Newsletter

September 2006
Letter from the Chair - Cedric Cheng

Dear Supporters,

The fall 2006 election is just around the corner. But this election happens to be a little different in flavor compared to previous elections. The reason is that there is more at stake than usual. Sure, there are many propositions on the ballot, but we’re having an election for governor, the first regular election of a governor since the recall of 2003 or put it another way, since former Governor Gray Davis was re-elected in 2002. However, 2006 also brings us a number of local races that are intriguing, and we hope to bring that to you at our 2006 Election Debate Forum on October 15th at Civic Auditorium in Walnut Creek Civic Park. We’re also teaming up with other folks to help publicize the propositions and other candidates that we couldn’t cover so that you all can be informed with as much information come election day.

For those who missed our annual gala, you missed a great one. On Saturday, June 3, we changed formats to focus on those who normally would not be recognized for their work. We call them unsung heroes or the way I put it, folks who fly below the radar screen by putting their talents to work for the good of our Asian Pacific American community. We featured Russ Lowe from Senator Feinstein’s office, Monica Xu from World Journal and Frank Lin, an up and coming filmmaker who produced and directed, “American Fusion”. With a great group of young people, our Intern Class of 2006 and the return of many alumni interns in addition to having Christine Han, class of 2004, returning to MC the event, Gala 2006 had a unique and youthful flavor. We were also entertained by George Hsieh with sound system and audio by Derek Chu. As I said, the gala was something really unique and entertaining. We hope to see you for our event in 2007, chaired by Susan Hsu. Stay tuned.

In addition, we had a great showing of support from our public officials for the gala as well as personally seeing one of our interns, Bryan Hu, working a conference on grants sponsored by Congresswoman Tauscher’s office. Jason Lai, class of 2005, returned to volunteer showing that many of our alumni interns return to not only support CAPA CEF, but also to volunteer within the community or do some wonderful things. One such person is Emily Chin, class of 2002, who is in her third year at USC. I interviewed her to get not only an update on what’s been happening since she went away to college but also get some insight of how her intern experience helped her in school. I hope to continue this series on a periodic basis.

Finally, the involvement of our supporters is key to our success. From serving on our board to attending our events, success can only take us so far. Our internship program, led by Cindy Chin, has grown by leaps and bounds. Our reach has broadly spread to include communities from as far as San Francisco. Our base is still here but it’s gratifying that we have a variety of schools with young people from various walks of life given opportunities. Jonathan Wen Hsu, my predecessor, is continuing to work hard on bringing our budding leadership development program to the next level. We have successfully integrated it as part of our intern training and had a board training as a test project. We hope that with this program spread to those who are career tracked, post-college or those who have families, etc., they will have opportunities to improve themselves and be more productive citizens.

We appreciate your continued support and your interests in CAPA CEF. The work is just beginning, and I hope that you are all on this ride. Thanks.

Cedric Cheng

Chair, CAPA Community Education Fund