Washington --      If you attended the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies’ (APAICS) Gala last May, you were sure to meet the two APAICS’ Fellows:  Gloria Chan and Maya Yamazaki.  After a competitive process for the two Fellowships, Gloria Chan is the 2006-07 Fellow for the Anheuser-Busch/Frank Horton Fellow and Maya Yamazaki is the 2006-07 George Aratani Foundation/Senator Inouye Fellow.  Both ladies have started their orientation programs with the offices they have been assigned.  Ms. Chan is assigned to the Office of Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA).   Congressman Honda said, “I am thrilled to have Gloria Chan joining my excellent team.  As ever, I knew I could rely on APAICS to recommend the best and the brightest to support and enhance our work.  I have the greatest confidence that Gloria’s excellent background, education, training, and commitment to our issues will serve CAPAC (Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus) and the APIA (Asian Pacific Islander Americans) community superbly.”  Ms. Yamazaki is assigned to the Office of Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU).  Both members of Congress are officers on the CAPAC Board.

Gloria Chan, 2005 graduate of Harvard Law School, recently clerked for Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz in the Southern District of New York, and sits on the board of the Organization of Chinese Americans’ (OCA) New York Chapter.

While at Harvard, Ms. Chan was the Conference Co-Chair of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and organized the 10^th Annual National Asian Pacific American Conference on Law and Public Policy in that capacity.  She was also a student attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, representing indigent clients in housing, unemployment, and disability insurance matters.  In 2003, she served as a legislative intern at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, D.C., where she worked on issues pertinent to racial minorities and immigrant communities.

Prior to her legal studies, Ms. Chan received a B.A. in Political Science from Swarthmore College in 2002.  During her sophomore year, she founded a non-profit organization in New York City called Chinatown Youth Initiatives (CYI), and is currently chairing its board.  CYI strives to nurture leaders by promoting self-awareness, educating youth on APA issues, and providing resources for youth to design and implement innovative community projects.   As an active campus leader promoting diversity at Swarthmore, Ms. Chan was named a 2001 Top Ten APA College Student by A. Magazine.

The Anheuser-Busch/Frank Horton Fellowship is named in honor of the late former Congressman Frank Horton (R-NY), who was the primary sponsor in the legislation to designate the Month of May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.  David L. Kim, Anheuser-Busch Director of Asian Marketing and Community Relations, said, “We are very proud of our partnership with APAICS and are pleased to continue our support of the Anheuser-Busch/Frank Horton Fellowship.  We congratulate the 2006-07 Fellow, Gloria Chan, and look forward to her leadership in the community.”

As if one Congressional Fellowship were not enough, Maya Yamazaki will be starting her second tenure on the Hill as the George Aratani Foundation/ Senator Inouye Fellow.   She has already worked on Capitol Hill as a Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) Masaoka Congressional 2005 Fellow in the Office of Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA).  She now begins her second Fellowship in the Office of Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU).

Ms. Yamazaki was an International Programs Officer, Congressional Study Group on Japan U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress, where she managed the Study Group on Japan.  Before that, she was a University of Washington Autism Center Research Assistant in Seattle.  Her research experience includes “Buying Spring:  A Study of Japan’s Lack of Prosecution of Sex Traffickers”  (Jackson School of International Studies Honors Thesis), “Central American Free Trade Agreement and Its Implications for Human Rights in Guatemala”  (Jackson School of International Studies Task Force), and “The Chinita Complex:  Understanding Anti-Asian Racism in Havana” (a Study).  She is a “Pacific Citizen” Editorial Board Member, Los Angeles, California, National Youth Chair, JACL, San Francisco 2002-04, and  Recreational Therapy Volunteer, Children’s Hospital, Seattle 2002-04.

In addition to her Fellowship assignment, Ms. Yamazaki will be attending evening classes at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Upon learning of Ms. Yamazaki’s APAICS’ Fellowship, former National Executive Director of JACL, John Tateishi said, “I’m convinced that Maya’s participation in the APAICS Fellowship Program will help to further  her understanding of the legislative process and augment her academic pursuits with real world experiences . . . .  You can’t do any better than to have someone of her caliber and talent and enthusiasm in the program.”

Because of the overwhelming responses this year for the two coveted Fellowships, APAICS will begin to announce the applications for 2007-08 at the beginning of November.  Interested parties should check the website: www.apaics.org for information.

APAICS’ President and CEO William H. (Mo) Marumoto said, “Both Gloria and Maya have a strong social background in giving back to the APA community.  What they will learn from their experience on the Hill, will enable them to contribute further to helping APAs in the political arena.”