continue his many projects and programs. He sees social entrepreneurship as a way to continue working for the causes that he cares about, while making a living and providing for himself and his family. A fun fact about Al is that he loves the great outdoors, and he hopes to one day visit Mount Everest, and maybe even reach its peak.
Nicole Ki
is a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, planning on majoring in Journalism with a certificate in Asian American Studies. She was born and raised in Long Island, New York. This year, Nicole became involved with the UW-Madison Asian American Student Union this year, specifically working with the Education Chair
as a general committee member to help plan and facilitate educational workshops on Asian American issues. She decided to join because she wanted to find a way to address the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in the discussion of race. The largest minority at this PWI is APIA, additionally including those who are foreign born. Especially considering the racial tensions this presidential election has brought and the passion of social justice activists on campus with Black Lives Matter and #NoDAPL, APIA’s are often active supporters of these movements but find it difficult to find intentional spaces exclusively for them or that focus on this identity. Nicole wanted to provide this space for APIA’s to engage with each other and find a sense of community. This semester she has been mainly involved with AASU.
Last month, she held her first workshop on cultural appropriation in APIA culture regarding film, food, and fashion, and this month she focused on the fragmentation of APIA students on campus and what factors play into this. Her second workshop was largely discussion based, and was a forum for people to discuss with one another the social factors of why people tend to stick within their own cultural groups and hopefully bring more unity to our community. She thinks it is very important that the APIA community be connected and united to overcome the underrepresentation of APIA issues and to be in solidarity with other movements. She has also been involved in writing articles for the Badger Herald, a student newspaper on campus, and has been working on more articles that focus on Asian issues. After college, Nicole wants to write for a newspaper and report on issues in the APIA community as well as the community of color. She would also love to network and be involved with people who are leading the movement on addressing change within the APIA community. She also wants to improve her Cantonese and live in Hong Kong sometime in her life. An interesting fact about Nicole is that she has visited about half of the Seven Wonders of the World, and plans on going to the others in the future.
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