Press Advisory: September 14, 2004

Southeast Asian Americans Celebrate Leadership and Push for Educational Equity

For Information Contact:

TC Duong, Southeast Asian American Advocacy Initiative Project Manager: (202) 667-4690, or tcduong@searac.org
or
Max Niedzwiecki, Ph.D., Executive Director: (202) 667-4690 or max@searac.org

WASHINGTON, DC—The nation's preeminent organization for Americans with heritage in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam kicks off a celebration and examination of community leadership and education on Saturday, September 18, with events that conclude on September 21.

Leadership and educational advancement are key elements of success among Southeast Asian Americans, most of whom arrived in the U.S. as refugees after the Vietnam War or are the children of refugees. While the communities continue to lag behind the American mainstream and many other Asian American groups with respect to income and educational attainment, they have made significant progress since 1975, when the first groups of refugees arrived in this country. Statistics on the groups are available at http://www.searac.org/seastatprofilemay04.pdf and http://www.searac.org/pr-2000-census.html.

The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), a national community-based organization based in Washington, DC, is staging two public events to highlight community leadership and educational advancement:

1. Celebration of Southeast Asian American Leadership:
   • Saturday, September 18, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
   • Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel: 14th and K Streets; Washington, DC
   • Featured Speakers:
     • Dr. Nguyen Van Hanh:
       Director, U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement
     • Doua Thor:
       Board Chair, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF)
     • Rithy Uong:
       City Council Member; Lowell, Massachusetts
2. Congressional Briefing on Southeast Asian Americans and Education:
   • Monday, September 20, 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.
   • 121 Cannon House Office Building; Washington, DC
   • Co-sponsored by the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
   • Staged by the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), the Civil Rights Project (CRP) at Harvard University, and the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC)
   • Featured Speakers:
     • Chia Youyee Vang, Stella Cheung, Mary Ellen Murphy, and Vanessa McKendall-Stephens (University of Minnesota): Pre-School Literacy Development
     • Khampha Thephavong (Fresno Community Health System): Educational Experiences of Laotian Refugees
     • Robert Teranishi (New York University): Southeast Asian Enclaves: A Study of Social Capital Formation and Postsecondary Aspirations
     • Monica Eav (Harvard Law School) and Pooja Adhikary (University of Maryland School of Law): Analysis of H.R. 333 (the "APIA-Serving Institutions Legislation")

SEARAC is also hosting its annual "Leadership-Advocacy" training in Washington, DC, between September 18 and September 21, along with an educational roundtable for a select group of scholars and community leaders on September 19. Both of these events are generously funded by State Farm, and will gather together over sixty participants from twenty states for communication with Members of Congress and Federal Officials, as well as analysis of challenges facing Southeast Asian American communities. Participants are scheduled to arrive from California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Information on the Leadership-Advocacy Training and Educational Roundtable can be found at http://www.searac.org/comempld.html and http://www.searac.org/save.html.

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