A picture of YSEALI professional fellows: (left to right): Neville, Celine and Insan participated in a 4-week fellowship in Austin City Hall, TX.
Heartwarming and inspired are the two words to describe my experience.
As I reflect on my fellowship experiences, I decided to pen down my thoughts about my host city - Austin, the Capitol of Texas. I set foot in this city with the impression that Texas is a cowboy town, mostly based on movies and narratives in the past. However, after a one-month stay here, I certainly disprove the notion. The city surprises me in ways I’ve never imagined, from its development that spurred a great sense of momentum, fostering growth and innovation to discovering the unique art and cultural diversity within the city limits. In my own words, the city expresses itself in 5 distinct ways - Place, People, Practices, Purpose, and Passion, which summarizes the key highlights of my YSEALI Professional Fellowship experience.
Place: Vibrant & Dynamic
My first day in Austin was a quick ride downtown, and as I gazed out from the car, one of the picturesque views was the Lady Bird Lake, which is the tributary of the Lower Colorado River that flows through the heart of downtown Austin. Most of the recreational parks I visited here are built with riparian zones covered in lush greenery accompanied by informative signboards that signify a dynamic approach to environmental education for the citizens. In addition, these public spaces offer recreational opportunities such as paddle boarding, hiking, and biking for locals to indulge in nature within the city limits.
Furthermore, the rising attention on environmental sustainability issues and climate resilience in recent years has also integrated into green building designs including solar panel installation in the Austin Central Library and the roof garden in City Hall serving as pollinating areas for urban wildlife. The city of Austin has shown a commitment towards building a resource-efficient and ecological-resilient city. Echoing one of my fellow fellows, as he spoke about the infrastructure design being intentional and people centered, which I believe it enhances the quality of life for Austinites.
People: Enthusiastic & Amiable
In Austin City Hall, I was assigned to the Austin Public Health Department, where I observe functions and duties of health care services for the community and environment. The high point of my experience is the people I interacted with. From engaging with healthcare providers on disseminating infectious disease information to attending to patients with underlying health issues that require home-based vaccination as well as refugee community, the outreach and engagement have been extensively community-centric from aspects of information delivery to technical support for the healthcare services. On top of that, the southern hospitality is undeniably one of the reasons I love this youthful city. In this regard, I am truly blessed with people I met, who welcomed me as a friend and family and were able to exchange our culture alongside forming precious connections that I will always treasure.
Left: Joined Austin City Limits 2022, one of the longest-running music series in American television history with the City Hall team; Centre: Experiencing Texas’s football game in UT, Go Longhorns!; Right: Public gather around Congress Avenue Bridge to witness bats flight in the evening
As I explore the city with endless curiosity, there were times I wander on my own, which led to meeting new people and engaging in meaningful conversation. I attended several large-scale events such as the Texas Tribune Festival, Austin City Limits and the Texas Longhorns football game in this one month. Apart from the well-oriented crowd management and impressive publicity, I felt immense positive energy and enthusiasm from the audience despite that I was on a solo venture. It was quite an enriching and unforgettable experience!
Practices: Proactive & Inclusive
While the city seeks strategic solutions, what’s striking is the emphasis on people’s voices during the City Councils meetings. Citizens were encouraged to be vocal on the issues and are entitled to be heard by policymakers during the session. I strongly believe such endeavor cultivates trust with the people and strengthens the foundation of the city government in co-creating a more resilient city.
The most common topic I often heard in my daily conversation is the gentrification process that has accelerated in the last few years, creating impacts such as housing affordability crises, forced displacement and visible homelessness issues as the cities gentrify. I recalled asking this, how does the city ensure an equity-based approach for the residents? There is no doubt equity is a work in progress and to name a few, there are several known projects supporting marginalized community such as Camp Esperanza by The Other Ones Foundation and Community First! Village addresses the homeless issue, Equitable Transit-Oriented Development by CapMetro to improve neighborhood connectivity and home equity vaccination program for citizens with mobility challenges.
Furthermore, as I interacted with the National Deaf Centre, the effort in promoting inclusion for the deaf community is admirable in terms of resource accessibility. What piqued my interest was the interpretation of sign language in a form of music, enabling the community to experience live music in Austin City Limits.
Purpose: Unique & Proud
Left: Mo and Ben (Texas Longhorn); Centre: Austin Bergstrom Airport; Right: Artist painting an art piece in Texas Tribune Festival “Keep Austin Weird”, was the slogan I spotted when I arrived at the Austin– Bergstrom Airport.
My initial thought was it was a random slogan written on the wall. But once again, Austin lives up to the hype by creating iconic artwork and celebrating its wonders of it. As I roamed around downtown, the colorful murals and street art remind me of my beloved hometown, Penang. Both cities display an array of vibrant artworks fused with creative energy depicting the artist’s freedom of expression, identity, and historic culture of the city. What caught my attention during the city hall tour is the People’s Gallery, an economic development initiative by the city to support artists and art organizations. Every artwork unveils different tales and carries significant messages behind the pieces, which helps me to better understand the local community perspectives. In addition, I find that the city’s appreciation for artwork drives a stronger capacity for community connections as well as preserving cultural heritage.
Passion: Empowering & Engaging
Field experience with Watershed Protection and Austin Animal Protection
In pursuit of gaining insights on topics in health system resiliency, digital technology, and health equity, I had the chance to shadow different incredible groups of professionals such as epidemiologists, environmental biologists, nurses, disease and emergency management professionals, park rangers, animal control officers during the fellowship. In the context of community resilience, the city’s proactive anticipation that extended across infectious disease management, flood early warning systems, invasive plant elimination for park maintenance, domestic animal welfare protection, and water quality monitoring has demonstrated how the city integrates One Health strategies to conserve environmental health. One of the messages from researchers at the University of Texas that I resonate well is promoting “Health without Boundaries”, and I wish to add that where transcending One Health beyond boundaries is the global goal for sustainable planet health. Such a transdisciplinary approach can be achieved through collaborations and collective efforts from all levels of communities.
As I strolled along the Congress Avenue Bridge, a passionate educator from Bat Refuge sharing education awareness on bats caught my attention. The organization has been dedicating their work to bat conservation since 2009. To my knowledge, bats are one of the iconic wildlife in Austin and it has certainly drawn tourists’ attraction to observe the bats’ migration under the bridge every year. However, they remain a misunderstood population due to the prolonged negative perception of vectors for disease transmission, which entails unresolved human-wildlife conflicts. I posed a question on how we can stand in balance between conflicts and coexistence. In our conversation, we spoke about effective communication as the key to promoting respect for wildlife by not handling them nor disturbing their habitat and sharing the appreciation for the biodiversity that keeps our ecosystem healthy. I am hopeful that someday education can shape the community globally, which nurtures the human-wildlife coexistence relationship in a shared landscape.
In one of the forums by Woman-to-Woman Organization, I took inspiration from the words of the keynote speaker, Stephanie Hayden Howard.
“Take a leap of faith by creating a legacy in your community”
An empowering message that rekindles hope that every individual has the power to create change in the community. As I returned to Washington, D.C. in the final week, one of the take-home messages is
“The ones closest to the problem are closest to the solution.”
This depicts the importance of unifying roles across communities, encouraging citizens to be active players, creating democratic resilience, and working collectively with local leaders for an all-encompassing approach as we navigate through multiple challenges. As Austin is evolving rapidly with its socio-economic development with smart innovations, I envisioned the city will be thriving to achieve a more equitable and inclusive governance system that embraces diversity in decades to come.
And for that, I wish to express my gratitude to the city employees and community I engaged with, allowing me to experience a little bit of everything in Austin, Texas. Thanks for having me!