Kristy Shimosaka served as one of the Northern California NCI program coordinators for the first couple of years after it was founded.  She reflects on one of the valuable aspects of NCI:

"There are so many reasons why I know that the NCI program is important.  However, one of the most important things that the NCI program provides is a way for young people, with leadership potential, to meet each other as well as other more established leaders in the community.  The program provides its participants the opportunity to meet leaders in the community that want to hear what they have to say, and the program encourages the young people to speak up regarding their beliefs, and ask for help in implementing their ideas.  These relationships that form over the summer, and stretch, over the years, are the relationships that interns have counted upon to help them implement various ideas back at school, and achieve various goals in their lives, while also enriching the Japanese American community."

--
NCI 2008 Workshop

NCI 2008 Workshop

Photo courtesy of NCI program