Nikkei Community Internship 2014

Hello! My name is Michael Handa and I am the 2014 intern for NCI! I will be a third year student at UC Berkeley next year with a major in Public Health and a minor in History. In high school I was active with the San Jose Jr. Young Buddhist Association, and was on cabinet three years there. I was also a fourth grade Dharma School teacher my junior and senior years of high school. Then in college I joined Berkeley's Nikkei Student Union and will be the Internal Vice President next year. San Jose Japantown has been a second home to me for as long as I can remember, so I am excited not only to learn more about the community I was raised in, but to give back to it in whatever ways I can.

Day 1

For our first day as San Jose NCI interns, we arrived at the Issei Memorial Building (IMB).  We met Roy Hirabayashi, President of the Japantown Community Congress of San Jose (JCCSJ) and San Jose Taiko’s Artistic and Executive Director emeritus, who kindly welcomed us to Japantown.  He gave us a tour of IMB and showed us our office.  The Contemporary Asian Theater Scene (CATS) has been kind enough to let us use their office space during our time in NCI.  Along with the San Jose Taiko intern Lauren Che, Roy gave us a tour up and down Jackson, 6th, and 5th street, educating us about the historical sites in Japantown.

After a tour of Japantown, we walked over to Yu-Ai Kai, the Japanese American Community Senior Service Center for a welcome potluck.  We were introduced to some of the principal members of San Jose’s Japantown, including people from many of the organizations we will be working with in the upcoming weeks, and finally got to meet Ellen, our program’s coordinator, in person for the first time.  What makes the internship at San Jose Japantown so unique is the fact that we get the opportunity to intern with a wide variety of organizations and travel to different places around the city. Each of the eight weeks we’ll be interning has a different theme/focus (this week is mainly retreat and orientation), which will tie together in the end and show how all of the different sectors in the San Jose Japantown community are interconnected.

Welcome potluck lunch at Yu-Ai Kai

    We want to thank everyone for the delicious food and for welcoming us so warmly to Japantown. We are looking forward to working with and getting to know everyone better in the upcoming weeks!  

Introductions

Kelly Hamachi

I’m Kelly Hamachi, a student at the University of California, Berkeley!  I’ll be a third year in the fall studying Political Science with a minor in Asian American Studies, and am planning on applying to law school after graduation. I've been an active member of UC Berkeley's Nikkei Student Union and serve as the Director of Membership at Berkeley chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). I enjoyed volunteering at Yu-Ai Kai and the Japanese American Museum of San Jose last summer, and am looking forward to getting more involved and meeting more people here this summer!

Michelle Doi

I’m Michelle Doi and I recently graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a degree is Psychology and Social Behavior and a double minor in Education and Criminology, Law & Society.  I grew up in San Jose Japantown and I was involved in organizations such as Lotus Preschool, Dharma School, Girl Scouts, Jr. Choir, Venturing Crew, and San Jose Jr. Taiko.  After being away for four years, I look forward to coming back to San Jose and learning more about San Jose Japantown so I can give back to the community