A week after I finished my sophomore year of high school, I flew out with my parents to attend the annual APARRI conference at UC Berkeley from June 9-11, 2026.
I had never been to an academic conference before, but my mom (Grace Kao) was a program co-chair and had thought it could be win-win for me to help out and also learn a thing or two in the process.
Before the conference began, I helped to put together a tree design on the back wall in the main room. This is where sticky notes describing people’s unique stories of their faith and identity would eventually be added as “leaves.” It was during this time when I met some other volunteers, including UC Berkeley graduate Kedhar Barlett (Khyati Joshi’s son) and high schoolers Julian and August Chen-Penningroth (Carolyn Chen’s sons).
Across those 3 days, It was cool for me to see people add their stories of faith to the tree, ranging from finding Christianity as a queer woman and eventually becoming a pastor to using Islam to protest against various social injustices.
Beyond assembling the tree, my two main jobs were: (1) helping to set up meals and snacks featuring cuisines from across Asia (like bánh mì and spring rolls, naan and curry, boba and taro pastries) and (2) taking headcount at each session. I noticed during concurrent sessions, when there were 4-5 different choices, that panels about the migration of Asian populations or about the combination of faith and activism tended to attract greater numbers of attendees. I myself enjoyed hearing about religious stories being used to mobilize people and spark social change.
The talk by the keynote speaker on the first day, Michelle “Mush” Lee, was really interesting. As someone who attends a performing arts high school, I never thought a spoken word artist would keynote an academic conference and also blend hip hop in a way that was relevant to current political issues and the concept of faith itself. As a hip hop dancer myself, I was intrigued by how Mush related the “break” of a dance beat that inspired the first B-Boys to be free on the floor to a divine spark or change that causes one to seek truth, justice, and God.
Other sessions that stood out to me were the “Interfaith Resistance to Fascism” plenary and the “Multi-faith Organizing Against Hindu Nationalism: Victories and Challenges” panel. Hearing from different professors about Christian nationalism in the United States along with my auntie Najeeba Syeed’s personal experiences with ICE in Minnesota shook me, yet gave me hope that consistent action and faith-driven good works can continue to make real positive change. Additionally, learning about Hindu nationalism as an ideology made me reflect on its similarities to white Christian nationalism and Zionism, including the impact on groups they have “othered” (in this case, Indian/Pakistani Muslims).
A highlight for me was chatting with two professors after I had made prior arrangements over email to meet up with each of them in person. Professor of Psychology Stephen Chen and I mostly talked about the psychological effects of the model minority myth and generational trauma on Asian Americans, including how mixed-race Asian Americans like me might be impacted. I mostly spoke with Professor David Yoo, a Vice Provost and Professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA, about the racial-ethnic composition at UCLA as well as the kinds of careers or other opportunities Asian American Studies majors tend to pursue post-graduation. During my time at Berkeley, different speakers kept on emphasizing the APARRI network, and I already felt as a high schooler I had gotten a taste of it in terms of their helpfulness.
During the last session on the last day, before the conference wrap-up and closing banquet, I participated more actively during the Q&A. The session was entitled “Deepening our Understanding of Confucianism and Daoism for Clinicians and Social Activists: Enriching Applied Approaches for Asian American/Pacific Islanders.”
One panelist, Heng Du, a Professor of Chinese at Wellesley, spoke about the translation of the Dao de Jing as The Classic of the Way and its Power and the freedom that comes with accepting the dao or your natural place in Confucianism. As a Christian and as someone who had taken some community college-level philosophy and religion classes, I had never before thought there might be similarities between the themes of radical freedom in Western existentialism and in ancient Eastern religions. So I asked my first set of questions about the translation of the term “power” in the Dao de Jing and appreciated how she took me seriously by engaging with me about how the “easy way of life” described by Laozi, while still being a choice, could be viewed as a “remedy” to the condemnation of free choice that Sartre and other existentialists like him argued were horrifying.
While volunteering, I saw the whole conference ranging from grad students to established professors to artists come together as a community. I also had a good time at the small grad student get-together at Derek Wu’s apartment, felt welcomed by them despite my younger age, and was touched that a group of them put me in their rideshare and walked back with me from the dorms to my hotel (The Graduate) late at night in true Asian auntie mode. All told, everyone at APARRI was really nice and welcoming, and I even got a shout out with applause at the end.
Keenan (“KC”) Walker is a 16-year old rising junior at Orange County School of the Arts, a hip hop dancer, and a martial artist (taekwondo 2nd dan black belt & kenpo karate black belt).