This was such an amazing class. Professor Fong was an engaging lecturer, and she really picks topics that are interesting and relatable. As an Asian American, it was very eye-opening to learn about American History from the lens of the many Asian American immigrants who came before me. This was hands down one of my favorite classes I have taken thus far at UCLA, and is honestly not too hard to do well in. Make sure to show up to discussion sections and lecture, as Professor Fong does not post her slides online later. For the midterm and final, doing the given study guide is actually really helpful and of course supplementing it with the notes you take from the slides in lectures. As for the paper, make sure to visit your TA as they are very helpful and will give valuable feedback. Overall, I recommend this course if you are looking for an interesting GE that is not too hard to do well in!

I took this class because it fulfilled the diversity requirement, but it has done so much more than that. I genuinely feel like I learned so much about my ethnic background and history, which has made this class personal and engaging. Many students could make connections between the course material and their lives.

Teaching style: I appreciate how concise Dr. Fong's slides were. For the majority of her lectures, she finished PRECISELY on time, like it's crazy how good she is at pacing her lectures even with the unpredictability of students' questions. I also appreciate how she changed her intonations and whatnot, so she wasn't talking in a boring monotone, which helped keep me awake for the 9:30 class (I'm not a morning person). She constantly made explicit connections between her personal life and the course material (i.e. showing pictures of her own grandma participating in a strike) that just really emphasized the personal nature of this course for many students.

Workload: A lot of my classmates fell behind in the readings and never bothered catching up, but I did all of the assigned readings and I can say that while most, not all, of the readings were relevant and useful for providing in-depth context for the lectures, but they were generally unnecessary for the exams. The readings included chapters from the required textbook (you'll end up reading practically the entire book by the end of the quarter) along with excerpts posted on CCLE, which took hours to keep up with. The only other homework besides the reading was a final interview and paper in which you have to interview a 40+ year old person of Asian descent and use it as evidence in a paper where you connect it to the overarching course themes (imperialism, capitalism, etc.). I gave myself about two weeks to write up my interview questions, conduct the 30-minute interview, and write my paper and I submitted it days early, so as long as you don't procrastinate, it really shouldn't be too stressful.

Exams: There's one midterm and a final. They both consisted of an identifications section where you're given a list of 6 or so terms and you choose 4-5 to define and explain their significance (you're only required to select 4, but if you choose to answer 5, only your top 4 answers will be scored). I was pretty confident about this section, so I only answered the required 4 and used the rest of the time to work on the essay portion of the exams. In this section, you're given a super long, unorganized, and scattered prompt that you might not know what to do with at first. It asks you to include many different, seemingly unconnected things, so I felt like my essays were just as scattered as if I was just spitting out information (think AP exam essays). But it was fine because the TAs are trying to give you points, so as long as you show that you know the material and you use appropriate terms, you'll be fine. To study for the exams, I created and reviewed a Quizlet of important terms (I highly suggest you review all of the Supreme court cases) and I studied all of my lecture and reading notes, but as I mentioned earlier, I feel like the readings weren't all that necessary. After taking the exams, I feel like I could've just studied the lecture notes and passed the exams with few problems. I absolutely DESPISE timed tests with essays, but I finished both the midterm and the final with time to spare, so if that's also true for you, I wouldn't worry about the timed aspect. That's not to say you can take your time on the tests (work urgently, but cautiously), but I had time to draft an outline and write an essay and still finish before the time was up.

Discussions: I had Katelyn as my TA, and she was great at communicating with students through email and answering questions. I also greatly appreciated that she took the time to create a list of 50 vocab terms that she recommended we review before the midterm. However, I felt like discussions weren't worth my time. I wanted to review the essential concepts, like lecture-style, but there wasn't much teaching happening in discussions. We just discussed our opinions and observations from the readings and lectures and did free writes. In the discussions right before the midterm and the final, we split into groups to write details about one of 5 main topics, but we used our notes and the Internet, so I don't think I got anything from that that I couldn't get from studying by myself. Finally, there was no suggested timeline given for the research paper, so we were all taken aback when one day Katelyn just asked if any of us had done the interview yet and none of us had. So just be aware that you might want to conduct your interview sometime after the midterm to give yourself ample time to schedule the interview at a convenient time, conduct said interview, and write the paper. Katelyn did give us an outline of questions she used in her interviews, which helped me come up with my questions.

Grade scheme: Discussion (20%), Midterm (25%), Final (30%), Research Paper (25%)

Tip: Dr. Fong doesn't post her slides online, so you absolutely have to attend class, pay attention, and take notes!

I took this class as GE when I dropped another class I didn't like, so I was two weeks late coming in but I had Mitchell Lee as a TA and he was very helpful in catching me up. There is a book for the class but it isn't a textbook perse. It's very interesting and after the class, I actually intend to keep the book for myself. Fong combines US policy with the Asian American experience and she makes the material relevant. She understands that most history classes are boring because the information is dry and has no personal impact so she makes her lessons with guest speakers and examples of recent history. The grade is comprised of the midterm, final, section participation, and an oral history paper. I went to my TA a lot for help with the paper but even without assistance, it's pretty easy. I didn't read the textbook as much as I should, but the PDFs and going to lecture were the sum of what the tests were about. The midterm and final are both essay and IDs and they were fairly easy. She doesn't post her slides so going to lecture is crucial in order to get the notes. The slides basically summarize her main points and they are perfect for note-taking. The professor doesn't talk too fast and engages with the class while waiting for people to finish writing. I recommend this class regardless if you are an Asian American or not because you learn tons of material that is relevant to society's xenophobia today. P.S. there was one extra credit opportunity where the author of the assigned text came to give a talk at Powell, I'm not sure if it'll happen for future classes.