Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month first began as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week on May 4, 1979. In 1992, Congress passed Public Law 102-450 (PDF, 285kb) which annually designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.

Below are current and historical figures featured for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the world.

Featured:

• Dr. Isabella Aiona Abbott - Isabella Aiona Abbott became the first native Hawaiian woman to earn a PhD in science, paving the way for all the future women who pursue a science degree. As a child, Abbott collected seaweed in her recipes and even learned their uses, leading to her passion. Abbott graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1937, earned a bachelor’s degree in botany from the University of Hawaii’ in 1941, and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1942. She then obtained her PhD in algal taxonomy from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1950. In 1972, Abbott became the first female professor in Stanford’s Biology department. After her retirement, Abbott was awarded the Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal by the National Academy of Sciences and claimed to be a “living treasure of Hawaii".
• Ajay Bhatt - Bhatt received his Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) in 1980 and his Master’s in 1984. While at Intel, Bhatt had the idea to create a single connector that would bypass the need for countless other adaptors, applications, and readers that were the standard then. He pitched it to Apple, Microsoft, and other major companies, but Intel was the only one to invest in the idea. Although they still hold the patent for the USB, Intel chose to keep the product royalty-free and open to everyone. Bhatt is happy with knowing what a massive contribution he made to the world of technology. Today, he holds over 132 US and international patents and has co-invented or spearheaded other major technological innovations, like the Accelerated Graphics Port, the Thunderbolt, USB Type-C, and many more.
• Vicki Draves - Born Victoria Manalo, Vicki Draves adopted her mother’s maiden name, Taylor, for competition in order to escape racial prejudice in the 1940s. Born to an English mother and Filipino father, the Manalo family faced heavy discrimination. She was forced to train in segregated pools that only allowed people of color to participate once a week. She won a national diving championship at the age of 16 and competed two years later at the London 1948 Olympic Games. In London, she took home gold medals in the 3-meter springboard and the 10-meter platform, becoming not only the first woman to sweep the diving events, but also becoming the first Asian American to win an Olympic medal.
• Dr. Emelihter Kihleng - Kihleng completed her PhD in Va’aomanū Pasifika, Pacific Studies from Victoria University of Wellington in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her dissertation, Menginpehn Lien Pohnpei: a poetic ethnography of urohs (Pohnpeian skirts), is a bilingual and creative exploration of a genealogy of Pohnpeian women’s menginpeh or handiwork from tattooing to cloth production to poetry, another kind of dynamic textual and textured “writing” that responds to urohs, a highly valued textile and distinct form of dress. The daughter of a white American mother and Pohnpeian father, Emeli was raised in Pohnpei, Guam and Honolulu, Hawai’i. She is currently the Distinguished Writer in Residence in the English Department at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.
• Amanda Nguyen – In 2013, Amanda Nguyen, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, attempted to access information on her rights as the survivor of a sexual assault, and found it nearly impossible. There was no national legislation in existence establishing consistent rules, rights and protections for individuals who have experienced sexual violence so she wrote it herself. The Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act of 2016 provides survivors with certain guarantees, including the right to a rape kit procedure at no cost, as well as the requirement that kits be preserved for 20 years. Nguyen was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, and is the founder and CEO of Rise, a multi-sector coalition that advocates for survivors’ rights, and assists people in writing and passing their own bills.
• Wong Tsu – In 1904, anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. rose to a fever pitch as Congress passed an indefinite extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act, almost entirely closing the gates on Chinese immigration. Beijing-born Wong Tsu came to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through a loophole in the law that made an exception for students. After graduating from MIT’s new aeronautical program in June 1916, Wong was hired as Boeing’s first aeronautical engineer, cementing his place in aviation history.He was integral in designing Boeing’s first successful plane, the Boeing Model C. That became the company’s first military plane, its first used to carry mail and the catalyst to the development of the Model 40A, the first Boeing aircraft to carry passengers.