Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz’s (passing) Asian-American Curriculum

“You can't expect to do better unless you know better. Understanding who we are collectively - Asian-Americans and non-Asians.”Representative Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, serves in Illinois' General Assembly - representing Illinois’ 17th District since 2019. Jennifer was the co-sponsor of a recently passed the nation’s FIRST Asian-American history curriculum bill - the TEAACH (Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act) - which is a big deal. Not just that it passed (long overdue), but that it will hopefully prove as a template in many other states around our country.Jennifer's many things - a politician, a lawyer, and advocate, a mom. She’s the granddaughter of Chinese immigrants who fought deportation under the Chinese Exclusion Act. Her sense of justice was instilled from an early age through her parents - active in the civil rights and women’s rights movements - making Jennifer a determined fighter for the voiceless and the vulnerable her entire adult life - taking on transnational human traffickers and aggressively defending the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children. Providing access to justice to our community’s most vulnerable residents - developing legal capacity to represent Dreamers, domestic violence survivors, and low-income residents.For Jennifer - the law is a piece of a greater system to be shaped to be more inclusive for all. But it’s ultimately about building greater empathy and understanding amongst ALL Americans.LEARN ABOUT REP. JENNIFER GONG-GERSHOWITZ Website: gonggershowitz.com Illinois General Assembly: ilga.gov/house/Rep.asp?MemberID=2744 TEAACH ACT: politico.com/news/2021/05/31/aapi-history-education-illinois-491324 FOLLOW JENNIFER ON SOCIAL Twitter: @gonggershowitz Instagram: @jengonggershowitz MENTIONS CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT PBS SHOW: Asian-Americans BOOK: The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) BOOK: The Woman Warrior (Maxine Hong Kingston) FILM: Minari (2020) BOOK: Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans (Ronald Takaki) BOOK: Asian Americans: An Interpretive History (Sucheng Chan) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.