2024 API Action for Community Advancement
(Application portal will be open on March 3rd 2024 after information session )
ACA inspires API students to contribute to our community through innovative endeavors. We actively welcome project proposals from students, fostering a culture of creative engagement and service. ACA will award scholarships of $500 for successfully completed projects.
The requirements of proposals are as follows.
The requirements of proposals are as follows.
Beneficiary
- Please describe the population that will benefit from your project, such as the API community, seniors, students, underserved individuals, immigrants, or the general population. Beneficiaries must include residents of San Diego County.
Eligibility
- Residents or students attending schools in San Diego County.
- Must be of Asian Pacific Islander descent.
- The team lead must be a high school student or a rising high school student as of summer 2024.
Project Requirements
- Projects must be non-commercial and aimed at benefiting the community.
- Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: mental health, cultural promotion, environmental protection, gun control, racial justice, and immigrant issues.
- We encourage team project. Projects must be conducted by teams consisting of 3 or more students. Each team member will be assigned specific tasks and deliverables.
- An adult supervisor must be identified by the team lead to oversee the project.
Application Process
- Please click the link provided to to submit a project proposal consisting of 500-1,000 words. Your proposal should include the project title, beneficiary population, objectives, execution plan, budget analysis, and intended outcomes. Additionally, please provide the names, schools, email addresses, and incoming grades of the team leader and members.
- Feel free to review the approved project from 2023. Please note that we do not accept projects that closely resemble those from previous years. We encourage new and innovative proposals annually.
- The application deadline is May 22nd, 2024.
- There will be a group interview conducted by the ACA committee, where the team lead will present the proposal on May 26th, 2024.
- Applicants will be notified of their acceptance status by May 31st, 2024.
- Some project proposals may involve long-term or large-scale projects that extend beyond the summer timeframe. In such cases, please outline a solid delivery plan specifically for the summer period, even if it represents only a portion of the larger project. Successful completion of the project entails delivering and presenting the proposed summer delivery plan.
Communication with ACA
- The ACA internship committee won't provide step-by-step guidance for community projects, but we are committed to supporting you to the best of our ability if you come to us seeking advice or assistance.
- ACA will primarily communicate with the team lead via email. It's important to regularly check emails from info@acasandiego.org and promptly respond to any inquiries or updates.
- If your project deviates slightly from the original proposal during deployment, please communicate these changes with ACA in a timely manner and submit a revised project plan for approval. Failure to communicate deviations from the original proposal with ACA may result in the project not being accepted for the ACA scholarship.
Deliverable
- Please upload your midterm project report by July 20th to monitor the progress of your project.
- The final project report, highlighting major milestones, should be uploaded by August 15th.
- All participants are expected to attend the ACA summer intern graduation ceremony and present their projects (date to be determined, tentatively mid-August). (Please let ACA know in case some team member has schedule conflict and can not attend ceremony)
- Projects that fail to meet any of the three deliverables mentioned above will not qualify for the ACA scholarship.
Time commitment
- We recommend that each team member dedicate at least 40 hours to their project.
- Team members have the flexibility to schedule their work hours during the summer. You can begin working on your project as soon as you submit your application, and the deadline for submitting the final project report marks the end date.
- Please keep a log of your project hours for each team member as part of the project delivery document. Each team member may have a different log due to varying task assignments.
ACA scholarship
- Each team that successfully completes and presents their project will receive a $500 scholarship.
- Every team member will be awarded a certificate from either the Mayor's office or a Council member's office, with the student's name clearly identified on the certificate.