Eight years after its creation, Vision New America is stepping up its efforts by specifically focusing on bringing young Asian Pacific Americans into the political fold. An expanded internship program will give high school and college students more opportunities to work with local lawmakers, and the group finally has a paid staff and a permanent office—in the United Way building near downtown San Jose.

"We've been able to get applicants without much publicity before," says Iris Wang, the organization's executive director. "But we decided that this is the time that Vision New America should go further."

Previously, Vision New America has offered college students from across the country the opportunity to work with politicians in Washington, D.C., during their summer breaks. But the new program will target college students in the Bay Area instead for the spring.

"We're going to take students from places like Berkeley, Hayward and De Anza, and place them in local government offices. They'll go to Sacramento for the summer," says Diane Nguyen, one of two internship program coordinators with Vision New America. A similar program will be in place for local high school students.

"They don't have to know everything about government," she adds. "They'll learn the process." In addition to working with officials like Assembly members Rebecca Cohn and Joe Simitian, those selected for the program will also be responsible for performing 20 hours of community service a semester and registering 20 Asian Pacific Americans to vote. Before entering the program, interns will go through a training program staged by the Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute that emphasizes civics and cultural identity.

Because of large amounts of interest in the past, the number of slots available is going up in both programs—50 interns for the high school program in both the summer and the fall, and 35 to 40 for each college term. While the college program looks to engage more students in Bay Area universities, the high school program is looking to move beyond its roots in the north part of Santa Clara County.

"East San Jose is rapidly growing in all Asian demographics," Wang says. Warren Collier, the other internship coordinator with Vision New America, has been targeting career centers and clubs with high schools all over the county, looking to diversify. "Most of our interns have been Chinese or Indian, but we're starting to see interest among Vietnamese and Filipinos increase because of these efforts," Wang says. The due dates for interested applicants are not until early 2005, but recruitment is already beginning.

Additionally, Vision New America's board is about to establish a funding drive to establish a $1.5 million endowment—one that was kick-started at its 2004 Fall Scholarship Award Dinner on Nov. 13. Scholarships were handed out to students from this year's internship programs, those who helped rack up more than 700 hours of community service and register more than 400 Asian Pacific American voters.

"2004 is a [formative] year for Vision New America," Wang says.