OCA National Convention Gala Awards Banquet

On Saturday August 8th, 2009 the OCA National Gala Awards Banquet was held at the California Room in the Westin St. Francis Hotel. The night opened with greetings and introductions by the MCs for the night Thuy Vu and David Louie. Ken Lee, the OCA National President spoke and introduced the 2009 Convention Co-Chairs Claudine Cheng and Sherman Tang.

Ron Chang, VP Mergers & Acquisitions of UPS presented The UPS Gold Mountain Scholarship awards to 12 students 5 of which were present. These APA students are the first in their families to attend an institution of higher education.

Two OCA Pioneer Awards were presented by Ken Lee. The first of the awards was given to Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube. The second award was given to fashion designer Anna Sui.

This year's OCA Outstanding Citizen Achievement Awards were given to historians Him Mark Lai and Philip. P. Choy. They pioneered the first college level history course on the Chinese of America at San Francisco State University in 1969. Him Mark continued to teach this class at UC Berkeley. Additionally they created the In Search of Roots program to teach Chinese American youth how to research their family history through the National Archives and Records Administration documents.

Another OCA Outstanding Citizen Achievement Award was presented to US Congressman Mike Honda. Congressman Honda has represented the 15th Congressional District of California at the U.S. House of Representatives since 2001. As a public servant, he has been lauded for his work on education, transportation, civil rights, national service, the environment, and high-tech issues.