at Brown University. Carolyn’s research interests are Asian American Studies, Comparative Ethnic Studies, and urban politics. They look forward to delving deeper into these topics at Brown, and to continue supporting the W.O.W. Project.

Jacqueline Pham (they/she) is a second generation nonbinary Vietnamese-American entering UCSD as a Sociology major. Discovering their passion for social justice at a rally in the 8th grade, Jacqueline has dedicated their high school career to fighting for an increasingly equitable, liberated world for all communities. Through co-founding a coalition organizing around sexual violence on campus, they have supported survivors with resources, championed inclusive, comprehensive sexual education, and spotlighted queer voices in the movement. As a member of GSA’s TRUTH Council, they worked to amplify transgender youth issues by creating a reproductive justice zine and facilitating workshops for GSA Day 4 Gender Justice. Whether organizing around racial justice or sexual violence, Jacqueline has consistently worked to highlight queer perspectives — advocating for intersectionality as a means to creating truly meaningful movements. In pursuing higher education, Jacqueline hopes to attend law school and become an immigration attorney, with goals of supporting the Southeast Asian community that raised them.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2022 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

The APIQWTC Scholarship Committee is proud to announce the 2022 Scholarship Recipients:

Mai Tran and Nuriel Cahigas

Mai Tran (she/her/they/them) is a genderqueer Vietnamese American writer pursuing an MFA at Sarah Lawrence College. They volunteer with the PEN Prison & Justice Writing Program and do communications work for Stop the Musick Coalition and The Bronx Defenders. They have served as a nonfiction coordinator for MFA App Review, increasing underrepresented writers’ access to fully-funded MFA programs, and as the Poetry Coalition Fellow at Lambda Literary, creating programming for queer and trans writers. They write broadly across genres, covering everything from food politics and genetic testing to ABGs and queer mothers. In the future, they are excited to continue exploring the many ways writing can enact material and cultural change.

Nuriel Cahigas (they/them) is a first-generation nonbinary Filipino American high school senior entering the University of California Riverside as an Education, Society, and Human Development and Media and Cultural Studies double major in the fall. Nuriel has always been heavily involved with community work, whether it be within their own school or within their city with local orgs. They have notably collaborated with AYPAL: Building API Power to help lead Queer and Questioning (Q&Q), a new pilot youth site to support Queer and Questioning API youth in the Bay Area. Additionally, they have worked as an intern at their local school’s Techniclinic to promote more inclusive sex education in classrooms and helped create a curriculum to educate their local community about pre-colonial queer histories. Nuriel plans to continue the work of community building and educating in college with their school’s LGBTQ Resource Center under the Stonewall Living Learning Community. They hope that through their investment in education, they could become an educator themselves to continue to promote and celebrate our queer histories while supporting youth in their own educational careers.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2021 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

The APIQWTC Scholarship Committee is proud to announce the 2021 Scholarship Recipients:

Thao Nguyen and Anna Schneider

Thao Nguyen (he/him/his) is a 1.5 generation Vietnamese transman and first-generation Ph.D. student in the Women’s & Gender Studies and History joint program at the University of Michigan. He is also the Research & Development Coordinator for the non-profit Cia Siab, Inc. in La Crosse, Wisconsin. As the R&D Coordinator, he co-manages the in-progress Anti-Hmoob Violence Report and provides support and consultation for grant, personnel, and programming development. He also supports local organizing efforts in Madison, WI, to defund the police through his involvement in the Southeast Asian Safety Squad. Lastly, he prides himself as an interdisciplinary scholar who works to create and sustain accessible knowledge production for the Asian American community. In this vein, he intends to produce a scholarship on Vietnamese Communist women during the Vietnam War and share this knowledge with his diasporic community. He believes that his scholarship will help realign the Vietnamese American community politically and contribute to the ongoing practice of the Socialist/Communist revolution and ethics of care practiced by BIPOC/QTPOC.

Anna Schneider (they/them) is a half-Japanese high school senior in Surprise, Arizona. Within the past year, they have brought back their school’s GSA and operated as its president. They will be attending Arizona State University in the fall, where they will pursue a degree in photography. At ASU, they plan on joining LGBTQ clubs on campus and helping to increase awareness and acceptance there. Through photography, they hope to contribute to the representation and creative expression of queer people in media. They also see themselves volunteering and donating to LGBTQ organizations throughout their lifetime, especially those with a focus on people of color and trans and gender nonconforming people, as they are often hurt the worst in the community.

Below are video recordings of the awardees sharing their thoughts.

2021 APIQWTC Lunar New Year Mug Art by Momo Hoshi

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2020 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

Congratulations to our 2020 APIQWTC scholarship awardees, Madhvi Trivedi-Pathak and Hana Kadoyama!

Madhvi Trivedi-Pathak (they/them) attends the California Institute of Integral Studies and is pursuing a Master’s degree in Community Mental Health in the School of Professional Psychology and Health in Ohlone Territory/SF. They intend to sow seeds of decolonial healing as a future LMFT for QTGNCI communities of color and work within the intersections of dis/ability justice, access and supporting survivors of sexual violence. They have a background in grassroots community organizing, arts activism and youth advocacy. Much of their (un)learning and inspiration has been drawn from the organizing work of the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA), San Francisco Women Against Rape (SFWAR), Third World Resistance (TWR), Equality Labs and Critical Resistance. They are currently on the advisory committee of Parivar — Our Queer and Trans South Asian Family — and are excited to bloom into being (again and again) alongside co-conspirators of collective liberation.

Hana Kadoyama (she/her, they/them) is a queer mixed Japanese American arts administrator, producer, activist, and library worker beginning San Jose State University’s MLIS program this fall. As a QTAPI community member, Hana serves on APIQWTC’s Banquet Committee and Big Circle Committee, participated in APIENC’s Leadership Exchange program, and stage managed the Resilience Archives’ Performing Visible Resilience annual program. As a library professional, they are a founding member of the Oakland Public Library’s Gender Identity Awareness Task Force and a co-lead of OPL’s Queer Family Pride celebration. A lifelong public library enthusiast, Hana is thrilled to continue a career in librarianship and hopes to make space for more queer and trans librarians of color to serve the community and build the future. Hana is deeply honored to be a scholarship recipient and sends immense gratitude to the donors, committee members, and community who make this opportunity possible each year.

Below are video recordings of the awardees sharing their thoughts.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2019 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

Congratulations to our 2019 APIQWTC scholarship awardees, Paige Chung and Bo Hwang!

Paige Ho Thuy My Chung is pursuing her B.A. in Critical Ethnic Studies and English at Kalamazoo College, MI. As a recent summer organizer at API Equality – Northern California 2018, Paige worked on the Dragon Fruit Network, an intergenerational support system for Queer and Trans Asian and Pacific Islander (QTAPI) elders and youth to bond and receive a network of assistance. At APIENC, they researched qualitative data, performed literature reviews, and attended a four-day leadership training. At school, Paige continues her fight for liberation in a myriad of ways. As a writing center consultant, they encourage writers to speak in their native tongues while pushing for language diversity on campus. As an Intercultural Center-Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Liaison, she pushes for visibility and access to transgender and low-income resources on and off campus. Paige looks forward to expanding their soundscape at her Nature in Words Writing Fellowship at Pierce Cedar Institute as they complete their senior thesis “The Entanglements of Vietnamese-Diasporic People, The Nail Salon Industry, and Community”. Paige is committed to building and fostering communal support and power for QTAPI liberation, in addition to publishing individual writings.

Bo James Hwang is a post-baccalaureate student at UCLA Extension. His career goal is to become a primary care physician and public health researcher who will improve care for marginalized communities. Although Bo resides in Los Angeles, he calls Bay Area his second home. In the summer of 2016, he advanced data collection for LGBTQ patients at Asian Health Services in Chinatown, Oakland. This past summer and fall, he conducted research at the San Francisco Department of Public Health to improve biomedical prevention methods for gay and transgender men of color who use meth. Bo is currently the Student/Young Professional Director II for Asian Pacific Islander Caucus for Public Health, a research community advisor for the first national Transgender & Gender Non-Conforming Health Research Advisory Network, and the Vice President of Southern California Lambda Medical Association. In his free time, he enjoys practicing mindfulness, reading, and working out. He wants to personally give a shout out to all the donors, scholarship committee, and volunteers who made it possible for him to further his education!

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2018 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

Congratulations to our 2018 APIQWTC scholarship awardees, Caroline and Lori Lee!

Caroline is pursuing a B.A. in Human Biology with a concentration in community health policy at Stanford University. On campus, she has worked to increase the accessibility of mental health resources, both as a trained peer counselor and as co-director of the Mental Health & Wellness Coalition; off campus, she works with St. James’ Infirmary, a free health clinic for sex workers in SF, to provide queer and trans-inclusive healthcare to underserved communities in the city. As a queer child of immigrants, Caroline has seen firsthand how the American healthcare system has failed and continues to fail marginalized communities, especially queer and trans communities of color; at the same time, however, she also has always recognized the knowledge and power these communities have (and have always had) to care for their own and be spaces of transformative healing in the face of systemic injustice. In the future, she hopes to pursue a degree in medicine in order to put herself in a position where she can provide compassionate and culturally-competent care to her communities, speak and act out against systemic queerphobia/trans-antagonism and racism within the medical institution, and fight to ensure these communities have the resources and power they need for lasting, sustainable healing.

Lori Lee is a 3rd generation Chinese-American Lesbian is pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology at the American School of Professional Psychology in Alameda. Lori Lee decided to make the scary leap of quitting gainful employment to return to school after many years working as a child protective social worker in San Francisco, serving communities of color, queer, disenfranchised, disabled and marginalized people including issues of child abuse, domestic violence, mental health issues, substance abuse, and low socioeconomic status. Lori Lee believes that life is too short and feels it’s important to do things to bring joy to your life. Lori Lee believes that no matter how old you are it is never too late to go back to school and wants people to know that no matter your age it is important to take care of your mental health. Since belonging to the APIQWTC community for many many years (yes over 20!) Lori Lee is grateful for the scholarship and all the years of support, fun and lifelong friendships.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2017 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

Congratulations to our 2017 APIQWTC scholarship awardees, Victoria Cheng and Renae Moua!

Victoria Cheng is a radical person with strong beliefs in sustainability and justice. As a graduate student at UC Berkeley, Victoria studies energy systems controls and optimization in hopes that we, as a society, can achieve energy equity and energy sustainability in the near future. Outside of coursework and research, Victoria is an active and vocal advocate for womxn in STEM, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial equality, reminding and educating others about intersectional issues. Victoria is also one of the organizers for the Empowering Womxn of Color Conference, held annually in the spring at UC Berkeley.

Renae Moua is a queer Hmong American womxn, artist, curator, writer and Ethnic Studies M.A. candidate at San Francisco State University (SFSU). She received a dual bachelor degree in Ethnic Studies and Sociology from UC San Diego in 2014. Now residing in San Francisco (Ohlone Territory), her current academic research concerns a close reading of oral narratives by queer and transgender Hmong American womxn who detail their connection to refugee and diasporic history. Since 2015, she has served as a trained domestic violence counselor and survivor advocate, and is currently the Assistant Director and Curator at SFSU’s Associated Students’ Art Gallery. She is passionate about educating womxn, queer, and non-binary people of color on the practice of DIY ethics and self-publishing as acts of resistance, placemaking, and healing. Through nurturing her various interests, she hopes to continue the life-long journey of centering the resistance and resilience of queer people of color and API communities.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2016 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

Congratulations to our 2016 APIQWTC scholarship awardees, Tracy Zhao and Lauren!

Tracy Zhao is pursuing a Master’s degree in Asian American Studies at UCLA. She received her B.A. from Pomona College, where she majored in Asian American Studies and Psychology. As an undergraduate, she was inspired by radical mentors and ethnic studies classes to participate in student activism around workers’ rights, sexual assault, students of color coalitions, and queer and Asian American student groups. After moving to Los Angeles, Tracy has worked with many progressive coalitions and community groups, including Summer Activist Training and API Equality-LA. Through her academic and community work, she hopes to build strong coalitions among queer and trans APIs, immigrants, and people of color. In her spare time, Tracy helps the Free Radicals collective maintain the website www.freerads.org, a resource dedicated to critically examining science and its role in social justice.

Lauren is pursuing a Master’s in Social Work at the University of California at Berkeley with a concentration in Community Mental Health. After graduating with a BA in Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies from UC Berkeley, she participated in Public Allies Silicon Valley/San Francisco, which placed her at a non-profit where she provided case management services for formerly incarcerated, homeless, and low-income residents of Richmond and Contra Costa County. Two summers ago, Lauren participated in the Seeding Change Fellowship Program for Asian American Organizing and Civic Engagement, where she learned about community organizing and worked on grassroots community campaigns at the Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco Chinatown. Afterward, she continued working at CPA as the coordinator for their queer youth program, Gender Sexuality Diversities and facilitated a weekly space for queer, questioning, and ally Asian youth.  Lauren hopes to provide healing-centered mental health support for young people of color, supporting them toward finding their own liberation from trauma and toward becoming agents of change in their communities.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2015 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

Congratulations to our 2015 APIQWTC scholarship awardees, Bo Luengsuraswat and Sammie Wills!

Bo Luengsuraswat is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Comics at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. He received his Master of Arts in Asian American Studies with a concentration in Gender Studies at UCLA where he graduated summa cum laude. His Master’s thesis examined the artistic production by Asian American FTM transgender artists. Bo’s comics, cover art, interviews, creative and non-fiction writings, articles and reviews have been featured in many publications. His exhibitions, performances, and film screenings have been seen internationally in Cuba and Switzerland as well as Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Bo’s areas of research include critical ethnic studies, feminist studies, queer & transgender studies, popular culture, and comics studies. Born and raised in Thailand, Bo immigrated to the U.S. in 2003. In addition to attending school, writing, and doing research, Bo also started a small food business called Medina-Huang Kitchen which produces and distributes homemade peanut sauce. Bo looks forward to turning his passion for comics and illustration into a full-time career. Through his work, he looks to make a difference within the queer and trans of color communities and push the boundaries of ‘LGBT’ comics and representations.

Sammie Wills is pursuing a B.A. degree in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity with a Minor in Education at Stanford University. Sammie also works as the Program Assistant at API Equality – Northern California, where she started as an intern in the Summer Internship Program. At API Equality, she co-founded the Communications Committee, served on the Leadership Team, and compiled curriculum to train young leaders on community organizing skills. Her senior honors thesis documents an oral history of API Equality – Northern California and aims to examine how the organization has changed over time. Currently, Sammie is a Board Member for the Stanford Asian American Activism Committee where she launched a long-term oral history project ‘Tracing Movements’ to document the immigration stories of Asian Pacific Islanders and rallied students to start a campaign focused on the need for faculty diversity. Sammie has served as the Executive Editor for Stanford STATIC, a progressive publication, and was the Kababayan Co-Chair of the Stanford Pilipino American Student Union. While at Stanford, she was also an Instructor for the course entitled ‘Revolution and the Filipino Diaspora’. As a mixed-race Filipina student, Sammie is committed to highlighting the narratives of the LGBTQ API community in her school work, through her activism, and with her organizing.

2015 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardee – Sammie Wills

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

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2014 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

Congratulations to our 2014 APIQWTC scholarship awardees, Landyn Pan and Tõ Như Đào!

Landyn Pan is a high school senior, artist, and activist based in Seattle, Washington. As a sophomore at Bothell High School he restarted the Gay Straight Alliance club and served as president for two years, running support groups, discussing queer politics, screening LGBTQ videos, and building infrastructure for the organization. Currently, as the Director of Resources and Activism for his GSA, he leads campaigns and projects to educate students, teachers, and administrators, and visits surrounding high schools to present on various trans* topics. Landyn is also the Development Director and Graphic Designer for Trans Student Equality Resources, a youth-led nonprofit organization that works to end trans discrimination in education. Through TSER he has designed dozens of infographics on topics such as trans* terminology, school safety, and visibility. These images have appeared on prominent blogs sponsored by organizations such as Afterellen.com, Trevor Project, Buzzfeed and Transgender Law Center. Landyn immigrated to the U.S. at the age of six with no English ability from Nanning, China with his single mother and brother. He has overcome tremendous hurdles as trans* and Asian, and has dedicated himself to taking on leadership positions to create change for marginalized communities. In the fall, he plans to attend Chapman University or University of Washington, Seattle and hopes to forge a career using media to continue his anti-oppression work in the mainstream. His infographics can be viewed at www.transstudent.org/graphics.

Tõ Như Đào is pursuing a M.S.W. at UC Berkeley, with a concentration on Community Mental Health. There, they work as a Research Assistant for an LGBTQ Youth polyvictimization project. They are also President of their School’s Graduate Assembly, a leading member of the Queer and Trans* Advocacy Project, and a member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on LGBTQ Communities. Alongside their UC Berkeley work, they provide mentorship with Queer Youth Arts and collaborate with community members on a short film visibilizing the daily experiences of a Vietnamese-American trans*masculine teenager. As a UC Davis undergraduate, Như organized with queer, trans* and culturally-specific student organizations such as API Queers and Aggies of Color. After graduating, they worked at UCSF on a bilingual, health disparities research project, as well as a Community Health Intern with Asian Health Service Youth Program. Their work and activism has been featured in Ms. Magazine and independent films. Như has received the national Undergraduate Social Action Award from Sociologists for Women in Society and the UC Davis Chancellor’s Student Achievement Award for Diversity and Community. This summer, they will be returning to UCSF to join another project. As a 1st-generation Vietnamese-American graduate, Như pushes for multi-level transformation that not only centralizes the lives of marginalized peoples, but is led by those closest to struggle. They have deep faith in resiliency and the infinite possibilities of collective power.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2013 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

Congratulations to our two APIQWTC scholarship awardees Alyssa Lerner and Vanessa Coe!

THANKS to all of you, for your donations and your participation in the silent auction to keep this scholarship program running. To learn more about Alyssa and Vanessa see below.

Alyssa Lerner  is a Filipina and Jewish queer womyn in her third year as an undergraduate student at the University of California at Berkeley. She is majoring in Ethnic Studies and minoring in Dance and Performance Studies. Alyssa has been interning at Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s office in Oakland on projects addressing housing and homelessness. She was a founding member of the Labor Justice Project, a student organization dedicated to workers’ rights struggles and economic justice which has campaigned for Alta Gracia and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. She is currently a Director and Choreographer for Thrive Dance Company. Alyssa is interested in how dance can be a site of resistance as well colonization. She believes in the transformative power of dance in marginalized communities and hopes to open a donation based, non-profit dance studio that offers a safe space for queer youth to grapple with challenging identities through movement rather than words.

Vanessa Coe is the Lead Organizer at API Equality – Northern California an organization dedicated to mobilizing API community members to effectively advocate for LGBTQ rights in their own communities. She has a BA from University of California at Berkeley, an AA from Laney College, and will be matriculating into the Master’s in Social Work program at University of California at Berkeley in fall 2013. As a teenaged queer Asian woman, Vanessa started the Gay Straight Alliance at her high school and interned at LYRIC. As an undergraduate she volunteered as an electoral organizer mobilizing hundreds of people to halt the passage of propositions 6 and 9, two proposals aimed at funneling more funding into the prison industrial complex and disenfranchising communities of color. Vanessa also served as the Executive Director of the Multicultural Resource Center at her university. After graduating, she worked as a labor organizer on the Justice for NBC Workers campaign, fighting to win back stolen wages for Chinese immigrant workers. For API Equality she initiated an internship program specifically tailored to politicize and support young queer Asian Pacific Islanders. As a social worker she hopes to provide accessible and culturally competent care to low-income communities of color and queer and transgender people.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2012 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

A PIQWTC is proud to award Christine Pan a scholarship to pursue her graduate degree in the Master of Fine Arts Program at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. APIQWTC recognizes and supports her efforts in producing groundbreaking creative work as a visual artist, writer, activist, and cultural producer. Through her work, Christine is a visionary leader in promoting API queer women and transgender voices and visibility. She is the creator and founder of The Visibility Project, a photography and video community-based project that brings together community members, organizations, activists, and artists. Currently, Christine is developing a science-fiction project involving cyborgs, theory, video, installation, absurdity, and chips. Her work can be viewed at www.christinepan.com and www.visibilityproject.org. Congratulations Christine!

A PIQWTC is proud to award Jamie Sumague a scholarship to pursue a Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy at Columbia University. Jamie has been involved immensely in Columbia University’s LGBT programming and advising on campus. With a rigorous academic schedule, Jamie is able to balance demanding academic expectations with LGBT programming efforts towards queer API advocacy. Jamie’s efforts are to develop and nurture a culture of acceptance on and off campus. Programming efforts have included mentorship programs, discussion series, and mixers to aid in suicide prevention, combating institutionalized homophobia, increased mental health for the campus community. Congratulations Jamie on your activism!

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/

2011 APIQWTC Scholarship Awardees!

Wen Liu and Estelle Davis have won this year’s APIQWTC scholarships.
Congratulations to both for their impressive accomplishments!

Wen Liu is a queer Taiwanese community organizer and graduate student in  the Social-Personality Psychology Ph.D. Program at the City University  of New York, Graduate Center. As an undergraduate at University of  Washington, Wen co-founded  the Queer People of Color Alliance, Youth for Middle East, and Chinese  Speaking Queers. Wen additionally worked as a programming coordinator at  Q Center, the LGBT resource center, advocating particularly for queer  students of color.  Wen has also organized East African, Latino,  and Asian immigrant custodial staff by forming a multi-generational  labor solidarity group called International Workers and Students for  Justice to combat lay offs and workplace harassment. This summer Wen  will conduct qualitative research on lesbian and bisexual Southeast  Asian migrant workers in Taiwan to underscore how they have formed  community and comradeship in their fight against capitalist  exploitation.

Sarah Estelle Davis is a second-generation queer Filipina American who  will begin the Master’s in Public Health at San Francisco State  University in fall 2011. She hopes to improve accessibility by training  health care professionals in cultural competency. Estelle plans to  develop frameworks that are particularly inclusive of LGBT, trauma  survivors, and Asian American communities. She has worked eight years as a  public health worker at organizations such as Center for Health  Training, Fenway Community Health Center, and Marin AIDS Project. She is  currently a legal worker at Communities United for Restorative Justice,  an organization that combats the criminalization of young men of color  and the displacement of low-income communities. As an undergraduate at  Tufts University, Estelle examined the medicalization of polycystic  ovary syndrome, the most common reproductive disorder in reproductive aged women.

Estelle will be at the banquet to thank APIQWTC in person.

Please DONATE to the Scholarship Fund today.
https://apiqwtc.org/apiqwtc-scholarship-fund/