2022 LHTP Heritage Scholarship

“…teens have more impact than they think…”

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, LHTP has partnered with one of our donors to establish the LHTP Heritage Scholarship. We are proud to present to you, our inaugural winner, Bilan Guan. Bilan is a senior at Lincoln High School and has been a member of YUCA since her freshman year and part of the Increase the Peace Support team. Bilan will be attending UCLA in the fall, and we are happy we can continue to support her.

A special thank you to all the students that took the time to share your wonderful stories for consideration. From defying the prophecy of fortune tellers to the impact of movies and media, the weight of your heritage shone through.

Here, Bilan reflects on the rise in hate crime and how she chose to take action.

In my Chinese household, I’m often told to remain silent or stay away from issues that do not directly impact me to avoid unnecessary trouble. But after hearing about an Asian elder who went missing in LA Chinatown only to be found murdered three days later, I was stunned. There were growing incidents of AAPI senior citizen attacks all over the US, and I saw the importance, as a teen, to take action with peers to combat Anti-Asian violence.

After this incident, I noticed a shift in my community. Tables where Asian elderly normally gather for coffee and chess were empty. Aunties selling veggies on the sidewalks were no longer there. My grandparents would normally go out to Chinatown on a daily basis to grab coffee or Yum Cha and Dim Sum with their friends. They had begun to stay home due to the rise of AAPI hate crimes. On Sundays, they would usually go to church but because of COVID pandemic and rise in AAPI hate crimes, I had to help them with technology such as setting up Zoom and FaceTime for church meetings.

As a teen, I was desperate to take action and do something about these issues, even if it was just a little bit. With that, my team of students from Chinatown Teen Council organized programs to raise awareness about hate crimes happening against the AAPI community. We offered a safe space for teens to discuss issues around racism, and held a self-defense program where a martial artist shared self-defense moves to protect ourselves and our family from harm. Our programs had over fifty participants, both teens and adults in the community joined us. From my observations and survey after the program, I saw that participants felt more connected to their community and civic engagement.

I learned the power of teens and the importance of empowering them because we can make more important contributions to our community than I initially thought. By taking initiative, we drew adult community members together to stand in solidarity. I felt that teens have more impact than they think with the hope to inspire more teens to take part in advocacy.

We hope you continue to support LHTP and youth like Bilan who are representative of spirit of our community. Head over to GiveInMay.org today to donate towards the 2022 Give In May Giving Challenge in recognition of AAPI Heritage Month.

Support #GiveInMay

During the month of May, the Lincoln Heights Tutorial Program (LHTP) is participating in Give In May, a national campaign to support organizations serving the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community during AAPI Heritage Month. Supporting AAPI is important to LHTP a minority group amongst the minority Latino and AAPI population we serve in Lincoln Heights. We help develop leaders from all backgrounds in our community and our young women make up over 70% of our leadership roles.

LHTP, JYC, & YUCA have become clubs where our AAPI youth have a voice in their community and has been a bridge for the diverse heritage of our community. In some Asian cultures, elders encourage youth to be “seen but not heard." While our youth may follow this mantra out of respect for their elders, at LHTP we push our youth to be leaders that challenge the status quo and take actions that make a difference. At LHTP, our kids learn to speak up, express their opinions, share their ideas, and learn that it’s okay to have different perspectives. Given the right resources, youth can make a difference and can bring about positive changes in their community.

We hope you choose to support LHTP this year in the #GiveInMay campaign. Donating through GiveInMay.com not only directly supports our mission of lifting our community through youth empowerment, but also raises awareness of our programs and gives us a chance to be a winner in this year’s Give In May challenge. We can’t do this without you. Not only do we need your support, we also need your help to spread the word. Please tell your friends and family why you believe in our work and encourage them to support us too.

Click HERE to make your donation today. Thank you for helping the AAPI community!

Quarterly Update March '22

LHTP winter session has been running smoothly, as COVID mandates have been lifted even more. Our students have been keeping a good rhythm of studying, completing homework assignments, and improving in all of their school subjects. Our LHTP Directing Staff have been busy observing and coach training some of our newer staff members. They quickly picked up the skills needed to be strong tutors. We’re motivating and encouraging our students for the final months of this school year to push through and to excel!!!

Our JYC & YUCA youth clubs had a few community service events this quarter. We had the opportunity to help assemble thousands of goodie bags to be mailed out to the LA Firecracker Virtual Race participants. Our Youth club members helped twice this year with the LA Marathon water station, in November & March. We saw many familiar faces of our JYC & YUCA friends and alum in the crowd, who were running the race. We were able to take our JYC leaders for their one day retreat. We kept it local this year, in Alhambra. It was a great way to bond some more as we wrap up their year together. Many of our seniors have been applying for Scholarships and eagerly awaiting to hear from the Colleges about acceptances.

Upcoming for JYC, YUCA, & “IP” is celebrating API Heritage Month, Cabinet & Leadership team elections & banquets, possibly a college tour (depending on COVID), and our “Increase the Peace” Green Space Challenge.