The REACH US Conference in Long Beach, CA

Alisi and Khushbindar of OCAPICA and Diana, my preceptor, invited me (and the rest of the interns) to attend the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health across the U.S. Conference (REACH US) in Long Beach, CA at the Hyatt Hotel. I knew it was going to be a good experience for me and a chance for me to network and meet a lot of people working in the community.

The conference began at 8:30a so I left my house in "Ingle-chester" (Inglewood-Westchester) at about 7:30a. The drive is only 23 miles-according to Google maps, so I thought I gave myself enough time... But I never expected to get lost. haha... Well I eventually found it, thank goodness. I went to the sign in table to my designated letter group, but they didnt have my name. I was worried I wouldnt be able to attend anymore. But they knew who Alisi and Khushbindar (because they helped with the whole conference) and they gave me a name tag. Then I finally met Alisi and was able to put a face to the name of the woman I had talked to in August and had been emailing for so long. haha. She was very nice and welcoming. She gave me my conference bag and materials then told me to go upstairs and find the islanders, she said it wouldnt be hard.
And it wasnt. haha. As soon as I got off the escalator I saw Vanessa Tui'one from the Tongan Community Service Center and another Pipeline intern, Sina Fifita. Sina and I were both assigned to Diana as our preceptor, but since she is still in high school and wanted to do research on health issues of teens, they chose a location that was better for her schedule and research which was at the Tongan Community Service Center. I was glad we were able to hang out with each other that day because I was afraid I'd be a loner or something! But I think we 'clicked' and will be keeping in touch much longer after this internship... SHOUT OUTS BACK TO YOU SINA!! ;) haha
First, we got some breakfast. We were kind of shy about going around the exhibitor tables so we went to sit down with Vanessa. We sat at a table with members from the Samoan National Nurses Society- Ofeira Lutu and Genesis Lutu. Also, I met Brian Hui from the TGSC I actually re-met him that day because we had met at PIFA last year. And I also re-met Tana Lepule from the Union of Pan Asian Communities, I had met him earlier this year at a Pacific Islander Symposium at UCLA.
The MC for the morning may have been short in height but she wasnt short in laughs, thats for sure. She was so funny and was trying to set people up on dates. Poor guy at lunch time was probably embarrassed, but it was so funny.. The first people to come on stage was the Chamorro group, Kutturan Chamoru. I've seen them perform before at UCLA PISA's IMUA in 2007, as well as at PIFA in 2008. They're one of my favorites, so very talented and so in touch with their culture. It's really great.
We were welcomed by Don Knabe, the LA County Supervisor. And then Dr. Wayne Giles spoke to us. He is the "Director of the Division of Adult and Community Health, National Centers for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention"-such a long title! His presentation was interesting. The correlations he found in his study were shocking, but an unfortunate reality. That when someone who is Black or Latino are perceived as White they received better care than those people who are perceived as Black or Latino. It's very sad that this is the reality we live it, thats why conferences and studies like these are important so we can see the disparities and inequalities and promote change!!
One thing that he did which I dont like when people do is that he lumped Asian Americans with Pacific Islanders. I've always had a problem with this since I was in elementary school when you have to fill in the bubbles on the state tests. I would always cross off "Asian American/Pacific Islander" and fill in the "Other" bubble and write in Samoan. haha. UCLA's PISA along with the Asian Pacific Coalition came up with a campaign called "Count Me In". We were arguing for the separation and dissemination of the Asian American and Pacific Islander categories. We wanted to know our enrollment numbers for our specific communities not be bunched together and then given a list to try to distinguish from (which passed and should be on the UC applications now). So when question time came I was happy that one of the elder ladies of the Native Hawaiian community told him how much lumping together Asian Americans with Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders hurts our communities and when will the CDC fix this problem. Kudos to her!
After Dr. Giles presentation we had a "Lift Off" break. It was a lot of fun. Everyone was gettin down and really getting into it! It was fun and funny. Sina and I somewhat got into it too, not as much as our neighbors though, but it was a nice little energy break. haha..
The next speaker was Dr. Camara Jones. Her position is Research Director on Social Determinants of Health and Equity in the Division of Adult and Community Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--another long title! I found her presentation even more interesting. She told a lot of stories and gave analogies. Lessons learned: for the pink flowers to realize that they are just as beautiful or more beautiful than the red flowers despite all the bad soil (hardships) and that we must turn around on the conveyor belt and walk away from racism and get everyone headed for it to turn around with you and then find a way to break the racism conveyor belt. Alisi wasn't kidding when she said Dr. Jones was "the real deal".
After Dr. Jones we were sort of kicked out of the ballroom so they could set up for lunch. haha. Kicked out nicely though. :) Sina and I visited exhibitor booths and collected material and cards. We met a guy from the US Census and Guam Communications Network, Keith Castro. He was a very nice guy and asked us about school. While talking to him, he introduced me to a lady named Karen Heckert. She is a Program Director for the Pacific Center of Excellence in the Elimination of Disparities and works in the Departmen of Family Medicine and Community Health, John A Burns School of Medicine, at the University of Hawaii. So like I said in my "About me", I was Pre Med and the University of Hawaii is actually my number one pick for Medical School. So I was very excited to have met her. I told her about this and she told me to give her my contact information. So I did. :) I was excited. So I plan to send her an email soon. :)
On this break before lunch, I finally met Khushbindar and two other interns, Ono Vaifale and Lena Yandall-who are both intering with Dr. Sora Park-Tanjasiri at CSUF. Khushbindar gave us packets of information to be filled out and returned to our preceptors the following Friday (9.25.09). I also met Anna Tapu, one of the recipients for the PATH scholarhip. And then I met another intern, Jocelyn Delfino she is interning with GCN. They allowed us to come back into the ballroom for lunch. All the interns I met, Anna, and another intern, Elna Simpson, and Alisi, Brian and Keith sat together at the front table. The food was different for us. I've never had a green salad that had pears in it! lol. But it as pretty good. And the main lunch good too, I liked the rice thing (I'm not even sure if it was rice, haha) a lot. I talked to Sina and Anna most of lunch.
Unfortunately, :( I had to leave the conference early, too early. I had to commute to UCLA because I had work at 2p. No one wanted to switch shifts with me!! And school started the next day so I had to miss the second day of the conference as well! I was bummed. I'm happy I was able to make it for what I could be there for. I networked. I learned. I met a lot of people. It was a really great experience and I'm so very thankful and fortunate to be apart of this internship to have such opportunities!! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! :)