Letter from the Editor: 2025 IMAGE Magazine

Dear readers, 

Welcome to the 2025 issue of IMAGE Magazine! This has been in the works since the summer of 2024—the year that marked the 35th anniversary of OCA’s signature internship program. With an alumni base of nearly 600 strong, I had the idea to mark the occasion by dedicating an entire issue of the zine to the program that’s near and dear to my heart.

The original concept was ambitious: interview one intern alumnus from each year—from 1989 to 2024—for a total of 35 interviews. The idea didn’t stop there; interviewing people was the easy part. Inspired by annual issues like Forbes 30 Under 30 and TIME Person of the Year, I also wanted us to write profiles on each alumnus to highlight their stories in an engaging manner.

When it proved to be too difficult to get in touch with an alumnus from every year, we shifted gears. We freed ourselves from the one-alumnus-per-year rule and decided former interns from the same class were fair game. After all, everyone has an interesting story to tell. I’m proud to say we were able to feature alumni representing five different decades—the late 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.

As you flip through these pages, you’ll find over 30 articles depicting the rich diversity of OCA. These alumni were all college students when they first interned with us, yet their paths afterwards are vastly different. Some have stayed within the advocacy space, founding and leading nonprofits or running for public office. Others pursued creative endeavors, becoming filmmakers, actors, even content creators. You’ll read about people who’ve found ways to include social justice within seemingly unrelated professions, like psychology. About a former intern who’s served on a presidential cabinet. About someone who met their now-husband when they were OCA interns together. Their stories are different, but they all share the same passion and dedication to making the world a better place.

Additionally, this year’s zine depicts our alumni’s creativity, featuring beautiful works of art, poetry, food, and more. Our lovely cover was designed by the talented Cindy Nguyen. She had pitched three different ideas for the cover, including a scrapbook format or one inspired by a newspaper comic. The concept we chose represents a “snapshot” of Cindy's desk from when she was an OCA intern, from a calendar of events, an OCA National Convention badge, and a journal with notes from Sama Sama, the weekly programming interns participated in.

As someone who studied visual arts as an undergraduate student, as someone with a love for design, writing, making things, I’m thrilled with the result of the 18-month journey it took to produce this year’s magazine. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our executive director, Thu Nguyen, who continues to allow me to explore my creative side despite my official position being in programs. I’d like to thank our senior communications associate, Socheata Sun, for allowing me to take over the management of this year’s zine—a project she usually oversees.

The creation of this magazine was a team effort: thank you to our interns Jesse Wu, Ethan Kishan, and Iris Liu for being the first ones to work on this project and interviewing alumni before we understood what the end result would be; thank you Socheata and our intern Isabella Vaka for taking the time to help start the first drafts of these articles; thank you to our executive council member Daniel Hoddinott for helping us get in touch with our alumni; thank you to our programs associate, Cassie Micah, and interns Amelia Lagna and Skyler Murao for interviewing and helping to write the bulk of the profiles—and for their patience as we continued to experiment with ideas along the way before settling on the final look; and thank you to our former intern, former staff member, and friend, Andrew Peng, for taking time out of his busy day job to put all of this together into a visually stunning product.

Despite the herculean effort—hundreds of hours of work, countless sleepless nights—I enjoyed every minute of this process. I loved listening to all the inspiring interviews. I loved hearing the advice they shared from their wealth of lived experiences. I loved the opportunity of doing their stories justice in these mini profiles. And I hope you’ll love reading them just as much.

Sincerely,

Kent Tong, 
Senior Programs Manager