Psychology major Erika Ngo ’18 spent her summer as an intern at the Center for Asian Americans United for Self-Empowerment (CAUSE).
Ngo was one of only 15 students throughout the country who were selected to be a part of the CAUSE Leadership Academy. Her internship cohort included students from schools such as Amherst College, Duke University, Yale University, and others. The Leadership Academy was founded to create a pipeline of leadership for the Asian Pacific American (APA) community.
Throughout the program, the interns had the opportunity to meet with APA leaders and discuss the issues that were important to them.
“Growing up, this lack of representation in both the media and education definitely contributed to the confusion I had about my identity as an Asian American. Early in the Leadership Academy, I had a discussion with one of the CAUSE staff members about how important it is to introduce more diverse history early on and from the actual perspective of these minority groups,” wrote Ngo in a blog post on the CAUSE website.
Ngo’s internship concluded with a graduation ceremony where Congresswoman Judy Chu served as the keynote speaker.
