Caleb Yam, COL ’25, Queens, NY
This summer, I was fortunate enough to intern with Chinatown Youth Initiatives in New York City, as a Summer Program Director for their flagship program, the Summer Leadership Institute. Founded in 2000, Chinatown Youth Initiatives is a non-profit organization based in the heart of New York’s Chinatown, focused on empowering youth. In working class communities such as Chinatown, a lot of the change and infrastructure is guided by a number of non-profit organizations, serving low-income youth, families, immigrants, and elderly. Many of these non-profit organizations serve a unique purpose, but up until recently, very few targeted mobilizing youth to be engaged, informed leaders. This need prompted the founding of Chinatown Youth Initiatives.
The organization’s slogan, “By Youth, For Youth,” speaks to the impactful message of making sure that the Asian American youth of New York City are empowered to be educated, actionable leaders in their communities. Whether that is empowering high school students about Asian American history that isn’t typically taught in schools, cleaning up the ongoing trash and pollution in Lower Manhattan through beautification efforts, or teaching immigrant adults and elderly on their English language proficiency, the non-profit serves as a unique, important part of Chinatown, and has been an integral part of my own self-development.
To be more specific, the Summer Leadership Institute is the hallmark, flagship program of the organization, where college students plan an eight-week long curriculum focused on teaching the issues and politics that are not taught in typical curriculums in school. For the majority of our students, this is the first time they are able to learn in depth about our role as Asian Americans in this country. Through guided pedagogy, assigned readings, guest speakers, lectures, and discussions, we have a dynamic, comprehensive program that is both challenging and empowering.
This summer teaching has been a gratifying experience for me, especially given the fact that I was a participant of this exact program when I was a sophomore in high school. I strongly credit doing this as a high schooler to my intense, continued passion for local politics and social change. In many ways, with an open mind and lending an ear, I was able to learn so much about Asian American history and culture. For this reason, advocacy and activism are integral parts of my identity, and career aspirations. Whether that is being a teacher or eventually going to law school, this summer made me more confident in following these paths that I previously was not.
Through my summer with my close-knit facilitation team, I planned an intricate eight-week long summer educational program that tackled various social, identity, and political issues to mobilize and educate New York City’s youth. Some of the issues we were teaching our high school students are usually reserved for college students, so learning how to properly communicate these ideas and concepts for a more accessible audience was a challenging but ultimately rewarding part of this summer experience. These included mental health and wellness, gender and sexuality, colonialism, Asian American history, and activism movements locally and nationally. On top of teaching these concepts and topics that are typically not covered in K-12 curriculums, a large portion of my work this summer was focused on forging a strong social dynamic and culture in the classroom. Whether that was planning deliberate group bonding exercises or incorporating dance breaks to break the ice, it has been inspiring seeing how close our 25 students across different schools and walks of life in New York City, got to be.
With the assistance of Career Services Summer Funding, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to inspire youth, and reaffirm my understanding of the impactful work that nonprofits do to communities. The funding allowed me to be comfortable and confident in pursuing my passions in social change, especially as someone who lives at the very outskirts of New York City. By seeing my students’ eyes light up as the weeks went on, and as more quiet students got to amplify their voices, I am proud of giving back to the organization that was instrumental in forging my growth and identity.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2024 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
