Khmer Student Association (KhSA)
Khmer Advocates for Resilience in Education (KAREs)
Cambodian-Americans are one of the most underrepresented groups in higher education, with a 2015 study demonstrating only 14% of Cambodian-Americans graduated with a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 54% of the Asian-American population. We want our people to be lifted up and to be better than the previous generation. Starting this program is impactful because growing up in a predominantly white suburb, I only learned about Cambodia through my father’s with his stories about the Khmer Rouge when he was a child. However, these stores merely consisted of the trouble he got himself into. In school, I never really learned about the political history nor sociopolitical history of the genocide. The curriculum only provided one paragraph about the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. The atrocities that were committed were never mentioned. Upon discovering the trauma plaguing my community as a result of the tragedies of the past, I discovered that it is important to not only recognize our history, but to contribute to the future of our community.
Here I am pictured with my Mentee who is on the Pre-Dental pathway. Even though I am Pre-Pharmacy, I have learned so much from mentoring a Pre-Nursing and now Pre-Dental students on gaining health care experience and admissions guidance. I think that through this mentorship it closes the gap between the ability for students of color to be successful and get into graduate/professional schools.
One of my longstanding goals is to give back to the Cambodian community and connect with my roots. Growing up Cambodian, not a lot of us have people to look up to or have a mentor. The mentorship program that we started is called KhSA KAREs (Khmer Advocates for Resilience in Education). Ammara Touch, Alana Lim, Melissa Ouk, and I are the founding officers of this program. I, alongside my founding teammates, recognize education opens doors to opportunity, and several barriers inhibit our communities in pursuing higher education.
Joining KhSA (Khmer Student Association) was one of the most memorable experiences that I’ve had in my undergraduate career. It was spring quarter of my first year at UW when Savannah, the president of KhSA, overheard me speak Khmer over the phone with my mother. She came up to me and asked if I was Cambodian and told me about KhSA. What Savannah didn't know was at that time I was considering transferring to another school because I felt disconnected within the community. I went to the last meeting of the year and everyone remembered my name the following academic year. The atmosphere at the KhSA meetings was something that I have never felt before. KhSA has been my home away from home.
Being apart of KhSA drives me to be better myself every day. It is apart of our blood. We are striving to build a community on the backs of our heritage and culture. Through performing at the annual New Years Show to making spring rolls at Khmer night, I’m reminded that we come from this great heritage of temple builders. The songs and anthems that my parents blast in the car remind me that they have pulled us through all this way.
I think something that I can take from this experience would have to be the growing pains of starting a program or major project. There were many obstacles that we had to overcome as it was something new for all of us. I think resiliency and having the goal of why you want to start the project allows you to stay motivated and stay the course no matter how hard it gets. Through the development of the mentorship program, it has allowed me to reflect upon myself and why I want this program to be implemented. Why do I want this program to succeed? My passion for wanting the generations after me have the tools of success rather than struggling alone.
Receiving Feedback: I believe mentorship is not just the process of a mentor mentoring the mentee, but it is a learning experiences for both positions. As a student, I developed productive relationships with my mentors and educators to receive feedback in school work, presentations, programing to develop even stronger outcomes in the future.
Resiliency: As an emerging leader and student on campus, experiencing hardships does not define me as an individual as I am able to grow stronger from those experiences and learn from them.
Productive Relationships: As a leader within the community, it is essential for me to connect and develop productive relationships with mentors, mentees, other leaders, educators, youth, and professionals. Collaborating with other organizations at the University of Washington such as the UW Filipino Association for Health Careers mentorship program, and Filipino Student Association's high school mentorship program titled PROJECT FAMILY are all working other in providing resources and benefiting all of our communities.
Personal Values: As I continue to grow as a leader and scholar, my personal values drives my passion in working to improve my community and creating links between underrepresented communities to health and access to higher education.
Group Development: By developing this program from the ground up, we developed an open minded process as our team had to accommodate many growing pains. It was my responsibility to resolve as many growing pains that we had to ensure that we all worked together and collaborated in order to reach our goals. In the beginning, the lack of communication really hindered our success, but we adapted and started to over communicate so that we would not have the same problem before.
Goal: Our goal is to get more underrepresented students like the Cambodian-Americans in the Greater Seattle Area to higher education and give them the support system that is needed to be successful
Joining KhSA (Khmer Student Association) was one of the most memorable experiences that I’ve had in my undergraduate career. It was spring quarter of my first year at UW when Savannah, the president of KhSA, overheard me speak Khmer over the phone with my mother. She came up to me and asked if I was Cambodian and told me about KhSA. What Savannah didn't know was at that time I was considering transferring to another school because I felt disconnected within the community. I went to the last meeting of the year and everyone remembered my name the following academic year. The atmosphere at the KhSA meetings was something that I have never felt before. KhSA has been my home away from home.
Being apart of KhSA drives me to be better myself every day. It is apart of our blood. We are striving to build a community on the backs of our heritage and culture. Through performing at the annual New Years Show to making spring rolls at Khmer night, I’m reminded that we come from this great heritage of temple builders. The songs and anthems that my parents blast in the car remind me that they have pulled us through all this way.
I think something that I can take from this experience would have to be the growing pains of starting a program or major project. There were many obstacles that we had to overcome as it was something new for all of us. I think resiliency and having the goal of why you want to start the project allows you to stay motivated and stay the course no matter how hard it gets. Through the development of the mentorship program, it has allowed me to reflect upon myself and why I want this program to be implemented. Why do I want this program to succeed? My passion for wanting the generations after me have the tools of success rather than struggling alone.
Receiving Feedback: I believe mentorship is not just the process of a mentor mentoring the mentee, but it is a learning experiences for both positions. As a student, I developed productive relationships with my mentors and educators to receive feedback in school work, presentations, programing to develop even stronger outcomes in the future.
Resiliency: As an emerging leader and student on campus, experiencing hardships does not define me as an individual as I am able to grow stronger from those experiences and learn from them.
Productive Relationships: As a leader within the community, it is essential for me to connect and develop productive relationships with mentors, mentees, other leaders, educators, youth, and professionals. Collaborating with other organizations at the University of Washington such as the UW Filipino Association for Health Careers mentorship program, and Filipino Student Association's high school mentorship program titled PROJECT FAMILY are all working other in providing resources and benefiting all of our communities.
Personal Values: As I continue to grow as a leader and scholar, my personal values drives my passion in working to improve my community and creating links between underrepresented communities to health and access to higher education.
Group Development: By developing this program from the ground up, we developed an open minded process as our team had to accommodate many growing pains. It was my responsibility to resolve as many growing pains that we had to ensure that we all worked together and collaborated in order to reach our goals. In the beginning, the lack of communication really hindered our success, but we adapted and started to over communicate so that we would not have the same problem before.
Goal: Our goal is to get more underrepresented students like the Cambodian-Americans in the Greater Seattle Area to higher education and give them the support system that is needed to be successful
This graphic was made by Dalika Ung who is one of the members of KhSA. I think this really resonated with me as your identity is vital to an individuals personality and gives the person what a human should be. To not run away or hide in the shadows.
Empathy: This is another aspect that is crucial to the success of a mentorship program. What we noticed was that mentorship came in many flavors. There is not a one size fits all. The best leaders go beyond competency and focus on shaping another person's character, empathy and capacity for respect. Helping Others: Through this program, we are helping others through the support of mentorship and providing a support system for the individual. This allows them to come to us comfortably and have meaningful connections. Diversity: I mentioned that this was targeted towards the Cambodian American population due to the lack of resources. As our program becomes more developed, we would love to open the program to other ethnicity that have a barrier to higher education. With a common goal of bridging the gap of access to higher education. Mentoring: Throughout this program, mentoring is something that is heavily needed in the Southeast Asian community as there is lack of representation and there is a need to be inclusive and utilizing one's success and experience to navigate any career field through teaching, coaching, and the ability to share resources to uplift the following generation. Allowing others within our communities to flourish and be successful as well. Social Justice: Mentoring the youth are often designed with the intention of promoting improved outcomes among marginalized youths. This program is aimed at providing equal access to resources, promoting wellness with people living in marginalized communities, reducing power imbalances within mentor/mentee relationships and allow mentors who come from more privileged backgrounds may be able to provide youth with greater opportunities for later success. |
This quote was written by Dalika Ung and it is a quote that really struck out to me. I think often times my identify is often lost or we put it on the back burner due to how chaotic our lives get. It is good to take a step back and take pride where you come from and reflect upon your experiences.
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