Jessie Zheng is a senior at Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, Connecticut. As a first-generation, low-income immigrant, Jessie never saw anyone who looked like them. Determined to address this gap, Jessie founded AAPI Youth Advocates, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for Asian American and Pacific Islander representation in Connecticut. The organization has supported a successful law requiring Asian history to be taught in K-12 curriculums, co-hosted an education symposium with an official commission of the state legislature, the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition, and the UConn Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, and successfully passed a resolution within local towns to recognize Lunar New Year as an official holiday. Jessie has interned for Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, Sen. Saud Anwar and Rep. Maryam Khan, researching and proposing a bill revising the hate crime statute to assume a restorative justice approach focused on community service. Jessie is a representative on the Connecticut Student Equity Advisory Board, representing 500,000 students across the nation. In this role, Jessie has testified before the Connecticut Board of Education on increasing literacy and early college course accessibility for underrepresented minorities. Through AAPI Youth Advocates, Jessie is currently conducting a year-long study analyzing how trust in government exhibited by Asian American students has decreased following the pandemic, guided by staff at Yale University's sociology department. AAPI Youth Advocates aims to become the state legislature's official youth advisory council, with power to directly propose laws. Through this work, Jessie has grown as a leader and advocate, all while balancing responsibilities at the family restaurant.