Asia Media International is proud to announce that its Executive Editor Michelle Nguyen has been awarded one of seven coveted national Congressional Fellowships offered this year by the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), the highly praised national non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Asian Pacific American participation and representation at all levels of the political process.
The full-time, paid nine-month long program places the winning fellows in Congressional offices that have a keen interest in Asian-Pacific issues, usually in their congressional Washington offices. But due to the impediments of the Covid-19 pandemic, the positions for the time being will function in virtual technology (as for most of us these days). As of today (18 September), Executive Editor Nguyen will be working out of her Orange County home office for activist Congresswoman Susie Lee, the Nevada Democrat, as an integral part of Rep. Lee’s legislative team.
Says the honored Ms. Nguyen, who is bilingual in Vietnamese: “As the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, I have always been an advocate for the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community. Ours is an extremely complex one with a rich and nuanced history, and it deserves to be heard in public discourse. AANHPIs are marginalized from the conversation at every turn, which is why I am passionate in fighting for our rights and representation. It’s extremely important that I give back to the community that raised me, and I hope that, through this fellowship, I will be able to build upon my leadership skills and expand my capacity for community organization and civic engagement.”
Nguyen, who graduated from LMU in June and who will remain AMI Executive Editor at least through this year, majored in political science and international relations, two of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Art’s most recognized undergraduate programs. Her senior thesis advisor was Political Science Professor Richard Fox, who teaches in the areas of U.S. Congress, elections, and media and politics. His noted research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and focuses on political ambition, electoral behavior, and gender politics. He is the co-editor of Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics, 5th edition (Cambridge University Press, 2021).