Congratulations to the 2011 AAWA Scholarship and AAWA Recognition Award Recipients. These recipients were honored at our annual banquet on April 23, 2011 at the Hilton Hotel in Santa Clara, California.
1. Katherine Nasol
Katherine is currently a senior at Notre Dame High School and enjoys watching Glee, singing show tunes, running with her dogs, and spending time with friends and family.
Currently, she is the co-founder of the Pagkabata Project, an initiative that aims to eradicate child trafficking through awareness, youth leadership, and education. Last December, she traveled to Manila, Philippines to work with girls who have been recently trafficked and rescued. In addition, she has been a member of Girls For A Change, a non profit that teaches middle school and high school girls leadership skills through community service. She has been a member of the Girl Steering Committee and its National Board of Directors for the past two years. She has been involved in various student and youth leadership teams, such as the TASC Force, the community service team at school. She is currently interning at the Santa Clara County Office of Women Policy, where she is researching policies that affect women and creating a county-wide Girls Advisory Board.
Katherine will be studying political science at Stanford University this fall and hopes to continue using her passion for social justice and women empowerment after college and throughout her career.
2. San Jose State University Vietnamese Student Association
The San Jose State University VSA is a non-profit student organization founded in 1978 with the main purpose of serving the Vietnamese community by preserving and promoting Vietnamese culture and traditions.
The association currently consists of 18 officers, one faculty advisor, and 50 members. It is primarily for Vietnamese students at San Jose State University who are eager to help the Vietnamese community as well as other communities. The organization makes all efforts to maintain the Vietnamese Culture throughout generations that were born or raised outside of Vietnam. It also promotes diversity in all ethnic groups that are willing to learn the Vietnamese culture.
The organization hosts a series of events annually – Tet Parade and Festival, Moon Festival, Health Fair, Winterformal, and its annual Culture Show in June. This year, after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March, the VSA raised money for The Japan Relief Efforts.