Stanford’s Listen to the Silence Conference 2018 was a wonderful learning experience. Although our audience turnout was smaller than last year, I enjoyed how engaging the audience was. It was inspiring to see that people were interested and willing to learn about various issues on a Sunday. I attended the Untold Stories of Asian Immigrants. The workshop mainly focused on the deportation of Asians and how the model minority silenced the struggles Asian immigrants faced, while recognizing the flawed deportation system that separates families and forces immigrants to go back to a country they aren’t familiar with. It was heartbreaking to see the family’s point of view when their loved one got deported. I think presenting to college students rather than high school students allowed us to go deeper on the topic because the college students generally took it more seriously and were more mature. In addition, most of the college students were more familiar on the topic of DV than high school students, which allowed us to have more of a discussion rather than us just presenting to the audience. Personally, the best part of LTS was learning more about issues Asians face, while hearing various perspectives on the topic. – Emily Liang
Our trip to Stanford’s Listen to the Silence Conference this year became my second time there for the event and first time there for our presentation. As usual, the entire vibe throughout the event was inspiring, empowering, engaging, and hopeful. Students and activists were able to gather for similar interests and learn how to become even better leaders and listeners in our own communities. I feel very honored to be a part of the event as a presenter, because I was able to share my knowledge others in hopes of a wider spread of awareness. YAC members were able to gain experience in presentation skills and interact with people from various ages. The attitude from our audience was definitely very respectful, and everyone genuinely seemed to be absorbing the information from our presentation despite the difference in age between the audience and the YAC members. I went to a workshop about Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants and their battle against deportation. The entire room was very peaceful, and I was able to feel a deeper connection between their struggles and my family’s struggles. I learned how similar people’s realities can be because of a flaw in our government and law system. My favorite part about the Listen to the Silence 2018 event would have to be seeing everyone physically and mentally coming together as one through the presentations, speeches, breaks, and workshops. – Vivian Wu
Stanford’s Listen to the Silence 2018 was really interesting. All of the workshops were focused on the theme of immigration which is a very important factor currently affecting our communities. Besides the workshop that we presented, I also attended a workshop about the untold stories of Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants. I learned that deportation is happening to people in our communities and that we should be more aware of the issue. The detaining of individuals and separation of families is a human rights violation that needs to be fought against. Presenting a workshop to collegiate students was more engaging because they were really soaking in the information and learning more about the topic of teen dating violence. Sometimes high schoolers do not take it seriously. It was refreshing to have a different audience. The best part of Listen to the Silence for me was hearing all the different perspectives that people had and the issues that the Asian American community faces. – Amber Chang
I learned a lot about immigration at this year’s Listen to the Silence conference. I went to a workshop about Cambodian and Vietnamese deportation hosted by Daniel Luu. Before attending the workshop, I knew that deportation was a major issue in those two communities. I got to learn about how it affects family life through this workshop. I was able to go to the Keynote Panel section of the conference where Nkauj Iab Yang, Roland Hsu, and Priya Murthy were speaking about their perspectives of making change, DACA, immigration and resettlement. I was awed by the panelists because they spoke with so much wisdom and passion. It was interesting to listen to their stories and about the work they do since immigration is an important topic that needs to be talked about. As for presenting at Stanford, I was impressed by the participants’ willingness to actively engage in the workshop and how they took the resources we offered for them. They also seemed to care more about the topic because they had options for workshops but chose to go to ours. In the end, I believe the best part of this conference was being in a space meant for healing and learning because I think those are the spaces where I grow the most in. – Kathy Liang
Similar to last year, I really enjoyed this year’s LTS conference. I felt like I had more fun this year and more confident in our workshop. Us as a group and as a workshop, I felt like we had the material down and the slideshow improved a lot than it was last year. I went to the agriculture and environmental workshop and I really enjoyed it. Environmental/agriculture in relation with Asian Americans like my two favorite things! We always learned about Cesar Chavez and his actions towards the agriculture/farmers union and movement in California but no one ever talks about the Filipino farmers and their part in the revolution. I learned about that part of history that has been forgotten. Stanford is a beautiful campus and I’m glad we got to have the conference there with the Asian American Bay Area community and have people talking about a bunch of important topics within the API community. – Emily Mei