SINE HWANG JENSEN is a queer, Asian American, mixed-race woman who began volunteering with APIENC about a year ago. Currently, Sine is a librarian at the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library, focusing on Asian American and Comparative Ethnic Studies. Growing up, Sine had difficulty finding resources about her history and where she came from. She
JEAN KIM, a queer, Asian-American Korean, is one of APIENC’s most active volunteers. She “got pulled into the mix” through her friendships with staff members and volunteers. As Jean became more familiar with APIENC, she found that the volunteers were passionate, and was inspired by how much they believed in this work. Jean was motivated
AVERY NGUYEN is a 1st generation, Viet-American, gender fluid, queer young adult who has been volunteering with APIENC through our Dragon Fruit Project and trans justice work. They are inspired and supported by their family, their community, and their love of stories. Avery began to think about organizing with queer and trans Asians and Pacific Islanders
“I think it’s really cool, seeing connections being made and in a loving way. It’s not like the organization is only invested in people to the extent which they can provide skills; the organization is also interested in developing leadership and love and community.” CYNTHIA FONG is a Bay Area native and 1st generation Asian
DENISE HUANG is a queer, 2nd generation Chinese American woman and current student at Mount Holyoke University, a women’s college in Western Massachusetts. Denise, as self-proclaimed “Asian American history geek,” came to APIENC in the summer of 2015, and has been helping to build up the transcribing and coding process for our Dragon Fruit
SHIRLEY HSIN-I LIU was born in Taiwan and came to the US when she was three years old. She identifies as a queer Chinese American, and her preferred gender pronouns are she and they. She currently works at UC Berkeley as a program manager within the Institute of East Asian Studies. Shirley grew up in
YIFAN MAI identifies as a queer cis-male Chinese-Singaporean. Currently, he is a software engineer at Coursera, an education technology company. Growing up in Singapore, Yifan felt very disconnected from his queer identity. Because of state censorship and a culture of shame, it was impossible to find representations of LGBTQ people in the media or have
