College junior Mana Nakagawa, elected chairwoman of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition on Wednesday, now faces the challenge of leading the organization forward.
The APSC is an umbrella group for 21 Asian-Pacific organizations on campus.
Nakagawa sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian to discuss how she hopes to achieve her goals this year.
DP: What are your goals for the APSC this year?
MN: One of my main goals and hopes is to really strengthen ourselves from the inside out. ... I think that if we are strong within our [Asian-Pacific American] community, the external issues will come more naturally.
DP: How do you plan on achieving these goals?
MN: The APA community is so diverse and very large at Penn. I think it's very important that from the get-go ... we establish our goals together and that we grow together from that strong foundation.
In our new board we have a really wide range of experiences, people who have different networks. ... I do hope that, through the diversity of our board, we can reach out to a great range of the APA community.
DP: What do you hope to achieve outside the APA community?
MN: One of the things is getting more funding for APSC. Also, we want to address all the issues that are around -- space allocation, appropriate and adequate facility resources for the APA community.
I'd like to have a close network with all the other coalitions as well. ... As a minority group, I think it would be great for all of us to really join together. ... We have so much in common that we have to realize, and I'd really like to develop that.
DP: What do you think your biggest challenges are?
MN: There are so many differences amongst us. ... It is often difficult to really unite such different backgrounds. But being united doesn't necessarily mean we all have to have the same opinions ... just as long as we realize that differences are important and that if diversity is one of our strengths, empowerment within our community will come more easily.
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