Hi! We are AAmPower!
We are a youth-based non-profit dedicated to bringing awareness to the detrimental effects of the model minority myth in Asian American youth. Many times, it seems like Asian Americans are boxed into the category of the hard, dependable worker, the straight-A student. This stereotype can be detrimental because it programs Asian youth to think that we can only be and act one certain way. AAmPower aims to create spaces and teach Asian Americans to think break outside the bounds of what we think is even possible.
My Story: Kaelie Chang
I'm Kaelie Chang, a junior at Head-Royce School. I first got the idea to create this non-profit while I was at debate camp (the definition of the model minority, I know). I became very interested in the origin of the model minority in the Japanese internment camps and how it affects people today. I noticed that a lot of my Asian American friends did many of the same extracurriculars as I did, spending much of their time at debate and studying for hours on end, but they were not happy. After having numerous discussions about the pressure to excel in school, I realized that many of the people around us treated us as if they simply expected us to be good at math, or be naturally gifted in musical instruments, even if we were not. My experiences having family friends ask my if I took calculus as a freshman while simultaneously getting my name wrong showed me that Asians are treated as dependable, which justifies us fading into the background. I started AAmPower to help others like me discover who we are outside of the stereotypes of being "the smart kid", and learn to think outside the box to become the world's future leaders.