By Kaitlan Sakuma, 2026 CLA Intern
If there is one word to describe how I am feeling post-CLA, it would be: reflective. Reflective of the past, present, and future.
My path to CLA started in 2023, volunteering at CAUSE soirée through Key Club and long before I truly understood what CAUSE actually did. It was Robinson, a CAUSE alum and fellow Pitzer student who first told me I should apply. He had gone through the program a few years earlier and something about hearing it from a familiar face on my own campus made it feel possible instead of abstract. Around the same time, I took a class at Harvey Mudd on Asian American community studies, focused specifically on the San Gabriel Valley – my hometown. I’d grown up in Monterey Park, where being surrounded by people who shared pieces of my culture and carried similar immigrant stories was the norm, so normal that it never registered as something rare. I didn’t realize how much that has shaped me until I left it. Coming to Pitzer was the first time I experienced something different and that shift is what pushed me to actually put language to what I’d grown up around. It wasn’t until I was sitting in a classroom examining my own home that I understood how much API representation, work, and identity matters to me and outside of the SGV bubble.
That support network showed itself most clearly in a parking lot outside of the CAUSE office. I’d just found out I was being appointed to the California Student Aid Commission after a CAUSE work day but I felt too anxious to bring it up to my cohort. I was standing there with Matthew and Jayden when Sophia’s text landed in our group chat: “KAITLAN what is this I hear from my dad that you were just appointed by Gov. Newsom to serve on the CA Student Aid Commission????” Within minutes, the messages were pouring in. I hadn’t said a word, and I already felt completely supported and loved. That’s the thing about CAUSE I didn’t expect going in: They don’t just place you in an office or put you straight to work on the mock election. They build a room full of people who show up for each other without being asked. I didn’t earn that reaction by announcing it. I got it because CAUSE had already built the kind of cohort where people notice, and care, before you even say anything.
In my host office, with Assemblymember Mike Fong, I was able to attend many local events in AD 49 which was a transformative experience. One event in particular that shaped how I approach politics would be when I joined a tour of a nursing home in the district. This facility took care of about five patients in critical conditions. Walking through, I watched staff stretch every resource they had to give those patients real, attentive care. Funding came up, not as a complaint but as the honest reality of doing this kind of work. It wasn’t unique to this facility but rather, it is a gap nearly every sector continues to navigate in some form. That tour is when “everything is political” stopped being an abstract phrase for me, and it became something I could genuinely see in a room. It wasn't about anyone doing something wrong, it was about how far resources have to stretch, and how many real people are on the other end of every budget line. Being placed in Assemblymember Fong’s office meant I wasn’t just learning about the San Gabriel Valley from a desk – I was standing in the room where policy and daily life meet, and understanding just how much work it takes to close that gap.
This summer was filled with lessons, experiences, and people. We met AANHPI leaders across sectors, from people in policy, nonprofits, government offices, all on completely different paths but working towards the same thing: making sure our communities have real representation and a real seat at the table. My CLA experience didn’t just show me that AANHPI representation matters in the abstract. It showed me people actually doing that work, and I aspire to be part of making this history and paving the path for future generations.
So as I wrap up this last blog and reflect, I want to thank Nancy, Andrea, Rachel, and Heather. Thank you for the work you do behind the scenes to make this program what it is. None of what I experienced this summer happens without the care the CAUSE team puts into building it. To the CAUSE donors, sponsors, guest speakers, and the wider CAUSE community, thank you for investing in a program that invests in us. And to my cohort, neomu love :) Thank you for being the kind of people who show up, who celebrate each other, and who make a parking lot in Little Tokyo feel like home. I am so grateful to be part of this amazing CAUSE family and I cannot wait to see us grow and make history.
