Powerful Voices: Asian Americans in Centre County Speak Out
Channel: Borough of State College
Date: 2021-05-26

Come meet some of our active Asian American (APIDA) community through 
• OVERVIEW - the “Bigger Picture” including US history we weren’t taught in school 
• DIVERSE PANEL of Asian Americans working to make our community better for all 
• EXPLORE what we can do to be better allies against anti-Asian and other hate. 

Panelists include: 
• Dr. Nalini Krishnankutty is a first-generation immigrant American engineer turned writer, educator and speaker who is active in local and statewide efforts to build diverse, equitable, and inclusive communities. 
• Donald (Dong Myong) Hahn, J.D. is a Magisterial District Judge in Centre County, former Borough Council President and Mayor of State College, a Centre County native and son of Korean-American immigrants. 
• Hyeseon Kim was born in South Korea. She moved to Missouri for her MA and relocated here in 2005 with her family. She teaches Korean Language and Pop Culture at PS Altoona and is very active as a community volunteer. 
• Celeste Good is a Kinesiology major who is Past President of QTPOC (Queer and Trans People of Color.) She has done extensive activism work in the Penn State community for people of color, the Black and LGBTQ+ communities. 
• Steven Zhang is studying Economics, Political Science, and International Affairs. He is President of Penn State’s APIDA Caucus and active in UPUA where he advocates for social justice, accessibility and equity for students. 
• Shih-In Ma (moderator) was one of ten people of color out of the 600 students in her State College High School class. She is third generation Chinese American and is active in local inclusion and social justice efforts. 

The evening opened with this short perspective-setting video - #StopAsianHate Together featuring Olivia Munn, Ken Jeong, Di Barbadillo, and more | Directed by Bao Nguyen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ps1D-hESes  

Here are a few more things to enrich your knowledge and perspective: 
• Read “The New Threat: Racism without Racists” --- the soup we’re swimming in https://www.cnn.com/2014/11/26/us/ferguson-racism-or-racial-bias/index.html 
• Read “Understanding Our Perceptions of Asian Americans” https://asiasociety.org/education/understanding-our-perceptions-asian-americans 
• Test for your implicit biases, including the Asian American and Skin-Tone IATs https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html 
• Watch “We Need to Talk About Anti-Asian Hate” with Eugene Yang – 70 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14WUuya94QE 
• Watch PBS’s “Asian Americans” 5-hour series https://www.pbs.org/weta/asian-americans/ • Take Hollaback’s free bystander training – 1 hour https://www.ihollaback.org/bystanderintervention/