Extra Credit #4
Melissa Elizalde
Section A01
May 27th, 2014
A Response to "A Mien American's Journey to Politics"
Lecture by: Kathy Chao Rothberg
For today's Vietnam War lecture we had the opportunity to have Kathy Chao, the Vice-Mayor for the City of San Pablo and Executive Director of Lao Family Community Development, join us to discuss her journey throughout her political career. Kathy is currently the first Mien American politician in the nation and is a city council member for the City of San Pablo. Mrs. Chao detailed her work with Cal in the Capitol and how she thrived in the political environment because she was an independent thinker. She also described her work in city politics and the process by which her and her four other council members vote on who is going to be mayor. Most importantly, however, Mrs. Chao provided students with practical tips and tricks in order to succeed in our perspective careers. First off she told us that it is okay if we don't know what we want to do at this moment, but that it is critical that we do something. I thought this was an interesting perspective and really encouraged me to keep volunteering and interning for causes that I'm passionate about. She also described that 70-80% of employers hire from references and not via online or newspaper postings. This was an incredibly eye-opening fact and it made me realize that it is truly who you know and not always what you know. Lastly she advised us to be more interested than interesting when applying to jobs. She described this method as a way to show employers that you are more interested in the position and the company than with yourself and your qualifications. Overall I thought Mrs. Chao's lecture was incredibly interesting and informative. In conclusion, I really enjoyed the extra credit series and believe that it positively enhanced by experience in this Asian American Studies course.
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