To begin the series with our June HigherEd Careers interview, we are pleased to have Mr. Neil Horikoshi, President and Executive Director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF). Mr. Horikoshi will be discussing ways to support the Asian and Pacific Islander students in higher education, myths and challenges associated with this population, and advice on how to succeed at working in higher education, specifically within a distinctly multi-cultural community.
After reading, we invite you to continue the discussion in our LinkedIn group or follow HigherEd Careers on Twitter.
Andrew Hibel, HigherEdJobs: Mr. Horikoshi, you are the President and Executive Director at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF). 1 Would you please explain your background and career path that led you to APIASF?
Neil Horikoshi, Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund: I had a wonderful 30-year career at IBM as a lawyer and business development executive. Never did I think of ever running a non-profit organization. The experiences as well as competencies I gained over the years, both domestically and internationally, are serving me well today. What I find delightful is the opportunity to work with education professionals around the country in supporting an important dialogue for our Asian and Pacific Islander American community.
Hibel: From the APIASF website, it states, “Our vision is to see that all Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (APIAs) have access to higher education and resources that cultivate their academic, personal and professional success regardless of their ethnicity, national origin or financial means.” 1 Why do you think it is necessary that the APIASF exists and how does APIASF work to achieve this vision?
Horikoshi: APIASF is a very important institution as it is the nation’s only scholarship fund, incorporated in 2003, that is a voice for Asian and Pacific Islander students in the United States. Unlike other national scholarship funds, we came together only in 2003 because of an important need to serve the community. Non-profit leaders (who also sit on our board of directors) as well as corporate America and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) all helped to form this organization, and why it is so important today to address the needs of our APIA community. Most importantly today, our vision is to make a difference in the lives of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans by providing access to higher education and resources to ensure their success. Also, we are an important voice that had not existed prior to our founding.
Hibel: On June 27 – 28, 2011, APIASF will host the APIASF College Completion Forum: Strengthening Institutions that Serve Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Would you explain the purpose of this higher education summit and the goals hoped to be achieved through this event?
Horikoshi: Our Higher Education Summit is a very important part of our work to help ensure the success of Asian and Pacific Islander American students. The summit provides a forum for the multi-cultural and APIA community from across all the different sectors to come together to discuss and recommend ways to better support our students in higher education. The goals we hope to achieve are the development of key recommendations and action plans that will help address the unique needs and experiences of APIA students and will support them in the national college completion agenda. It is our hope that APIA students will become an active part of the college completion agenda. The Summit allows us to build and help strengthen collaborative partnerships to develop a strong national agenda to help APIA students achieve degree attainment.
Hibel: In a recent press release on your website, APIASF thanked Secretary Arne Duncan, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Office for Civil Rights, “for their efforts to become more inclusive of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs) and adding them to the list of Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). This landmark change allows AANAPISIs to be recognized and listed among other well-known MSIs such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities.” 2 What does this successful milestone signify to you personally and to APIASF as an organization?
Horikoshi: By way of background, it is important to recognize and applaud work that started well before my tenure at APIASF. The work to highlight APIA being included in the MSI discussion started in the early 2000’s through the leadership of then-Congressman Robert Underwood, who today is President of the University of Guam and a member of the APIASF Board of Directors. Until three weeks ago, the Department of Education’s website essentially stated that Asians and Pacific Islanders were “not included” in minority institution designation. When I joined APIASF and Robert Underwood mentioned the term AANAPISI and the journey many in the APIA community were on, I was astounded by the words “not included” as it applied to the APIA community and the institutions that support APIA students. Also, with almost 50 percent of APIA students attending community colleges in the U.S., many of the AANAPISIs are these institutions that serve the very students we serve at APIASF. So the milestone is important because it opens the doors for AANAPISIs to receive the same access to the same type of opportunities and funding as other MSIs receive. The funding and resources become critical to support programs and services for their APIA students. Today, we have scholars at three AANAPISIs — South Seattle Community College, City College of San Francisco, and De Anza Community College. The funding these schools receive directly impacts our scholars. By helping to raise awareness of the AANAPISI program and the outstanding services they provide, we hope to see increased investments to the AANAPISIs that will help increase college completion for more students.
Hibel: In a recent blog post from Emil Guillermo on Diverse Education, 3 he states, “At Purdue, 1,700 Asian American undergrads represent 44 percent of all minority students there, making them the university’s single largest minority group. But therein lies the essential Asian American conundrum. When there’s so many, it’s hard to claim “underrepresentation,” leaving Asian Americans with crumbs compared to the institutional support other groups receive.” What are your thoughts on this statement by Guillermo?
Horikoshi: Mr. Guillermo’s blog post is one that raises many questions and is part of the challenges we face with APIASF and why Asian and Pacific Islander students have a need to attend colleges. The work that Professor Robert Teranishi did in his seminal 2008 National Commission on APIA Research in Education (CARE) Commission Report highlighted the “myths” about our community. Whether we speak about Purdue — a leading higher education institution — or any other higher education institution, the question will always be about the data and facts that are presented. The same 2008 CARE Report also highlighted that over 30 percent of all Ph.D.s in the U.S. in 2000 were granted to “Asians,” but 86 percent of those degrees were granted to students from Asia rather than Asian Americans. Also during the same period, the National Science Foundation (NSF) report showed that only 2 percent of all doctoral degrees were to Asian and Pacific Islander American students. So you can see this is about the data and how it is explained. Purdue, in a 2008 release, highlighted they have the second largest international student population. So this is one reason why a part of our Summit focuses on enhancements to research and data collection and reporting to generate a balanced report about the Asian and Pacific Islander American community.
Hibel: In this same blog, a graduate lecturer who also is Asian American said, “Purdue has a Black, Latino and American Indian cultural center, but no Asian American cultural center… It’s not intentional, but we are overlooked.” 3 Do you think this is a common feeling among the APIA students across college campuses? If so, what do you think can be done by colleges and universities to change this feeling of APIA students being “overlooked?”
Horikoshi: While we at APIASF have never taken a pulse or conducted any surveys about APIA feelings and views of resources on campus, we are certainly aware, through the work in the CARE Report II published in 2010, that there is a lack of resources from the number of Asian and Pacific Islander college presidents, chancellors, provosts, and senior administrators not only at 4-year, but also 2-year institutions where again, nearly 50 percent of all APIA students attend. When one looks at other MSIs where there is a coordinated effort to help mentor and support students throughout their academic career, these types of coordinated programs are minimal, if any, on most campuses to support APIA students. Our hope is that by increasing awareness of our APIA students, we can help ensure that programs and services are inclusive of and sensitive to the needs of our students.
Hibel: APIA students have often been labeled as the “model minority” because of their high levels of academic achievement. A recent article noted, “They make up three to five times their proportionate share of architects, engineers, physicians, and college professors. They score higher on the SAT and ACT than any other racial group, particularly in math. Sometimes they are found to be achieving at rates above that of white students.” 4 The author goes on to say that this mentality of the “model minority” can actually be detrimental to the APIA community. What are your thoughts on this?
Horikoshi: Indeed, “model minority myth” are three words I hear all the time. We agree with the author’s view that the myth is detrimental to students. As the author discussed, the APIA community is diverse, with many sub-populations having some of the lowest high school and college attainment, and also some of the highest unemployment rates in the country. The myth often affects the students who have the highest need. This is why APIASF exists!
Hibel: Now taking a look at careers in higher education — what would your advice be to someone who is looking to work with underrepresented students in general on a college campus, and also more specifically in the Asian and Pacific Islander American community?
Horikoshi: In order to serve our community, we encourage people to learn about the entire spectrum of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islander communities so they may develop a deeper understanding of each community’s unique history and culture in order to best craft programs and services that are culturally relevant and developmentally relevant. This is what we try to accomplish through our work at the Scholarship Fund.
Hibel: Now specifically looking at interviewing, what have you learned over the years in either interviewing candidates or being interviewed yourself? What would be your few pieces of interviewing wisdom?
Horikoshi: My advice to not only my staff, but also to my global team when I was in industry, was all about one’s development of professional and personal skills which any employee takes with them job to job. In our multi-cultural community, it is vitally important for us to retain our cultural values as we further enhance our skills to support a global economy.
Hibel: What is the biggest change for you coming from the corporate world (previously at IBM) and now working at the largest 501c non-profit organization providing scholarships to APIA students in need?
Horikoshi: The biggest change is, of course, the size and scale of what I used to do in an enterprise to the humbling, yet rewarding, experience of the non-profit world. In the non-profit world, what is similar is the importance of running this and any other non-profit as a small business. This is the way APIASF is run and we work to “think big” and constantly look for better and more efficient ways to serve our students.
Hibel: According to a Quantcast report, 5 approximately 6 percent of recent visitors to our site are of Asian descent. As we are aware that this can include many groups, including Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, Pacific Islanders and others, what would your unique advice be to new Asian faculty and staff members in working with students in their own community?
Horikoshi: My personal advice is that any of the multi-cultural groups who chose to enter and serve in higher education are an important part of the leadership pipeline and that every new education professional serves as an important role model for the current and next generation. We need more diverse leaders in education, especially Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. We also wish all the next generation leaders the best of luck.