Hi APIQWTC. My name is Sammy Wills, and I'm super grateful to be one of the 2015 APIQWTC Scholarship
recipients. I'm making this video to introduce myself and to also give the warmest thank you
to all the people who made this possible. I'm sorry that I cannot be there in person to accept
the scholarship. I'm actually studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa right now, and I'm making
this video from the District 6 Museum right here in Cape Town. I've had a really great
time exploring the outdoors, going to museums, seeing the sites, and participating in student
movements to dismantle the institutionalized racism and colonization that have oppressed
Black, Colored, queer, trans, feminist, student, and worker communities right here in
post-apartheid South Africa. Just this past week, the Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town was
taken down in a historic and monumental feat. Back home in the Bay Area, I'm a student at
Stanford University and I also participate in student activism with the Stanford Asian
American Activism Committee and with the Filipino American Student Union. I'm pursuing a degree in
Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity in a minor in Education. My studies focus on the
development of LGBTQ and Asian-Pacific Islander community and identity. Off-campus, I'm also part
of the amazing team at API Equality Northern California, where I work as Program Assistant
Through our work, we have been able to partner with APIQWTC for our Dragonfruit project, which
collects the oral histories of LGBTQ Asian Pacific Islanders and community members
and hearing about the stories of those who took part in the Black Power Movement and in the Labor
Movement has been really really impactful for my personal development and for the amazing work
that we do at API Equality Northern California, so in the future, I really really hope to continue as
a Community Organizer working specifically to train generations of grassroots leaders
to develop concrete organizing skills and a political framework that centers on Queer
Justice. It's so so important to have spaces like APIQWTC to work to support students in their
Ambitions and to also provide community, deep knowledge, and a whole lot of love, so please
support the APIQWTC Scholarship Fund to ensure that young people who are queer trans and API
can continue to do the work that empowers our communities. I want to give another huge thank
you to everyone at the banquet and a big thank you to everyone from APIQWTC. See you when I get back.