Green Dot Public Schools Commemorates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

At Green Dot, celebrating the rich history, diversity, and cultural wealth of our students, families, educators, and partners is a key piece of our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This month, we’re proud to celebrate the critical contributions Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have made to our nation’s history and reflect on how we can better support the AAPI community. 

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month has a long-standing history within our country. President Jimmy Carter, in October of 1978, signed Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Week into law, officially recognizing this moment of commemoration. In 1992, the United States Congress passed a law to extend this recognition to the entire month of May. 

Recent world events have served as a reminder that we must recommit to our longstanding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our work. This is why our network of schools have become more intentional in creating systems that value the unique contributions of our students, families, and staff to transform public education. And it’s also why we’re committed to celebrating cultural diversity all year long.

Our schools have made strides in advancing our diversity, equity, and inclusion work by partnering with Overcoming Racism, a large scale training that helps situate the disparities across communities in education, health, mental wellbeing, and society. We’ve also designated spaces to express, learn, and explore the cultural wealth and backgrounds of our students and staff in our redesigned student Advisory courses. We utilize a Multi-Tiered Support System (MTSS) framework that equips educators with the tools, resources and support to assist students with managing emotions, building positive relationships, and tackling obstacles. 

Our network of schools will continue to respond to the needs of our communities, build and maintain safe learning environments for all students, and create  more opportunities for our students to learn more about themselves and the world around them.

Resources

These resources emphasize the importance of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and the dynamic contributions the AAPI community has made within our nation.

• Academic Resources, Activities, and Art for Teachers and Students – Asian Pacific Heritage 
• “Asian Americans” – PBS
• Breaking Down Asian Pacific American Bias – Smithsonian