In what may be the most natural fit for an appointment to a township volunteer group, Kwai Kin “David” Ho was nominated by Committee member Narun Nabi and then selected by Mayor Peter Cantu last month to fill an alternate, one-year term on the Human Relations Council.
When he met Ho during election season last fall, Nabi saw that Ho has a unique blend of personal attributes and professional experience to become a positive influence on Plainsboro residents. His work and passion has always been to help people, starting as a family services worker in New York.
Ho has licensed certification in social work from the University of the State of New York Education Department. He earned a BA in psychology from Hunter College in Manhattan and worked in child services for a preventive agency in New York City, a division of the YMCA, from 1996 to 1998.
“I was working with parents, counseling families, and helping them build relationships with their children,” he says.
After two years in this role Ho felt he needed more skills and education in “how to help families.” He returned to Hunter College for graduate school, and he considered becoming a school guidance counselor. But ultimately the college’s staff suggested social work because it offers a broader spectrum.
Ho earned a master’s degree in social work in 2000, and graduate study combined with his mother’s decade-plus of work in New York’s garment industry led to finding a career.
“In 1998 I went back to social work school, and part of the program was doing an internship. I liked several different areas but somehow I thought about my mother’s connection, being a union member before, so I looked into working with my industry’s union,” he says.
Ho now works as a vice president at the 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East union. In his position he has helped Asian Americans with awareness and understanding of key issues facing workers and the industry at large.
With an interest on filling a leadership void among Chinese social work employees, Ho started an Asian American members’ group within the union a year after he earned his master’s. Ho writes a newsletter in both Chinese and English for the union’s Chinese members. His communications with workers have evolved from an adaptation of training methods to thorough explanations of issues that concerned workers, such as knowing the details of their contract provisions, lobbying and the political process of American labor unions, and the history of the union. The Local 1199 was among the first unions in the nation to organize home care workers, who unlike workers in nursing homes or hospitals who have full or part-time jobs, have no guaranteed hours and are only paid when they work.
According to a 2008 Cornell University report on Ho’s work with the union, 80 percent of 1199’s Chinese home care members work for agencies whose clients are also Chinese. For that reason home care workers who speak Chinese but very little English can find work. But Chinese workers were not able to interact much with the union. Before David Ho took up his role in 2002, there was just one union employee who spoke Chinese: a health benefits advisor.
Ho’s passion is to help other immigrants and provide resources for them to participate more in the local community. He met Nabi last November through his involvement in a state senatorial political campaign. Ho is also the founder and a board member of the Chinese American Voter Federation. During last fall’s political season he worked to get more than 200 Chinese Americans from the Plainsboro area registered to vote.
Meeting Nabi at campaign events led to him finding out about Plainsboro’s Human Relations Council. Ho says he admires the leadership in place in Plainsboro, starting with Nabi and Cantu. He thinks there are many good activities going on in town, and Ho says once he learns more about the function of the Human Relations Council he can help organize more community efforts. Ho already made an impression at his first council meeting on Thursday, March 8, as he was elected treasurer.
While Ho’s mother’s career guided him, Ho’s father supported the family by working as a restaurant chef in Rhode Island. Ho was born in Hong Kong, and the family came to the U.S. when he was 13. In New York City Ho finished high school and continued his education at Hunter.
Ho’s wife, Virginia, works 12-hour shifts every weekend at the Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, leaving Ho to take care of the couple’s baby boy, Nathaniel, when he’s not working at the 1199 union’s offices in New York. David and Virginia Ho were married in 2006, and that same year Ho received the Outstanding Union Leader award from the Asian American Democratic Association of Queens.
While New York is still home to the couple’s careers, Ho moved to Plainsboro in 2007 to provide a better education for his son and any future children. That decision was based on the recommendation of his sister Maggie, who moved here from New York to raise her children.
Knowing his sister’s kids’ experience in the school district assured him of his choice. Ho says what he likes most about Plainsboro is that the environment provides peace of mind. Going through his teenage years and college in New York City led him to appreciate that.
Aside from professional endeavors, Ho has taken part in humanitarian efforts through his church — Princeton Alliance. Ho has traveled with fellow members of the church, and recently went to Brazil, where he helped children living in an orphanage by building a place for them to worship.
Ho was active in the Brooklyn Alliance Church before moving to Plainsboro. He traveled to other Central and South American countries including Peru, Venezuela, and Panama, helping the less fortunate and learning some Spanish along the way. But Ho is eager to learn more Spanish and other languages so he can better assist others.
“Education is the key in bridging the gap of cultural diversity in a community,” he says.
