The month of May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month or some say AAIP. It started on May 1, 2009, President Barack Obama signed Proclamation 8369, recognizing the month of May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are fantastic and very hard-working people. Today I am just going to talk about just a handful of people.

Tammy Duckworth, First Thai American Woman Elected to Congress

Tammy Duckworth is a U.S. Senator from Illinois, in addition to being the first Thai American woman elected to Congress, the first-person born in Thailand elected to Congress, the first woman with a disability elected to Congress, the first double amputee in the Senate, and the first senator to give birth while in office. She is a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel and was the first American female double amputee from the Iraq War, for which she received a Purple Heart.

Kamala Harris, First Asian American Vice President of the United States

The daughter   of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, Kamala Harris is the current vice president of the United States. In addition to being the first woman to hold this office and the highest-ranking female government official in U.S. history, she is also the first Asian American or African American to fill the role. Before her inauguration, she served as a U.S. Senator from California in 2017 and the state’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017.

Daniel Ken Inouye, Then-Highest Ranking Asian American Politician in U.S. History

Born to Japanese immigrants, Daniel Ken Inouye was a U.S. Senator from Hawaii from 1963 until he died in 2012. He witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor and later overcame discrimination to serve in the U.S. military. He earned his law degree from the George Washington University Law School in 1952. In June 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded him the medal of honor. Until Kamala Harris’s inauguration this year as vice president, he was the highest-ranking Asian American politician in U.S. history, third in the presidential line of succession as president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate.

Ellison S. Onizuka, First Asian American in Space

Ellison Onizuka became the first Asian American and first person of Japanese origin to go to space when he served as a mission specialist aboard Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-51C mission in 1985. Tragically, he died in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion in January 1986. Before his career with NASA, he served with the U.S. Air Force as a flight test engineer and test pilot. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of colonel from the rank of lieutenant colonel

Faiza J. Saeed, First Asian American Woman to Lead Major Law Firm

Pakistani American Faiza Saeed is the first Asian American woman to head a top U.S. law firm. She serves as a presiding partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, one of the most prestigious law firms in the United States, which she joined in 1991. In her role, she is the first woman to hold the top position in the firm’s nearly 200-year history. She is a recipient of the American Jewish Committee’s Judge Learned Hand Award and was named one of the Asia Society’s Game Changers of 2019.  There are so many more amazing people that I did not mention that have done so much for AAPI and the U.S. Months like this are very important to have so people can learn about different cultures and people that they might not have heard of but also so cultures can be celebrated and represented in a good and exciting way. What I learned while I was researching this month is that Pacific Islanders are not represented well. They aren’t mentioned either in lists and news articles about AAPI and I believe that they should be more recognized because they deserve the same respect we give Asian Americans. It’s their month too.