Over the last two years, I have had the privilege to work with the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE) staff to travel across California and present alongside our Southeast Asian American (SEAA) Collaborative partners and filmmakers from our Southeast Asian American Journeys docuseries, which commemorates 50 years of SEA resettlement. Together, we highlighted the significance of SEAAethnic studies and its impacts on youth in communities across San Jose, Fresno, Garden Grove, Long Beach, and San Diego. These events have been pivotal in deepening the connection between community-based organizations and school educators for more awareness, capacity building, and resource-sharing that uplift cultural identity for K-12 students curious to learn more about SEA historical experiences.
While there is a bittersweet feeling to transition my work from this journey of education enrichment, I am hopeful for the next endeavor for these ethnic studies lessons to be implemented in classes throughout California by K-12 educators who attended – particularly through the policy advocacy that SEARAC engages in. The most recent conferences that I participated in were the ones related to the Vietnamese American Experience Model Curriculum, which were held in Garden Grove and San Diego with partners and colleagues. My experiences in these gatherings were emotional and healing, because I got to see, learn and connect with others to advance ethnic studies education through community voices.
As we move forward to defending ethnic studies and addressing the issues that have passed from AB 715 (Zbur), we look forward to more conversations and solutions to uplift OCDE’s newly translated student-facing materials of the SEA ethnic studies. These resources are now available in Khmer, Hmong, and Vietnamese and feature materials including: narrative essays, lessons, handouts, and slide decks. I also want to express special gratitude to partners from Vietnamese American Roundtable, International Children Assistance Network, Fresno Immigrant and Refugee Ministries, Hmong Cultural Center of Butte County, United Cambodian Community, Khmer Girls in Action Long Beach, and filmmakers Quyen Nguyen-Le and Oanh-Nhi Nguyen for their panel engagement.