Week 2 in D.C.

BY MALIA ALLISON ​On Tuesday, January 15th, my internship mentor-to-be invited me to attend an Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) reception with members of Congress. She gave me very little information about the event, but I was eager to meet her for the first time and hopefully rub elbows with Congresspeople. Located at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC, I quickly discovered the event was to celebrate the newly elected Asian American and Pacific Islander members of the 116th Congress. Before attending, I did not even know what a reception was (which made dressing for it quite difficult), and had not even met Noriko Sanefuji, a co-curator of Righting A Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II. However, after personal introductions on my schooling and historical interests, Noriko introduced me to some of her AAPI contacts and talked about her research. The event was to honor the record breaking 20 AAPI members of Congress in the 116th Congress, many of whom spoke at the reception. It was a great experience to hear from Congresspeople who represent the AAPI community, who look like me, and who want to have our government reflect the demographics of the United States population. I even got a picture with Judy Chu, the representative of the 27th district of California and the chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Noriko informed me that past AAPI events have not been as large as this one, but the largest number of AAPI Congress people was an occasion to be celebrated. Most events, such as this one, are about networking and building connections with other groups – a necessity for anyone working in Washington, DC. People continued to come up to me and ask what I do and what my background is. Almost all my conversations revolved around the government shutdown impacting work in Washington such as the Smithsonian and other departments. However, somehow at the end of every conversation I got someone’s card. Now, if I ever need to contact a DC attorney or a Law Enforcement recruiter I know exactly where to go. After quite a lot of schmoozing from many different private interest groups, Noriko and I seemed to be on the same page that these events were not our forte, but she says she attends them often, especially if there’s free food.