Meet Your Village Keynote Address on In-Service Day

Publish Date: Sept. 5, 2022

Keynote Speaker, Sefa Aina, Associate Dean and Director of the Asian American Resource Center at Pomona College provided a message of inclusion themed, “Meet Your Village.” Aina immigrated to the United States from Samoa and shared his personal struggles of an upbringing in a non-traditional household creating what he referred to as a marginalized identity.

“There’s always this sort of duality of what happens inside of the house and what happens outside of the house,” Aina stated. He stressed the importance of embracing our culture. “We have to stop looking at the communities we come from in ways that don’t honor the many privileges that are there.”

He posed the question, “How are we allowing our students to bring their full selves into the classroom?” Stressing the importance of celebrating our identities and passing traditions through generations.

Aina captured the audience’s attention with humor and a soft-spoken demeanor using Samoan proverbs then translating them into English. His closing message was of hope. “We have to maintain our belief in a better tomorrow.”