About MC

APISA's Motivation Conference (MC) is a three day two night student initiated outreach program that primarily focuses on Asian Pacific Islander high school students who come from historically under privileged,  under resourced communities, but we do welcome all students of all ethnicities and backgrounds to join us in the MC experience. MC brings up these participants to UC Santa Cruz for the weekend in hopes to inspire and motivate them to pursue some form of higher education after high school. Throughout this conference, we provide the participants with a chance to critically think about their identity and community, express themselves through different artistic forms, and provide them with a space to dialogue about education as well as what resources are out there. Motivation Conference is a free conference! Transportation, lodging, and food is provided for each student. Students do not need to pay to participate in this program. Transportation will also be provided for free by charter buses which will be picking up students at 4 locations in Northern California. (Locations: Oakland, San Francisco, San Mateo, San Jose)



Applications for MC 19 will be open in the beginning of April 2013 so please stay tuned to the website til then!



MC 19 will be held from May 24-26, 2013 at UC Santa Cruz.



Motivation Conference is housed under the Asian Pacific Islander Student Alliance and is running on it's 19 year! MC is organized by APISA core members and volunteers. MC is a student initiated outreach program meaning that every aspect of the conference is organized by UCSC students only. It is is a non-yield program, meaning it brings students who have not been accepted into UCSC or any other colleges, to come visit the campus and take part in different workshops.

 

 

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The theme for MC this year is "The Rose That Grew From Concrete" as taken by the poem by Tupac Shakur. The reason for this theme is to emphasize perseverance through difficult times. We believe this theme speaks to our participants who may come from environments that lack support. We were also inspired by our own struggles with getting MC organized and put together.

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In the end, our main goal is to inspire the participants to pursue higher education as well as provide them with information and insight about college. This is all done within a supportive environment that is MC.



 



The Rose That Grew From Concrete

Did you hear about the rose that grew

from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.

-Tupac Shakur