2012 Asian American Heritage Month

Asian American Heritage Celebration at Montford Middle School

Thursday, May 3, 2012, 6:00-9:00 PM

Tallahassee, FL 32309

Thursday, May 03, 2012: This year Asian Coalition of Tallahassee, where I am the Chairman-Elect, has parterned with Leon County Schools for the first-time and the Asian American Heritage Month celebration was held at Montford Middle School Cafeteria today Thursday, May 03, 2012 between 6:00 and 9:00 PM.

The event featured Asian music, dance, martial arts, and other performances from about nine groups. Many items featured Leon County school children. There were many opportunities to engage in hands-on activities for children and adults. Representatives from various Asian countries were present to answer questions about their culture and heritage. The admissions to the events are free and are open to public. Asian food from local vendors like Azu, the Japanese restaurant and Samrat, the Indian restaurant was available for purchase.

Despite the first year, school superintendent, assistant superintendent, school system officials, principals, teachers, parents, kids, and staff participated. There were more than dozen representative countries and/or groups were represented either as performers or exhibitors.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Webinar

Florida Department of Health

Office of Minority Health

Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 12:00 Noon to 1:30 PM

4052 Bald Cypress Way

Tallahassee, FL 32317

Asian American Heritage Month poster FL DoH OMH

Tuesday, May 08, 2012: Today at noon I was invited by Office of Minority Health office at the Florida Department of Health to give a 30-40 minute presentation about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration in part of their outreach to Asian Pacific American Health Initiative. My talk and the following question and answer session were telecast state-wide.

I was invited to give this talk as one of the four events the Florida Dept of Health’s Office of Minority Health and was telecast state-wide to the benefit of various members. This was the first year Florida Department of Health is including Asian Pacific Americans and Pacific Islanders' health issues as part of the Office Minority Health.

Somasundaram at FLDoH OMH

My talk was titled Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Celebration was about 35 minutes long and talked about Asian Americans, Asian American migration, current status of Asian Americans, and rationale for the celebration of the culture and heritage. The talk was followed by a Q+A session and video broadcast of recent Asian American Heritage Month Celebration at Montford Middle School in Tallahassee.

YouTube links to the talk: Intro | Asian Americans | History | Current Status | Celebration | Resources

Asian American Heritage Celebration at Cobb Middle School

Friday, May 11 2012, 6:00-9:00 PM

Tallahassee, FL 32308

Friday, May 11, 2012: This year Asian Coalition of Tallahassee, where I am the Chairman-Elect, has parterned with Leon County Schools for the first-time and the second Asian American Heritage Month celebration was held at Cobb Middle School Gymnasium today Friday, May 11, 2012 between 6:00 and 9:00 PM.

The event featured Asian music, dance, martial arts, and other performances from about nine groups. Many items featured Leon County school children. There were many opportunities to engage in hands-on activities for children and adults. Representatives from various Asian countries were present to answer questions about their culture and heritage. The admissions to the events are free and are open to public. Asian food from local vendors like Bahn Mi Palace, the local Vietnamese fusion food truck and China First, the Chinese restaurant was available for purchase.

Despite the first year, school system officials, principals, teachers, parents, kids, and staff participated. There were more than dozen representative countries and/or groups were represented either as performers or exhibitors.