Standing Together: Asian Voices in Communications

By Yunjing (Fiona) Zhang

Last week, I hosted the final Twitter chat of the semester, the school year and my journey as the Diversity and Inclusion Chair at Penn State PRSSA. There are a lot of things people should care about and discuss more in April — the Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Autism Awareness Month, Earth Day, Easter and the month that brought warm weather to so many cities, but a discussion highlighting Asian voices has been sketched up in my brain for a long time.

Every month has been a struggle for me to make a decision for the Twitter chat theme. At Penn State PRSSA, we look at problems that are most in need of a solution. The rise in violence against people of Asian descent in this country has gotten exponentially worse. Anti-Asian hate crimes increased by nearly 150% in 2020, mostly in New York and Los Angeles, according to an analysis released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. Media, webinars and advocates swept social media and the internet with the hashtag #StopAsianHate in March. Yet, how long will they last? 

As a Chinese student studying PR in the U.S., I want to connect my connections. I want people to not only hear the voices of Asian professionals in the workplaces but also the voices of students of Asian descent. I want to let as many people of Asian descent meet the community, to know that no one is fighting alone, it’s okay to not be okay and to speak up. Knowing many Asian friends around me often shy away from sharing opinions in public, I invited all to “see” and engage the chat – hopefully, they have been provided with the strength and courage to speak up for themselves next time.

With the support of connections, Penn State PRSSA DEI Council and the PRSSA National PRoud Council, I launched the “Standing Together: Asian Voices in Communications” Twitter Chat on April 22, 2021. All panelists are people of Asian descent who are studying or recently studied and living in the U.S. Some of them are Asian Americans who grew up in the U.S. Some were born in an Asian country and moved to the States afterward. Some are Asian students like myself, who came to the U.S. exploring a different system of education and various opportunities in culture and career path. We are all people of Asian descent; we are all proud of who we are; we all respect and expect to be respected.

Special thanks to my dear friends, allies to my Asian community and everyone who attended our Twitter chats. Thank you, Tara Wycoff, Dr. Madden, Gary Abdullah, Bill Zimmerman, for inspiring me through every conversation and encouraging me to launch the Twitter chat series at the beginning of Fall 2020. Thank you, Penn State PRSSA – my chapter President, Jarod Kutz, Vice President, Ellie Stewart, Director of PR, Emma Riglin and everyone. Thank you, DEI Council – Gretchen Little, Leah Krall and Emily Eng, my superstars, you will make Penn State PRSSA proud. 

It has been a pleasure being the DEI Chair at Penn State PRSSA and promoting our Twitter chats to the world. This has been the best choice I’ve ever made.

Follow @PennStatePRSSA and search #PRSSAForAll on Twitter to read the whole conversation and continue the conversation on your dinner tables or FaceTime calls.

Penn State PRSSA followed the Social Media Accessibility Guidelines to prepare the chat for everyone, and we intended to continue following these guidelines for our future digital content.

Now, please meet our panelists and check out the highlights of our April chat below.

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