Honors Contract for SWK-S 102

Title: The Rise of Racism for Asian Americans After COVID-19

Description:
For my Honors contract in SWK-S 102: Diversity in a Pluralistic Society, I will be researching the rise of racism for Asian Americans since the COVID-19 pandemic started. For this project, I will read trustworthy and peer-reviewed articles and journals to ensure that I have accurate information and data. I will also try to reach out to other Asian Americans in my community to see if they are willing to let me interview them. As a psychology major, I also plan to incorporate how these last few years affected our mental health. With the information I gathered, I will create a presentation of my findings and share it with the class.
As an Asian American, this subject is very dear to me. There have been many times when I experienced micro-aggressions and did not stand up for myself. This Honors project will allow me to collect the voices and words of people within my community and educate others on the issues we have been facing all our lives but have escalated these past few years. This class is very discussion-based and offers room for conversations on topics we might be uncomfortable talking about. I think this is a perfect opportunity and environment to bring awareness to the rise of racism against Asian Americans since the pandemic started.

Timeline:
January 27 – Contract Due
February 3 – Find scholarly articles/journals or books on the topic
March 13 – Interviews
March 24 – Gather information and start the presentation
March 31 – Review with Professor and revise/finishing touches
April 5 - Present to class

Skills:
Research - I will be reading scholarly and peer-reviewed articles and journals to gather information. I will then see if the Asian Americans in my community would be interested in letting me interview them on this topic.
Experiential - I will be sharing my experiences and knowledge with my class.
Communication - I will be communicating with my class through my presentation.
Problem-solving: Although racism cannot be fixed overnight, this topic and presentation can help my peers understand the issues within my community and reflect on their own biases and attitudes towards people like me.
Community Contributor: I will be advocating for other Asian Americans like me who feel like they cannot speak up for themselves or for their community.

Reflection:
This honors experience allowed me to share a topic that is very dear to me with my peers. For my project, I made a presentation on the statistics of Asian hate throughout American history and Western media. I also interviewed my friends who identify as Asian to discuss their experiences and opinion on being Asian American. I then compiled a video with their responses. This project was very dear to me because there have not been many spaces where I can discuss this issue. The purpose of this class is to understand the importance of diversity, so it was the perfect opportunity to bring up this topic.
The engaging learning experiences for my project were research and experiential/applied learning. I had to do extensive research to confirm the information I am sharing is accurate. There is not much information on Asian Americans in history books unless it is related to war. I had to look through many websites and articles to find specific statistics. This helped me learn more about the different databases I could use to find peer-reviewed sources. For experiential/applied learning, I compiled all this information into a slideshow presentation and also edited 6 different interviews. The video consisted of 8 Asian Americans of different ethnic backgrounds answering open-ended questions, especially surrounding the increase in Asian hate after the COVID-19 pandemic. This helped me learn how to be more comfortable discussing topics that would normally make me uncomfortable. I am now more comfortable advocating for my community.
My project aligns with communicator, problem solver, and community contributor. I had to communicate with 6 different interviewees and give my presentation to the entire class (approx. 20 students). This experience has helped me to be less fearful when presenting to a bigger audience. Although discrimination cannot be cured overnight, I wanted to give my peers knowledge of this issue that affects my community, and what they can do to be an ally. Towards the end of my presentation, my peers were open to asking any questions, and I was able to clarify any questions or concerns they still had. Although this is a small project that was shared with a small group, I believe this is a good step to contributing to my community by sharing knowledge and helping them overcome any biases they might have had.
I learned that I am a lot more confident in advocating for myself. This has helped me in my educational growth because I am more confident in talking about controversial subjects in discussion forums or in written assignments. Being an Honors student means taking risks, and for me, it was sharing the discrimination my community has experienced in recent years. Being an Honors student also means trying to bring change. As said earlier, I know my project is just a small step in addressing discrimination towards Asian Americans, but it is a big step for the Asian American community here in Indianapolis.
A challenge I encountered is trying to find historical events that have affected Asian Americans. There are not many individual articles or journals about these events. Most of them were listed in Wikipedia, which is not the most reliable source. I had to keep searching until I found 2-3 articles/journals/websites that are consistent with the information they had. Next time, I would use the databases that are available at the IUPUI library, or public library to prevent spending more time researching than working. I also ran into an issue when editing the interviews. Some interviews lasted over an hour, so it was very difficult to edit them. Next time I would be more specific about the questions I ask to make it easier for me to edit.
I want to use this experience as a way to motivate me to advocate for more minority groups. It is very common and understandable for people to prioritize their community, but there are so many intersections with other communities that it would be a disadvantage to our own to not be an ally. I want to work in a clinical or counseling setting where I will meet different patients from all sorts of backgrounds. Using the opportunity to discuss what aspects of society affect them is a way to help them with their treatment. Many cultures do not prioritize mental health, so learning about the patients' attitudes and experiences with it will help me know how to treat them.

Below, I have attached my presentation. I am not able to attach the interviews since it is too large to upload on here.