Highlighting, Uniting, and Empowering Greater AAPI Leadership
Written by HRCap, Inc.
May 31, 2023
The Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community is diverse with approximately 50 ethnic groups with connections to Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, Hawaiian, and other Asian and Pacific Islander ancestries. Collectively, the AAPI community in the U.S., as of 2020, is 25.6 million people (7.8% of the total U.S. population).
With so many various ethnic groups that are part of the AAPI community, celebrating every single cultural heritage in just one month seems to be insufficient. However, to celebrate the AAPI diversity the best that we can during AAPI Heritage Month (May), HRCap has taken on multiple initiatives to raise awareness, highlight, unite, and elevate our diverse AAPI community.
Highlighting Achievements of AAPI Leaders
First, we have highlighted the achievements of both historical and modern-day AAPI leaders from varying occupational backgrounds on our social media platforms.
Through their achievements and accomplishments, these leaders have paved the future for the greater AAPI community and have inspired the next generation of AAPI leaders to step up as future leaders.
Raising Awareness through AAPI Trivia Questions
Additionally, we posted weekly AAPI Trivia questions that shed light on the AAPI achievements, culture, and leaders.
We hope that these fun trivia questions, though not all-encompassing, have shed light on the amazing yet often unnoted contributions of the AAPI community to history, film, and pop culture, further allowing greater appreciation of AAPI Heritages.
Unifying and Amplifying AAPI Employee Voices
Most importantly, we have celebrated AAPI Heritage Month by highlighting our HRCap employees leading the forefront of recruiting and research. We asked our employees to reflect on their AAPI heritage and how it shaped them into the person they are today and how it has assisted them in the work that they do at HRCap. Everyone had different stories on how their culture has widened their perspective or strengthened their character. Though some were indifferent to their culture growing up, they have developed greater cultural appreciation during their journeys with HRCap, becoming even more motivated to empathize and collaborate with others.
Identifying and Empowering Next Generation of AAPI Leaders
Last but not least, we have launched our second annual “HRCap Next-Gen Leadership Scholarship” for students who identify as AAPI or are majoring in Asian Studies/Language.
[Related: Tremendous Turnout of Second Annual HRCap Scholarship]
The scholarship application closed on May 14, 2023, and we are currently reviewing 245 applications to pick out the top 6 applicants who will receive a monetary scholarship prize to aid their tuition fees. Additionally, 25 finalists will receive social media coverage of their personal essays, 1:1 mentoring and career coaching on interview prep, and career path counseling. With our scholarship review panel, we are excited to evaluate and announce our winners on June 14, 2023.
Conclusion
As a leading global Asian American company, we believe that it is not only about building cultural awareness in the United States, but we are also stepping up to bridge cultures between the U.S. and various APAC countries. Working with various clients and candidates in APAC regions, HRCap actively prioritizes glocalization (globalization + localization) in all our services. As a result, we have been acknowledged by Manage HR as a Top 10 HR Consulting Company in APAC in 2023.
We look forward to coaching our candidates to have a greater global mindset with a truly localized leadership while partnering with our clients to prioritize DEI in all hiring and talent development strategies. Only through genuine cultural awareness can we broaden our perspectives.
Sources: HRCap, United States Census Bureau