By JACL National
JACL and OCA-National completed another JACL/OCA Leadership Summit on March 12. Since 1984, the summit has brought JACL members from across the country to Washington, D.C., to learn about policymaking and nonprofit work on a national scale. Starting in 1994, OCA-National joined the summit, increasing the number of attendees and programming possibilities. This past summit marked two special anniversaries: 40 years since the initial program was started by JACL and 30 years since OCA joined the program.
This year, 27 attendees from JACL and OCA experienced panels featuring leaders from many national advocacy partners in our coalition work through the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the National Council on Asian Pacific Americans. Participants attended a briefing with the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders and spent their final day of the program meeting with their representatives and senators to advocate on immigration and education issues.
JACL Executive Director David Inoue stated, “As an alumnus of this program from 2003, it is especially gratifying to see so many JACL and OCA members complete the program and do great work through their chapters or even careers in public service that have been at least in part influenced by their participation in the Leadership Summit. The need for this program continues, and we look forward to training another 40 years of JACL and OCA community leaders.”
“The Leadership Summit has created a key pipeline of leaders both within the OCA and JACL communities but also the greater AANHPI community in private and public arenas,” stated Thu Nguyen, OCA National executive director. “This program has also fostered and strengthened collaborations between the two organizations at a national and chapter level, as well as other entities that participants are involved in. As the demand for the program only increases, with some participants even requesting to repeat it the following year, we are committed to continuing this opportunity for AANHPIs for many years to come.”
Said JACL Norman Mineta Policy Fellow Ariel Imamoto: “This was my first JACL/OCA Leadership Summit, and I left the program educated and inspired. This summit was an invaluable experience that I think many people would benefit from. Not only were bonds made among participants, but I truly believe each person walked away empowered that their voice counts in our nation.”
The program is funded through a grant from State Farm Insurance.
