|
Maggie Kong, the CUIP intern for the retention program Community
Unified Student Network (CUSN) had a challenging yet fulfilling
year working along side with other dedicated folks in CUSN. As a
third year, she was excited to learn about the ins and outs of UCSC
and felt that CUIP was a great place for her to grow and work collectively
with other leaders on campus. Having spent her first and second
year shadowing her mentors, she felt that it was necessary to step
up in leadership positions that can make change in her world as
well as everybody else. During the end of her second year, she decided
to take on a coordinator position of an outreach program geared
towards underrepresented students of color. She wanted to extend
her help by not only promoting higher education, but also helping
students of color who are attending UCSC feel comfortable and safe
in an environment that is not necessarily catered to them. She felt
that with the CUIP position, she would be able to work and assess
students’ needs, and along the way, learn and develop her
self-motivations. In addition, she was hopeful that CUIP would gear
her towards the path of becoming an inspired individual that would
stimulate growth in others and make a difference.
As the intern for CUSN, she worked with several affiliates in efforts
to research, assess and support Asian American/Pacific Islander
(AA/PI) student retention. With the help of CUSN core, Engaging
Education, her SOAR advisor, and Ch.U.C.K (collective of the four
student retention programs: Chale, Umoja, CUSN, KAMP), she was able
to conduct research as to what AA/PI students are struggling with,
and how can CUSN can help address those issues. Forms of research
that Maggie conducted included evaluation forms, community meetings,
core meetings and family groups. This will in turn reflect CUSN’s
programming and events throughout the quarter and enforce that each
event has its purpose. In addition to this research, Maggie felt
the need to provide documentation of what CUSN’s purpose is.
With the help of CUSN core, she drafted a mission statement that
would be beneficial to the future of CUSN. Coming into this internship,
Maggie did not realize how much foundational work she had to cover.
Nonetheless, it was very beneficial to her as she now can say that
she gained research and foundation developmental skills under her
belt.
All her motivation and desire to continue the success of CUSN was
all due to the dedication and commitment from CUSN core. Throughout
this year, Maggie has felt that she has grown the most within the
core space. Her facilitation skills, communication, and working
skills that she has learned in the past were all put to test within
this space and challenged her to push not only herself but her peers
to step up, rely on each other, and become leaders together.
Now, she is determined to keep an active role in her community,
contributing her time to working collaboratively with the Ethnic
Student Organization Council, Asian/Pacific Islander Student Alliance
(APISA), Motivation Conference and CUSN. Her post-graduation plans
include an interest in attending graduate school having a focus
in environmental racism and social justice work.
|
