Hi there! My name is Allyson Marquez and I am currently a third-year/first-year transfer student at UCLA majoring in Political Science with a Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Concentration and prospective Music Industry Minor. As a Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Concentration - I became naturally drawn towards working with Asian-Americans and the Census due to my never-ending curiosity regarding racial dynamics within the United States political system. On the other hand, as an Filipino-American, I hoped to engage with Asian-American groups to simultaneously connect with and understand the struggles AAPIs contain in regards to participating in U.S. political processes, while encouraging AAPIs to take part in the next major event - the 2020 Census. Through my involvement with the "Asian Americas: #CountMeIn" group, I was not only enlightened by the work and results which came from the project, but I was able to be inspired by my group mates - Esther, Jeff, and Kyle - through all the effort and passion they have implemented into this project. Thank you Esther, Jeff, and Kyle for being awesome and I am so grateful to have crossed paths and learned valuable lessons with such admiring individuals in this class!

Hello! My name is Esther Chae, and I am a third-year student pursuing a dual degree in Viola Performance and Political Science. Taking Professor Masuoka's class on Racial and Ethnic Politics in the U.S. during my fall quarter of 2019 fueled my passion for outreach and advocacy, especially for Asian American communities. Learning about how the census was an opportunity for the API community to empower one another and advocate for their needs inspired me to actively outreach to API communities in LA County. I am so thankful to the grassroots organizations that our team has worked with to educate second generation Asian Americans about the significance of the census and to raise awareness about the online transition of the census to older populations at community outreach events. I am also very grateful and blessed to work with Allyson, Kyle, and Jeff, who are so passionate and hard-working. I am also incredibly thankful to Professor Masuoka for creating an opportunity for UCLA students like me to go out and serve our communities. I am very excited for the UCLA Asian American Studies class that will be working hard in 2030!

My name is Jeff Feng, and I am a fourth-year political science student at the University of California, Los Angeles, concentrating in International Relations and with a minor in Entrepreneurship. I grew up in a family where my mother and father held two distinct, competing political ideologies. My father was from Taiwan, and my mother was from China; needless to say, they disagreed on nearly everything when it came to politics. Even from an early age, I began to understand that there was an inherent difference in the ways the different cultures conditioned their people to think about politics, that something as simple as someone's place of birth could set forth a very specific development of ideology. Furthermore, through my interaction with the members of my community, I realized that everyone, regardless of their background, has a political opinion. Therefore, the common misperception that Asian Americans are less politically active is a false assumption. To tackle this common misperception, I joined a group with fellow students who are also profoundly politically motivated (Esther, Allyson, Kyle), to outreach to as many Asian American and Asian immigrant communities as possible, to provide them with the channels for their political opinions. I am very grateful to have my team and this class in general, for it helps me to understand the different problems that Asian communities are going through. Ultimately, this class helps me understand how grassroots politics mattered much in our communities.

My name is Kyle Mendiola and I am a third-year political science student at the University of California, Los Angeles with a concentration in political theory. I am also a student organizer with Anakbayan at UCLA, an anti-imperialist Filipino youth and student community organization, and I am very familiar with the other grassroots organizations in the Los Angeles area. As a political science student, I hope to be able to better objectively and concretely analyze political situations in the international sphere and the domestic front all in the hopes of bettering my community as a grassroots community advocate. I am grateful for my time with my team in the Asian American Studies 191C census coursework as it has not only introduced me to more communities in Los Angeles County, but has also enabled me to put my theory into practice by going out to these minority communities, helping them understand why the census is important for our communities, and, ultimately, serving the people.