2023 Oregon Chinese American Youth Conference

第七届俄勒冈华裔青少年年会

Date: 6/24/2023 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Place: DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton (15402 NW Cornell Rd, Beaverton, 97006)
Language: English

Registration & Award Application

Youth Conference registration form
Nomination form for scholarship and awards.
Application for OCC Youth Council

Agenda

12:30pm - 1:00pm

Dances by Jade Dance Team

1:00 pm - 1:20 pm Emerging Strong Out of the Pandemic

– By Hongcheng Zhao, President of Oregon Chinese Coalition

1:20 pm - 1:30 pm Celebration of the Changemakers

Voice of Civic Engagement Award
Youth Empowerment Award
Victoria Ren Scholarship

1:30 pm - 2:15 pm “All Youth Are Treatable”

– By Lynda Walker, Director of Development of St. Mary’s Home for Boys

2:15 pm - 2:45 pm Panel Discussion

– Hosted by the recipients of the Youth Empowerment Award

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm Introducing the OCC Youth Council, Performance by Yo-Yo Team

3:30 pm - 4:30 pm Special Presentation on Oregon Racial History

– By Raymond Chong, renowned speaker who chronicled the legacy of seven family generations

4:30 pm - 5:00 Panel Discussion

– Hosted by the recipients of the Voice of Civic Engagement Award

Distinguished Guest Speakers

Lynda Walker

Founded in 1889 as an orphanage for abandoned and wayward children, today St. Mary’s offers residential treatment and services to at-risk boys between the ages of 10 and 17 who are emotionally disturbed and behaviorally delinquent. The individualized program provides each client with a structured regimen to ensure his successful transition to public school, the community, and appropriate living environment. Adolescent boys of all ethnic heritages and religious backgrounds are accepted.

Raymond Chong

“As a sixth generation American Born Chinese (ABC), I grew up in a barrio (neighborhood) of Elysian Valley near Chinatown of Los Angeles, City of Angels, in California, The Golden State of America - Gold Mountain. I was vaguely aware of my Chinese heritage and was utterly ignorant of my Zhang clan ancestry. My narrow realm was Chinatown and Little Tokyo in Downtown. I ate our Chop Suey, Cantonese cuisine. I attended family affairs. I celebrated traditional festivals. But I was a jook sing, bamboo rod, one who looked Chinese (solid) outside but who thought American (hollow) inside.

I quietly lived and studied in an insular enclave of Chinese from Canton with dark secrets, a dreadful legacy of racist Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), paper son scheme, and Chinese Confession Program (1956-1965) during the scary Red Menace. As a youth, my parents and elders never shared their tales about our forefathers nor their lives in Kaiping. Except for brief forays into Chinatown, I knew very little about China, an exotic world in a far place, and had no reverent respect for my Zhang elders or my Chinese heritage.

After a defining moment on a stark winter day of January 30, 2003, my life paradigm drastically changed. It has led me to My Kaiping Journey - From Gold Mountain to Dragon Hill Village.”