On Wednesday, May 18, at Point Loma Nazarene University
3900 Lomaland Drive, San Diego,
ASIA, The Journal of Culture & Commerce, and Point Loma Nazarene
University will host a luncheon honoring a number of Asian and Pacific Islanders for their
contributions in 9 areas. They are:
1.) COMMUNITY SERVICE
a.) The San Diego Asian Youth Organization (SDAYO), founded in 1995, empowers young Southeast Asians in San Diego to take leadership positions in the community through its exercise of cultural pride and community service, including anti-graffiti campaigns, anti-gang forums and other local activities.
b.) The Union of Pan Asian Communities (UPAC) advocates for social services to assist San Diego's immigrant Laotian, Cambodian and Vietnamese communities. With staffers representing more than 31 different cultures, languages and dialects, UPAC serves 34,000 people annually through mental health services, alcohol and drug counseling, economic development, youth gang prevention and help for the elderly.
c.) Stan Chu, business, civic leader and founder of the San Diego Alliance for Asian Pacific Islander Americans, has actively campaigned to promote Asian and Pacific Islander representation on the city's most important and influential boards and commissions. He also serves on multiple boards, including the Mayor's Asian Pacific Islander Advisory Board.
d.) Romer Fajota is founder and CEO of the non-profit Voices of Faith (VOF), a mentoring and outreach program that in 2003 provided financial assistance and physical help for victims of the wild fires that struck parts of Mira Mesa. Additionally, his work with Good Shepherd Parish in Mira Mesa has revitalized the church's Contemporary Choir while he has personally organized numerous musical and theatrical events for the community.
e.) George Lin serves as associate director of the San Diego Asian Film festival and as a board member of the San Diego Alliance for Asian Pacific Islander Americans. Lin was also instrumental in organizing the return of the annual Dragon Boat Festival to San Diego, as part of Asian Heritage Month.
2.) EDUCATION
a.) Murray Lee, curator of Chinese-American history in San Diego, is a renowned expert on this city's Chinese community, has lectured widely and contributed hundreds of articles on the subject. He is also coordinator of the Chinese American Oral History Project, a lifelong project that has been widely acclaimed by the San Diego Historical Society and recognized as integral to this city's history.
b.) Mitz Lee has been actively involved in school board issues for close to two decades. Last year, her activism was awarded with her election as the District 4 representative to the San Diego Unified School District, where she continues to advocate for change and unity.
c.) Robin Tarr founded the Jonathan Tarr Foundation in honor of her 17-year-old son killed in a tragic car accident and to honor high school students with scholarships. So far, the foundation has awarded more than 100 scholarships in honor of Jonathan's memory.
d.) The scholarship committee of the Pacific Islander Festival Association awards scholarships each year to needy students. Last year, 12 students were awarded stipends of $1,000 each to continue their educations. PIFA scholarships are also awarded annually to winners of the Miss Pacific Islander of San Diego Scholarship Pageant to honor both educational and cultural achievement by youngsters of the Pacific Islander community.
3.) LEGAL AFFAIRS/GOVERNMENT
a.) The Southwest Center for Asian Pacific American Law (S.C.A.P.A.L.) is a nonprofit public benefit corporation formed by concerned professionals from San Diego's legal, business and academic communities for the purpose of preserving and protecting the legal rights of individuals in the San Diego region who do not have adequate access to the legal system.
b.) Marissa Acierto has trumpeted ethnic diversity in politics through her candidacies for San Diego City Council District 4 in 2002 and 2004. As an advocate of increased diversity in government positions, her candidacies have helped increase awareness of the region's Filipino-Americans as a vital political force.
c.) JoAnn Fields, communications director for Council District 4, represented by San Diego City Councilman Tony Young, serves as liaison to the Asian/Pacific Islander and Filipino communities. As former community representative for U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, Fields was the congresswoman's liaison to the community on military and educational issues.
d.) Sandra Chong, assistant general counsel for the San Diego Unified School District, practices public construction law with a specific focus on projects funded by Proposition MM. As a member of the San Diego District Attorney's Community Advisory Board, she establishes a forum for members of the community to bring public safety and criminal justice concerns to the attention of appropriate government agencies.
e.) Superior Court Judge Lillian Y. Lim, the first Filipino-American woman appointed to the bench in the United States, is a founding officer and member of the California Asian Pacific Bar. She serves as a mentor for at-risk teens and in 2004 was honored by Assemblywoman Shirley Horton as "Woman of the Year" for her contributions to the area's youth and the Asian community.
4.) ART, PHILOSOPHY, LITERATURE
a.) Dr. Catherine Yi-yu Cho ("Cathy") Woo is an internationally known scholar, painter, poet, composer and educator who has made major contributions to the understanding of Chinese philosophy and aesthetics. Her art has been exhibited throughout the world, most notably at the Allen Sheppard Gallery and the United Nations in New York and one of her poems set to music, "Tian Tian Tian Lan" became a No. 1 hit in Taiwan.
b.) Su-Mei Yu, owner of two Thai restaurants in San Diego that bear the Saffron name, is the author of prize winning cook book "Cracking the Coconut," which earned the distinction of being one of the largest-selling cookbooks three years ago.
c.) Asian-American comic book artist Jim Lee has been revitalizing some of America's most iconic comic book superheroes for years. Two years ago, his work on "Batman" helped sell more than 230,000 copies of the comic book story line's last issue. Recently, illustrating a year-long series of "Superman" has made Lee one of the most popular and lucrative artists in the comic book field.
5.) PERFORMANCE: DANCE, MUSIC, THEATER
a.) Samahan Philippine Dance Company provides Filipino youth with the knowledge and appreciation of their cultural heritage through the medium of dance. While the company started out as a youth program, it now is called upon regularly to render performances throughout the San Diego community.
b.) Actor-playwright-producer Seema Sueko and her Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company, which, in Hawaian means "story, myth or legend," have been entertaining San Diegans with innovative theater for years. The recipient of many acting awards, Sueko earlier this year received critical acclaim for her starring role in the Old Globe's production of "The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow."
c.) Pasacat, the dance troupe, in 1970, became the first formally organized Philippine Dance Company in San Diego. Its mission of preserving Filipino culture through dance and performance, has been widely recognized throughout San Diego as a vital cultural force.
d.) Chinary Ung, an expert on Khmer music, specifically the roneat-ek, or Cambodian equivalent of a xylophone, combines traditional Cambodian and Western elements in his work, which has garnered worldwide recognition from such prestigious musical organizations as the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Ung, a professor in the UCSD Music Department, is the special musical guest at the 12th Summer Festival hosted by Southwest Chamber Music Society in San Marino, Calif.
6.) CULTURAL PRESERVATION
a.) As commissioner of City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, Calvin Woo aids individuals and organizations cultivate artistic and cultural opportunities throughout the city. Through his firm, Design Innovation Institute, which he co-founded, he brings design principles to a variety of innovative projects.
b.) The Asian Pacific Collaborative has been instrumental in revitalizing the part of Downtown San Diego that was once a thriving community of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Pacific-Islanders by adding an Asian perspective to urban revival. The revitalized district, with its weekend farmer's market and community activities, is being restored as a vital cultural center.
c.) The Chinese Historical Society of San Diego owns and operates the Chinese Historical Museum downtown as a center for preserving the history of Chinese settlement in the region through its display of documents, photographs, and artifacts dealing with Chinese-American history and heritage. Last year the museum doubled its size with the addition of the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Extension.
d.) The Vietnamese Federation of San Diego is the guiding force behind many cultural events, from the annual Tet celebration, to the moon cake festival in the fall, bringing together the Vietnamese community in a number of pleasant surroundings to celebrate its food, music and culture.
e.) Tom Yanagihara, president of the Japanese Friendship Garden Society of San Diego, has been instrumental in making the Japanese Friendship Garden, first opened in 1915, a center of Japanese culture in San Diego. The garden for years has served to attract locals and tourists alike to the richness of Japanese culture and tradition.
f.) Orathai Rae, the former president of the Thai Association of San Diego, has been a driving force in preserving Thai culture and language locally and in bringing together the local Thai community, along with the Thai Buddhist Temple in Escondidio, for weekly cultural programs.
7.) ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
a.) Daniel "Hai-Ming" Chang is founder, chairman and CEO of San Diego-based AEM Inc., the first and largest U.S. manufacturer of ceramic-based technologies that serve information and telecommunication industries. The award-winning AEM products are ranked by NASA as some of the best protective components used for space applications.
b.) Joe Chou, president of the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce of San Diego, builds bridges between San Diego and Taiwan by organizing high-tech seminars exploring potential strategic alliances between both locales. Chou and the chamber have also demonstrated their commitment to the community by organizing 14 events focusing on medical and other issues in 2004 alone.
c.) Dr. Zhu Shen, director of business development for Immusol, Inc., a clinical-stage drug development company, is widely known as an expert on global pharmaceutical markets and as the founder of BioForesight Inc., a consulting company responsible for establishing strategic partnerships between pharmaceutical companies in the United States and Asia.
d.) Joe Yamada, co-founder of Yamada and Caughey, the oldest major landscape architecture and environmental planning firm in San Diego 50 years ago, was one of the first Asians to serve on the City of San Diego's appointed boards and committees on land development. A pioneer in breaking through many of the racial barriers of his time, he also stablished a role for the landscape architecture in public and civic land planning.
e.) Ito Girard & Associates, in the persons of Robert Ito and Roxanne Mariko Girard, have been a major contributor in developing affordable housing in San Diego. Together, they bring years of valuable experience in community involvement, Ito as founding CEO of Occupational Training Services and the San Diego Community Housing Corporation; Girard, as owner of Neighborhood Real Estate Services.
8.) SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH
a.) Space pioneer Praful Bhavsar had a long and illustrious career in physics and space exploration, studying cosmic rays, solar proton events and the dynamics of the upper atmosphere. Co-author of a United Nations report on the application of space technology to development, he was secretary of the India National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
b.) As president and founder of Alfa Scientific Designs, Naishu Wang has directed the private Poway-based firm in becoming a leader in its field and in garnering several awards, including the Minority Owned Small Business of the Year (2002) Award from the Small Business Association for developing devices that detect cardiac ailments, cancer and infectious diseases.
c.) Charles Tu serves as associate dean of the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. He has lectured at universities in Taiwan, Japan and China and devoted years of research to the practical and electronic application of semi-conductors. Tu was a distinguished member of the technical staff of AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray hill, N.J.
9.) MEDICINE AND HEALTH
a.) Kalasugan Community Services promotes health and improves the quality of life among Filipinos and Filipino-Americans by promoting and advocating positive changes in lifestyle through health and social programs. The service was established in 1992 as a coalition of professionals and community leaders dedicated to helping others improve their health.
b.) Dr. Mitsuo Tomita, director of medical education at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, has long promoted health awareness within San Diego's Asian Pacific Islander community. In addition to being a regular panelist on numerous health forums and the author of several studies, including "The Macrobiotic Diet as Treatment for Cancer," Tomita serves on the board of UPAC and the Mayor's Asian/Pacific Islander Advisory Board and was "Partner of the Year" by his peers in 1998.
c.) Queenie Iglesia is the district nurse for the Santee School District, which serves 6,800 students and families. She directs several school health programs and promotes healthy habits and attitude throughout the district, particularly among low-income families.