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Thursday June 14, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MICHIGAN IN COLOR
EPYC for now, EPYC forever
When My last piece
about
the
National
Federation of Filipino
American
Associa-
tions was written on a
plane. So naturally,this
NaFFAA piece is being
written during another
flight. I am currently
on my way to spend a
summer in Washing-
ton, D.C., and I can’t
help but be thankful
for all that the Empow-
ering
Filipino
Youth
through Collaboration
Ambassadors Program
has done for me.
My start with EPYC
almost never happened
actually. It started last
summer with an email
forwarded by a good
friend who was intern-
ing in DC at the time.
“If you haven’t seen
this and are interest-
ed!” was the one line
in her forward. And
from the prospects of
connecting with other
Filipinx
Americans,
learning
more
about
civic engagement, and a
chance to better myself
as
a
self-proclaimed
Filipino
American
advocate, I was defi-
nitely interested.
I knew I had to apply,
but the flaw that was
holding me back then
was a subtle lack of
confidence. I had never
done anythi ng on a
national scale before.
I know I harp on this
a lot, but it’s still true,
but growing up in small
towns
where
corn-
fields are endless real-
ly shaped me. Although
it grew a strong yearn-
ing for exploration of
myself and my culture,
I really thought work
on large scales, like a
national one, were for
people from big cit-
ies. Before the EPYC
ambassadors program,
I thought that I was not
qualified as someone
who didn’t have a large
Filipinx
American
community to rely on.
But of course, I knew
that wasn’t a valid rea-
son to not apply. I knew
that if I didn’t give it an
honest try that I would
regret it. I spent many
days
rewriting
my
resume, my personal
statement, and asking
advice
from
trusted
confidants; I ended up
sending my application
while I was at a wed-
ding in California using
free,
limited
hotel
Wi-Fi and minutes to
spare on the deadline
(very off-brand for me
but such is life). When I
got the acceptance let-
ter from Jason Tengco,
the Executive Direc-
tor of NaFFAA, I was
totally thrilled, to say
the least.
The
EPYC
ambas-
sadors program didn’t
start and end with a
convening in the Bay
Area. Like I said before
in my last article, the
EPYC
ambassadors
program as a whole
gave me the tools and
resources to be a more
confident leader. But
within that were lay-
ers upon layers of self-
discovery.
I always wondered
what life was like for
young Filipinx Ameri-
cans outside the Mid-
west. Because of EPYC,
I have been given the
privilege to listen to
the lived experiences of
the rest of the ambassa-
dors, who are now my
friends. I am now able
connect with my Pinoy
peers all across the
United States instead
of speculate what dias-
pora looks like outside
my own lived experi-
ence. I looked forward
to every monthly webi-
nar because it means
learning
something
new about important
topics such as racial
justice,
media,
and
Filipino American his-
tory. Through EPYC,
I was able to redis-
cover the strengths of
my leadership that I
already had all along.
And one of the most
important things I’ve
learned along the way
is that there is power
in
mobilizing
the
youth--not only for the
future but most cer-
tainly for the issues
that we as marginal-
ized communities face
daily.
My passion for civic
engagement and advo-
cacy has even more so
intensified thanks to
NaFFAA
and
EPYC.
Now that I am going
to intern in DC, I
would like to believe
that EPYC has helped
light my pathway to
public
service.
In
the more immediate
sense, EPYC allowed
me to expand upon
my skills of student
organizing
through
a
capstone
project
where I collaborated
with many other lead-
ers in many different
Filipinx American and
AAPI communities to
increase civic engage-
ment in the Midwest.
Now that my first
year with EPYC is com-
ing to a close, my hope
is to continue with
NaFFAA and the youth
branch for years to
come because I believe
so much in this mis-
sion. From my perspec-
tive, EPYC is a pipeline
to get aspiring, young
Filipinx
American
leaders out into the
world--for the culture
and social good.
I
cannot
wait
to
see the next cohort
of
ambassadors
and
the amazing things to
come. My advice? Be
brave. Be unapologetic.
Be EPYC.
I’ve only ever seen my
mother cry three times. One
of those times was when the
audiologist announced I had
a hearing loss and would
have to wear hearing aids.
As strange as it sounds, I am
thankful for being born hard
of hearing. I believe that it
has had a unique impact on
the way I’ve grown up and
has allowed me to be more
empathetic to people with
other disabilities and even
other social identities in
which I have privilege.
However, I didn’t always
see my hearing loss in such
a positive light. When I
first started my education,
I went to a private school
where nobody realized I
had hearing loss. Because
of this, the teachers always
reacted negatively to me
because I never listened to
their instructions. Since it
seemed I wasn’t being obe-
dient, the teachers and my
parents incorrectly believed
that I had a learning disabil-
ity. This was the beginning
of my feeling like an outcast
throughout my first years
of school, especially since I
had neon pink hearing aids.
After I switched to public
school, I spent a lot of time
in speech therapy because I
wasn’t speaking as properly
as the other students my age,
making me feel like an alien
in my surroundings.
I was also detached from
my culture. At the time, out-
dated psychological studies
led educators to believe that
children growing up learn-
ing two languages at the
same time had less fluency
in both languages. How-
ever, modern-day psycho-
logical studies have proven
the opposite: Learning two
languages at once is ben-
eficial to children’s learning
experiences. However, the
educators and profession-
als at my schools constantly
warned my parents not to
speak in our native language
with me at home. As a result,
I speak extremely broken
Telugu (my native language)
and struggle to understand it
as well as I might have been
able to.
While
I
eventually
became able to overcome
this and come to acceptance
with my hearing loss, it
wasn’t always easy to do this.
A lot of the incidents I expe-
rienced at a younger age also
made me feel even more self-
aware about any differences
I had from other kids.
Entering high school, I
learned how to channel the
pain and frustration I con-
tinued to feel about my hear-
ing aids into more creative
endeavors such as writing
and art. While art helped me
discover a whole history and
culture behind my disability,
writing helped me express
feelings from my childhood
that I had suppressed for
such a long time.
I had always felt I wasn’t
good enough, and my hear-
ing aids had become a tangi-
ble reminder of my isolation.
Working on approaching
this became one of my goals,
and I slowly began to realize
how much having a hearing
loss had helped me grow. I
often felt isolated because I
didn’t know any other kids
with hearing aids, but I’ve
learned, slowly, to accept
this aspect of my identity.
And yes, I don’t view this
as a flaw or a disability any-
more. After learning about
the beauty of deaf culture
and learning how people
who are hard of hearing and
deaf have been able to form
a community and express
all their pain and frustra-
tion, it’s become clearer to
me that this is an identity of
mine, not something to be
fixed or to be ashamed or
scared of.
To anyone reading this
who may be isolated because
of a hearing loss, I can tell
you that I have found sol-
ace in learning about deaf
culture, making art and
expressing
my
feelings
through writing. It’s crucial
to deal with any feelings of
isolation you may be hav-
ing about your identity, no
matter what it is and it’s also
important to learn about the
history behind since his-
tory will always continue to
empower and validate your
identity.
By
SWATHI
KOMARIVELLI
MiC CONTRIBUTOR
By CHRISTIAN PANEDA
MiC Senior Editor
PHOTO COURTESY OF NINA CEDRO
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