"Project of the Year" Silver Award 

EMBRACE

Our project focuses on the well-being of senior Asian immigrants in mid-size cities like Cincinnati where the ethnic-oriented social services and network are less developed. 

Seeing the challenges her grandparents have faced after immigrating to the U.S., Vivian Xu, an Indian Hill High School student in Cincinnati Ohio, started yearlong research in August of 2021 on the well-being of Chinese senior immigrants.

After reviewing over 30 academic papers, Vivian found a research gap in mid-sized cities like Cincinnati where the Asian population is much lower than national average. With few ethnic oriented social services and networks, older Asian immigrants in such cities face larger challenges in their daily lives that impact their overall well-being. 

To understand the unmet needs of this underrepresented population, Vivian launched an online survey on the New Year's Day of 2022, targeting Cincinnati’s Chinese immigrants over 60 years old.  She distributed the survey to two Cincinnati Chinese schools, the Cincinnati Chinese Church, nine public and private schools, grocery stores, and neighborhoods. In six weeks, she completed data collection with 103 qualified respondents. 

Through data analysis of the survey responses, Vivian found that the participants who came to the U.S. to be reunited with family had a significantly lower life satisfaction than those who came for study and work. Based on the results, the top three barriers for the participants are language (53%), lack of social activities (48%), and lack of mobility (47%). Health Care is the most prominent concern among seniors (76%).

To turn insight into action, Vivian Xu built a youth team called EMBRACE to tackle the challenges identified through her research. EMBRACE stands for ‘Empowering & Mobilizing Better Resilient Asian Community Engagement’.