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<p> Cambodian Americans graduate from college at a lower rate than most Asian American groups. This qualitative study involved interviewing five current Cambodian American college students. This study examined how participants' high school experiences contributed to their decisions to go to college and to study STEM fields, how parental influences guided participants to college, and how college experiences influenced their decisions to stay and succeed in STEM fields. Findings from this study suggest: having supportive teachers in high school may have been important in motivating participants to go to college and to study STEM Fields, Cambodian parents tell stories of their lives in Cambodia to motivate their children to go to college, and Cambodian club on campus was a socially and academically supportive place. </p>

The period AD 1200-1600 was a time of great change in South Sulawesi, which saw the rise and development of the major kingdoms that came to dominate the political landscape in later centuries. The advent of regular external trade with other parts of the Indonesian archipelago from about 1300, and its increase in subsequent centuries, provided the major stimulus for the rise and development of the Bugis and Makasar kingdoms. Rice appears to have been the major product that the lowland kingdoms of South Sulawesi exchanged with foreign traders, and the demand for this appears to have stimulated a major expansion and intensification of wet-rice agriculture. In this thesis I focus on five South Sulawesi kingdoms, collectively known as Ajattappareng. Through a combination of oral, textual, archaeological, linguistic and geographical sources, I explore their rise and development from about 1200 to the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the Makasar kingdom of Goa defeated and Islamised the neighbouring Bugis kingdoms. I also present an inquiry into oral traditions of a historical nature in South Sulawesi, encompassing their functions, processes of transmission and transformation, their uses in writing history and their relationship with the written register. I argue that any distinction between oral and written traditions of a historical nature is largely irrelevant, and that oral and written information collectively make up a large corpus of knowledge that can be recalled, or referenced, whenever the need may arise. I also argue that the South Sulawesi chronicles, which can be found for a few kingdoms only, are an anomaly in the corpus of indigenous South Sulawesi historical sources.

<p> This study used grounded theory to understand how the first two generations of Korean- American pastors conceptualize leadership. Interviews were conducted with both first- and second-generation Korean-American pastors both in Northern and Southern California. This study discovered that the first-generation Korean-American concept of leadership is heavily influenced by Confucian thought where the ideal leader is called by God. In response, the leader regularly practices the rites of spirituality, prayer and sacrifice. The practice of these rites gives the first-generation pastor legitimacy in exercising authority over his congregation. In contrast, the second-generation leadership model appears to be influenced by being in the Millennial generation. Two of the key aspects of Millennial desire for their work environment are (a) maximizing the balance of work and life and (b) the strong desire for mentorship. Both of these are highly evident in the second-generation concept of leadership. Legitimacy for exercising authority within the second-generation comes from the sacrifice demonstrated in the mentoring relationship. Comparing both generations concept of leadership to Bass&rsquo; (1999) four aspects of transformational leadership, this study discovered that both generations can fit into Bass&rsquo; model of transformational leadership. Applying Pearce&rsquo;s (2004) coordinated management of meaning to understand the intercultural communication issues present between the two generations, this study discovered that although the terminology of both generations were similar, the undergirding concept was quite different and to some degree opposite.</p>

<p>ATTITUDES OF ASIAN AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WHO LEFT THEIR ETHNIC CHURCHES FOR NON-ETHNIC CHURCHES EZRA JINYONG SOHN Doctor of Ministry May 2017 Advisers: Frank Chan, Milton Eng The author presents the difficulty of retaining younger English-speaking congregants as a ministry problem for Chinese and Korean American churches in New York City. The urgency, in the clarion call of Ken Fong (1990) and Helen Lee (1996), of cultivating healthier churches for second generation Asian Americans remains today. After several decades, the results of all our investment into second-generation Asian American ministries are unclear and questions abound: Does the lack of visible progress among Asian American ministries for over three decades indicate that homogenous church plants are missiologically ineffective? If an effective ministry model was developed for second generation Asian Americans, would there be healthy multiplication (on a national level)? Do the localized nature of fruitful Asian American ministries today point primarily to the individual competence of particular ministers and personalities? Is it too dreamy to envision a ?generational? church or national renewal for second generation Asian Americans? Do the contextual demands for a particular region supersede the general ministry demands of the second generation Asian Americans group? There is no clear indication that Asian American ministries have broken the code to the ?Silent Exodus? phenomenon or if an ethno-generational code even exists. There remains a need for data, exploratory ministries, and results to address the ?Silent Exodus.? The author?s study focuses on a narrow perspective within the ?Silent Exodus? phenomenon of those who actually found a destination and brackets out perspectives such as apostasy, those who stayed in the ethnic church despite grievances, and those who still have faith in Jesus but gave up on institutionalized religion. He recruited 165 Chinese and Korean Americans in six marque non-ethnic churches in New York City who attended an ethnic church for at least three years at some point in their life. He created an Asian American Christian Survey, a 36 Likert Scale and 4 Fill-in questionnaire, which seeks to measure the attitudes of Asian American Christians who left their ethnic churches for non-ethnic churches. The author discovered that the top reasons Asian Americans prefer the non-ethnic church are the same for each of the six marque churches: standard of excellence, their multicultural value, and their non-legalistic culture. The six marque churches surveyed are Trinity Grace Church, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New Life Fellowship, Times Square Church, Hope NYC, and Hillsong NYC. Another 68 respondents in the New York Metropolitan area, not attending these six marque churches, prefer their current churches to an Asian American church for the same top three reasons out of eleven evaluated: standard of excellence, their multicultural value, and their non-legalistic culture. Recommendations for ministry include thoughtfully deconstructing why current Asian American ministries are faltering and theologically constructing healthier Asian American ministries in light of insights learned from ministries creating destinations for the ?Silent Exodus? population, systemic changes regarding core values and practices, and developing leaders who embody these values. Research results overwhelmingly indicate incompetence and immaturity among Asian American ministry leaders.

<p> Hakka people in Taiwan remain largely unreached after 150 years of Protestant missionary activity. The purpose of this Participatory Action Research is to understand how Taiwanese Hakka ministers perceive the impact of participating in interventions designed to increase the awareness of the three binary cultural value systems, guilt and innocence (GI), shame and honor (SH), and fear and power (FP) in communicating the gospel. In this study, I laid the theoretical foundation of evangelism, taking into account the GI, SH, and FP cultural values. The cultural values found in Hakka ministers&rsquo; methods of gospel communication prior to the intervention was mainly GI, sometimes FP (depending on the theological stance of individual church), and intuitively SH yet with a need for developed SH theology.</p><p> The intervention measure of the seminar &ldquo;Worldview and Reflection on Hakka Evangelism&rdquo; proved to be crucial as the participants expressed that this was the first time they had heard theology presented systematically from an SH perspective. The focus group agreed that GI, SH, and FP provided a helpful system for understanding the Scripture and further contextualizing evangelism. They learned to think more holistically, which is conducive for further contextualization efforts in Hakka evangelism.</p><p> My main research question was &ldquo;What are Hakka ministers&rsquo; perceptions of the impact of a seminar designed to increase their awareness of the three cultural values, GI, SH, and FP, in communicating the gospel?&rdquo; The central understanding was that &ldquo;The perception of Hakka ministers is that intentionally contextualizing church events and ministries by incorporating the three cultural values in the order of SH&rarr; FP&rarr; GI with progressive messages, in the form of concrete Bible stories and personal testimonies, is likely to increase the impact on Hakka evangelism and discipleship.&rdquo; </p><p> Finally, I made suggestions for future research, including greater development of SH theology, orality, and partnership development. These three fields have potential to greatly enhance the impact of evangelism on the Hakka and unreached people groups around the globe and restructure our theological training and discipleship processes.</p>

<p> This study examines the autonomy of art as a governing principle in the artistic practice of Filipino poets in English. The Western modernist ideal of art for art&rsquo;s sake was transplanted to the Philippines via the educational system implemented during the American occupation in the early twentieth century. As appropriated in colonial Philippines, what is historically regarded as a form of artistic resistance to the capitalist and rapidly industrializing society of the West is traditionally read as a withdrawal of participation by colonial and postcolonial literary writers from the political realm. The writer who subscribes to art for art&rsquo;s sake supposedly fetishizes form <i> in itself</i> and simply has no stake in lived realities and no role in the production of a national literature. <i>Authoring Autonomy</i> interrogates the division between aesthetics and politics that occurs when the autonomy of art is presumed to be incompatible with the work of social transformation. It accounts for the potential and limits of autonomy as a form of critical intervention through studying the work of three Filipino poets: Jos&eacute; Garcia Villa, Edith Tiempo, and Jose F. Lacaba. Drawing from the work of critics who have problematized the politics of aesthetic autonomy, including Theodor Adorno and Roberto Schwarz, this study examines how Filipino poets have authored autonomy in ways that comply with, disturb, or resist the status quo. It also includes a poetics essay and a collection of poetry, which articulate, both critically and creatively, my poetic practice as informed by my understanding of how autonomy is authored in ways that are cognizant of postcolonial conditions and anxieties.</p>

<p> Numerous researchers have studied the connection between exchange rate fluctuations and macroeconomic variables for various market economies. Few studies, however, have addressed whether these relationships may differ based on the market classification of the given economy. This study examined the impact on exchange rates for Japan (a proxy for developed economies) and South Korea (a proxy for emerging economies) yielding from the macroeconomic variables of the sticky-price monetary model between February 1, 1989 and February 1, 2015. The results show that money supply and inflation constituted a significant, but small, influence on South Korean exchange rate movements, whereas no macroeconomic variable within the model had a significant impact on Japanese exchange rates fluctuations. The results of the autoregressive error analyses suggest small variances in the affect that macroeconomic variables may have on developed versus emerging market economies. This may provide evidence that firms may use similar forecasting techniques for emerging market currencies as used with developed market currencies.</p>

<p> Researcher surveyed 200 Korean- speaking Korean American Believers in Bergen County of NJ with questionnaire 'ACMRT', Attitude toward Church Membership Retention and Transfer (10-questions questionnaire). Only 24% have remained in their original church and that 76% have transferred churches, many of whom more than once. Church satisfaction is not higher among the transfers in comparison to the retained. Apart from "moving" the most cited cause for leaving a previous church was conflict.</p><p>

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between depression and the personal characteristics of Asians who are 50 years or older. The secondary objective was to determine whether Asians 50 years or older living in the United States are more likely to be depressed than other ethnicities. The information for this study was secured from the National Health Interview Survey, spanning the years 2001 to 2010. In this study, I utilized the SAS-Callable SUDAAN statistical system. Multivariate regression was used to predict and determine significant correlations. The results indicated that Asians 50 and older living in the U.S. and who experience functional limitations, poor vision, hypertension, poor health, not married, and unemployed in previous year were in general more prone to depression. Furthermore, the study indicated that Asian elderly living the U.S. showed lower rates of depression than all non- Asian ethnicities. However when controlled for personal characteristics only Whites and Hispanics had higher depression incidences than Asian elderly. Recommendations for future studies include: conducting more micro and macro studies of Asian elders, such as in-depth case studies for each ethnicity, longitudinal studies of various Asian subgroups, and studies of Asian elderly with hypertension who have committed suicide.