Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are part of a diverse community. However, this community's complexity and diversity are often overlooked due to the model minority myth, racism, discrimination, and stereotypes. The common thread throughout the successes and struggles of AAPIs is community, mutual reliance, family and community support, and the development of knowledge capital. Research examining culturally aligned mentorship notes the importance of cultural context and identity. This chapter on AAPI graduate students and new professionals focuses on narratives of resilience, persistence, and growth through mentorship. The chapter takes the form of dialogues among authors on culturally aligned mentorship, intersectionality, belongingness, and resilience. Recommendations include better onboarding for faculty and staff, developing communities of learning and practice, addressing bias through open discussion, cataloging AAPI leadership opportunities, proactive outreach by mentors, and using group mentoring models.
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Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders represent a diverse and growing population in the United States. According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, the AAPI community grew by nearly 40% between 2010 and 2020 (AAPI Data, 2022). Asian Americans are characterized by diverse communities of origin, with Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino representing 85% of the population (Pew Research Center, 2021), while Native Hawaiians, Marshallese, and Fijians accounted for the largest groups of the 1.6 million Pacific Islanders in the United States. There are also differences in English language proficiency, percentage of those who are foreign-born, level of education, and household income. Of particular note, 55% of all Asian Americans aged 25 or older have completed a bachelor’s degree, compared to 33% of the general U.S. population of the same age (Pew Research Center, 2021). However, a closer examination of these data indicates significant disparities in degree completion for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders: 19% of those aged 25 or older have completed college. Similar disparities exist for those of Vietnamese origin in the same age group (32%) and those from Hmong (22%), Burmese (21%), and Cambodian (20%) communities (AAPI Data, 2022). While California and Hawaii have the highest concentrations of AAPIs, Texas, New York, and Ohio are seeing an increase in Nepalese, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Bhutanese Americans (AAPI Data, 2022).
The sizable Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander population in higher education is also present in post-graduate programs. The 2020 U.S. Census found that 24% of Asian Americans and 6% of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders held post-graduate degrees. In comparison, 13% of White Americans, 8% of Black or African Americans, and 6% of Hispanic Americans had earned postgraduate degrees (AAPI Data, 2022). Asian Pacific Islanders represented 4% of the 13,051 doctoral degrees conferred in the field of education for the 2019–2020 academic term (NCES, 2021). It should be noted that the 2020 U.S. Census also included additional categories, such as “two or more races” and “some other race alone,” that could also have included individuals not represented in other racial or ethnic groups.