Blog #8: Final Reflection

Throughout my entire Hawken Project process, my goal has been to get involved in civic engagement. Preferably, that would be something that's happening now or something that's close to me. I created this project because it fits right along with those two objectives. Originally, I was simply planning on working a lot of service throughout my project. However, this project exceeded my wildest expectations. My mentor set up meetings with Asian leaders all across the State, and they were really very enlightening in terms of educating me about Asian American interests and issues. My mentor was amazing and responsive. Ms. Elaine Tso really helped me set up all of my interests, including working with both COVID vaccine clinics and different parts of ASIA. I think I learned and accomplished all of my essential questions. I learned a lot about Asian issues, and I worked in civics engagement and present issues. I think my project was pretty amazing, and there wasn't that much I could improve on. I learned a lot about my privilege during the project. Especially during the vaccine clinics, I first-hand saw how hard it was for some people to get vaccinated, compared to my relative ease of getting vaccinated. I mentioned this in a previous blog, but I think Service Day and leadership clinics can be great ways for Hawken to work with ASIA. To rising seniors, I mentioned in my presentation, but I think that it's important to be very precise and proactive in terms of starting your Hawken Project process. It is very stressful to try to cobble a project together at the very end, and I also think that Ms. Anderson, the head of the alumni office, is an amazing resource in terms of starting your project. She really helped me. My biggest takeaway from this project is how much of a bubble I lived in. There are so many experiences I haven't even considered when I think about the world, and this project really educated me on my blind spots in regards to the Asian American community. I'd like to thank Ms. Tso and ASIA for really helping me with this project, and I am so eternally grateful because without them I wouldn't have had this amazing experience.