Searching for Summer Storytellers
The Gist
Asian Girls Ignite is looking for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) womxn and gender-expansive individuals who want to share their stories with our students for this year’s “RepresentAsian: Past, Present, & Future” summer program.
It is important to us that our storytellers feel connected in some way to the students that we serve, their identities, this year’s theme, and to the values and mission of Asian Girls Ignite.
STORYTELLERS
We want our students to see themselves represented in our storytellers, so we are looking for individuals who:
Identify as AAPI
Identify as a woman, queer, or gender expansive
Identify as multiracial, first generation, second generation, third culture, or an adoptee
Identify as neurodivergent
Identify as a person with a disability
Mission
Asian Girls Ignite is on a mission to build a strong community of Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) girls and womxn to celebrate our individual and collective power through shared stories.
Values
Curiosity: We believe that maintaining an open mind leads to discovering more about ourselves and the world.
Courage: We believe being courageous is about resilience, growth, and staying true to ourselves no matter what.
Compassion: We believe that accepting ourselves fully without judgment first is the key to accepting others.
Connection: We believe that connecting to others and ourselves helps us tap into our individual and collective power.
AGI STUDENTS
Are in grades 6-12 and attend various schools in and around the Denver area
Identify as AAPI
Identify as girl or gender expansive, and/or queer
Are multiracial, first generation, second generation, third culture, and adoptees
Have varying levels of connection and exposure to their own and others’ AAPI cultures
Why Storytellers Matter
Helps students meet positive AAPI role models
Helps students see themselves represented in a plethora of occupations, spaces, and roles
Helps students learn about AAPI history locally, nationally, and globally
Helps students connect to people with similar experiences
Helps students have compassion for people with different experiences
Helps students learn examples of how others exhibit and practice AGI’s values
Language GUIDELINES
We have students introduce themselves with their pronouns. Please use their respective pronouns.
We refer to them as “students” and do our best to avoid gendered terms such as “hey guys” or “girls”.
We strive to use inclusive and anti-racist language.
RepresentAsian: Past, Present, & Future
This year’s summer program theme is, “RepresentAsian: Our Past, Our Present, and Our Future.” Our students will be examining:
How AAPI History has been told (or not told) and by whom
What the AAPI community looks like today, including its many intersectionalities
What roles they can have in shaping the path of the AAPI community for the future
Storytelling Logistics
Storytellers for our summer program must be available for 1-2 hours between the hours of 9am-4pm Monday, July 10-Friday, July 14.
Typically, storytellers share their story with students for about 5-10 minutes and then students are able to ask questions.
We then like to have the storytellers engage with the students through an activity that is meaningful to them. This could be related to the storyteller’s occupation, culture, passions, or hobbies. In the past our storytellers have: taken students on a tour of their workplace, made dumplings with a restaurant owner, created spoken word poetry with a poet, gone climbing at a local climbing gym, been taught a dance routine, etc.) We will cover the cost of any supplies or admission.
Storytellers receive a compensation of $75.00
Guiding Topics and Questions for Storytellers:
Storytellers for this year’s summer program might tell stories that include (but are not limited to) …
Personal Identity:
How did you grow to love yourself and your identity?
What is the story of your family? What lessons, pride, or appreciation do you have as a result of knowing their story?
How did you come to do what you do? What challenges did you face? How did you navigate them?
How did your past contribute to the person you are today?
Resiliency:
What was a time you experienced adversity? How did you react? What did you learn?
When was a time you learned an important lesson? What was it? How did you learn it?
When was a time you turned a negative experience into something positive? How did you do it?
Courage:
How did/do you find community?
When was a time you took a risk? How did you feel? What happened?
What are you doing to shape the future of the AAPI community?
What are some things you are doing right now to help build the future of your community? Where do you hope your community will be in the future?
Gratitude:
What is something you are grateful for or have come to appreciate? How did you learn this gratitude? Why do you appreciate it?
What parts of yourself are you grateful for? What parts of your history, present, and future are you grateful for?
What parts of your community and/or AAPI identity are you grateful for?
