GLIDE Voices is highlighting Asian American & Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander Month. We asked After School Program Manager Selina Ng what GLIDE values resonate with you this month and why?
“The GLIDE value that resonates the most with me is being radically inclusive. GLIDE’s Family Youth and Childcare Center after-school program is a brilliant example of how both staff and clients coexist amongst each other despite coming from different backgrounds. As the after-school manager, one of the most important aspects of my job is to ensure that our clients are able to grow and learn in an environment that is respectful, loving, and safe. Having that as a GLIDE value, we are empowering our clients to celebrate diversity, acknowledge differences, be aware of social injustices and learn to coexist.
I am a first-generation Chinese American who grew up with immigrant parents, and I am incredibly fortunate to bilingual in Cantonese. To this day, I still help my parents translate into English. Many of our clients are first-generation as well, with a few who are actually immigrants, and they are bilingual and, like me, must translate for their parents. I see my parents in the families of the clients I serve, the hopes and dreams they have for their children—much like mine had for me.
Being radically inclusive also means that we must understand that being inclusive goes beyond gender, sexual orientation, and race; it also means we accept and help others despite their status and as a product of immigrant parents and see their struggles with a language, system, and culture that is so different from ours. It is my obligation to support and be a resource to the very clients and families they serve because I know my parents and countless others like my parents would have wanted a similar support system.”
Selina Ng, FYCC After School Program Manager