Education & Scholarships

High School Junior Internship Program

The San Mateo JACL is pleased to announce the inception of an Internship Program for High School Juniors. Selected students would be required to volunteer 20 hours of service from April 15, 2020 to October 30, 2020. Service opportunities would be selected by the San Mateo JACL Board of Directors. Opportunities might include helping at San Mateo Japanese American Community Center with programs or activities, helping SMJACL with Youth Programs, working on Asian Pacific American Heritage Events in May, helping young children with cultural activities at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple Summer Program, or helping with the SMJACL Booths at the Millbrae Japanese Cultural Festival.

Upon successful fulfillment of their Internship students will receive a $300.00 stipend to use for school expenses such as college application fees. Additionally, selected students would be given top priority if they applied for our High School Senior Scholarship.

The terms of the internship would require:

Applicants must be Juniors enrolled in a San Mateo County public or private high school.
Eligible students must submit a fully completed application.
One letter of recommendation.
An interview with JACL Internship committee members is part of the application process.
Applications should be mailed to Mary Jo Kubota-Arcarese, Scholarship Chait at

Education

The San Mateo JACL is offering to provide copies of the 4th edition of the curriculum and resource guide entitled "A Lesson in American History: The Japanese American Experience". The guide provides teachers with historically correct background information, resources, reproducible visuals and source documents, and lesson plans for all grade levels.

Our goal in providing this resource for San Mateo County schools is to offer accurate information for teaching the significance of the "Day of Remembrance" and the history of Japanese Americans. The curriculum guide provides all teachers with materials to teach Japanese American history during World War II as outlined in the California History/Social Studies standards. It is our hope that the material on the Japanese American experience will impact classroom discussions of current events, such as the INS special registration policies. The San Mateo JACL and other civil rights organizations are working to prevent the repetition of past injustices.

If you would like additional copies of the curriculum guide, more information about the San Mateo JACL, or a speaker for your class, please leave a message at (650) 593-7358.

JACL Scholarship Program

The San Mateo Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is pleased to announce their scholarship program for the 2019-2020 school year. Applications will be available at www.jacl.org. Eligible San Mateo County high school seniors are invited to submit applications to our chapter's Scholarship Chairperson by April 1, 2020. Winning applicants will be announced by April 15, 2020.

Eligibility Requirements:

Applicants must be seniors enrolled in a San Mateo County public or private high school.
Applicants must be an active National JACL member at either an Individual or Student/Youth Level. (Parent membership will not meet this requirement.)
Applicants will be partially judged on their involvement in the JA/Asian American community.
Applicants must be planning to attend a college, university, trade school, business school or any other institution of higher learning within the United States.
Applications for JACL membership can be downloaded at http://www.jacl.org/edu/scholar.htm