Interviewed by Christine Nguyen and edited for clarity by Cathy Ching.

Launched in May of 2021, Pandemic Profiles was a social media project that spotlighted the stories of Asian high school students in the Greater Boston area. This project featured youth who are also involved with non-profit organizations focused on supporting the Asian American community, including Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition and Chinese Progressive Association.

Everyone shared their experiences with virtual learning, the college application process, and the impacts of COVID-related violence and racism in their communities.

ACDC wanted to profile the creators of Pandemic Profiles, Jason Wang and Sabrina Yang. Jason recently graduated from Boston Latin School and Sabrina is a junior at Malden High School. They have both been involved with ACDC’s youth program A-VOYCE for over three years. 

As Youth Interns this year, Jason and Sabrina created Pandemic Profiles because they understood that it has been difficult to communicate with old and new friends during COVID. With each post, “the social media project is aimed to create a safe atmosphere for people to share advice on getting through the pandemic together,” Jason said.

Background With ACDC

How did you get started with A-VOYCE?

Jason: When I first joined A-VOYCE, it was a place to learn about Asian-American history. Eventually, I grew more attached to it. I met a lot of friendly people from different schools. We learned together and we had a lot of fun together. By the end of that summer we were a very close-knit group and that set the foundation of my impression of ACDC.

Sabrina: My sister introduced me to A-VOYCE, which piloted its Summer Leadership Academy (SLA) program in Malden a few years ago. My sister thought it sounded fun and interesting, so she asked me to join her. We did SLA together and I’ve been involved with A-VOYCE and ACDC ever since.

What was your experience like working with ACDC’s staff?

Jason: I really appreciated the support I got from my supervisors. They made the program fun. I loved being able to learn and have fun at the same time, which I think is important. They were supervisors, but it also felt like they were friends. 

Sabrina: The staff is really positive. Throughout my years of being in A-VOYCE and attending ACDC’s events, I feel like the staff is really comfortable to be around. They give off positive vibes and encourage you to participate and be in the space with them. I’m grateful to have someone to support me and be there for me.

Favorites

What are some of your favorite memories from A-VOYCE?

Jason: There was an event called “Stay-cation” where we had a lock-in at the office. I think that was a really impactful time because I enjoyed connecting with staff and past A-VOYCE members. Even though they were alumni, they still participated because they liked the program, which I thought was really nice.

Sabrina: One of my favorite moments from A-VOYCE was the Senior Send-off Celebration. It was fun because we had complete control over the event (except for the budget). My team and I chose the gifts, decorations, and all other event planning parts. The creative freedom was exciting.

What are some projects you’ve worked on in the past that you really enjoyed?

Jason: In my first year, we interviewed a lot of residents in Chinatown to get their input on what they wanted to see improved or added in the neighborhood. We learned a lot about life skills like resume building, public speaking, and communication skills, which all helped me in school.

Sabrina: My favorite project so far was the pedestrian campaign in Malden where we advocated for changes to the roads because there one intersection that was particularly unsafe. Through that experience, I learned more leadership skills, which is why it was one of my favorites. I actually talked to Malden Mayor Gary Christenson and the city’s Walkability Committee. It was an eye-opening project and experience. 

Pandemic Profiles

What was your process for developing Pandemic Profiles?

Jason: We developed a list of who we wanted to interview based on neighborhoods and we did have people from ACDC just because it was convenient. We limited ourselves to three interviews because it would probably be difficult to have more than six interviews dispersed among Sabrina and I to try to gather all that information. Our original list of people we wanted to gather information from was over 10 people but we determined who would give us more information from an educated guess. For the rest of the people, we came up with a survey which was a shorter version of our interview to still get information from them.

Why did you want to make Pandemic Profiles and do you hope it will accomplish?

Sabrina: By sharing these experiences on social media using ACDC’s Instagram, we can engage our community, spotlight youth experiences, and reach out to those who are feeling isolated and going through similar situations. We also noticed there was increased violence and racism throughout the pandemic that targeted Asians. At the time, we felt that the issue had been neglected, so we also wanted this project to feature youth experiences with and reactions to racism and violence, and inform the world that you’re not not alone. We wanted to create a space where people can talk about these issues and feel free to engage with the community around this.