The Thomas Tam Scholarship is funded by an endowment established by the City University of New York in recognition of Dr. Thomas Tam’s contributions as a former member of the CUNY Board of Trustees, founding Executive Director of the Asian American / Asian Research Institute, and leadership in the Asian American community. The Scholarship awards $1,000 to an individual qualified undergraduate student that is currently enrolled at any of the twenty-one colleges within CUNY, Asian or non-Asian, who has demonstrated creativity in the communication of the concerns of the Asian American community in areas such as health, education, culture, media and advocacy.
The 2016 CUNY Thomas Tam recipient will be honored at AAARI’s 15th annual gala in Fall 2016.
2016 Recipient
Kevin Park (Hunter College)
Project: Campaigning for an Asian American Studies Major at Hunter College/CUNY
Mr. Park’s project, calls for college administrators to establish an Asian American Studies Major/Department, and to create hiring lines for five full-time Asian American Studies faculty. “Asian American history, which is essentially just another aspect of American history, provides everyone with a better understanding of how intertwined the contributions and experiences of the APA community are in the context of U.S. history and its lasting impacts on the U.S. today.” Mr. Park’s campaign seeks to expand and stabilize the current Asian American Studies Program at Hunter College, to increase visibility for the CUNY Asian American community, and to ensure that CUNY students will have access to an indispensible interdisciplinary education that fill a critical gap in academia.
2016 Honorable Mention
Francesco Asano (Brooklyn College)
Project: Animal Advocacy or Cultural Imperialism? Asian Animal Rights Advocacy and Racialization
“From the Taiji Dolphin Drive Hunt, Dog Festivals in Yulin, to the San Francisco Chinatown live market, Asian communities have been a prime target for animal rights advocacy, with campaigns often xenophobic, culturally imperialist and racially charged inventions in these communities. These inventions fail to acknowledge the existence of animal rights advocacy in these communities, as well as the genealogical necessities which animated these animal practices, such as post-World War II and nuclear warfare-induced poverty, socioeconomic disarray and structural racism.” Through his summer research in Japan, Mr. Asano will publish a paper analyzing the racial/cultural dynamics of animal rights activism, and serve as a bridge-builder of animal rights between the Asian and Asian American community.
Application Guidelines
All currently enrolled CUNY undergraduate students are eligible to apply for the Thomas Tam Scholarship.
Display of communication of the concerns of the Asian American community can be in the form of written reports, film, video, new media techniques, and the development of performances or materials in the arts and sciences.
The following are the issues to be addressed in your application for the Tam Scholarship. Please be sure to cover all of the points in your application.
- Please describe your project in detail, be sure to tell us about the issue of concern to the Asian American community that the project is designed to address.
- Please explain how your project demonstrates creativity in communicating the concerns of Asian Americans.
- What are the objectives or goals of the project, i.e. what do you want to accomplish, or what impact or effect will it have? How will you know that it has been successful?
- How was the project implemented, or if in progress or a future project, please describe how it will be implemented?
- Is the project completed, is it in progress or is it a future project?
Scholarship Committee: Russell Leong, Joyce Moy, Pearl Tam
Coordinator: William Tam
