10th Annual Capitol Internship Award
Scholarship Fundraising & Installation Gala

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APAPA Life Members get 1 complimentary seat!

In 2004, Mayue Carlson, APAPA's President/CEO had a vision of a program that would help Asian and Pacific Islander American youths to become our future leaders. Since the inception of this program, we had 115 college students interned at the State Capitol and APAPA-CEF has given over $100,000 in monetary awards to many deserving students. Some of our past recipients attended Sacramento State University, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Stanford, UC Irvine, University of Southern California, Columbia University, Harvard, and Yale to name a few.

In 2005, APAPA expanded to include awarding scholarships to graduate college students to further assist them in completing their education. Scholarships have been awarded to students representing many ethnic and diverse community groups. Many of the scholarship recipients plan to take their education and skills back to serve their respective communities. 

APAPA's summer internship program is eight weeks starting in June and concludes mid-August. The interns attend orientation before they report to their assigned offices. The interns receive training from their assigned offices and then given a variety of assignments to complete. The internship program objectives include empowering our youths who are underrepresented in our society; growing the number of community leaders to meet its community's needs; growing, nurturing and increasing the socially responsible young leaders of tomorrow; and educating them to become civically engaged in public policy.

The interns have opportunities to meet other student interns at social activities and program events held at the Capitol. APAPA's Internship Program includes workshops; social get-togethers where the students share about their internship experiences with each other. As part of their internship requirements, the students volunteer 20 hours helping out at APAPA events including Civic Meetings, Membership Drive, and Voters Education & Candidates Forum. The different program components are designed to give the students opportunities to demonstrate their leadership skills, ability to work as a team, develop public speaking skils, and meet people from the community.

The success of our program has come from the tremendous financial support we received from both corporate and private sponsors. Our past and present supporters include Wells Fargo, AT&T, Walmart, Comcast, PG&E, Chevron, Yin Foundation, Bank of the West, Southwest Airlines, Kaiser Permanente, CBBD, Exxon Mobil and Culture to Culture to name a generous few. Their support of this program is vital in providing opportunities for young adults to develop and become great leaders of tomorrow.

Most important, we want to thank all the elected officials who offered opportunities for the students to intern in their respective offices. It's a once in a lifetime experience for these students. The tools, knowledge and work experience they gained from their internship will better prepare them to become successful public servants.

Schedule
5:30pm - 6:30pm: Reception
6:30pm - 8:30pm: Dinner/Program
8:30pm - 10:30pm: Dancing