[1] Yu played a central role in getting the Angel Island Immigration Station designated a National Historic Landmark, therefore preserving the detention barracks that had Chinese poems carved on the walls.

[1] Yu returned to the Bay Area in 1967 where she began to write articles for local Asian American publications.

[1] Yu's article on Chinese railroad workers, "The Unsung Heroes of the Golden Spikes," gained her local recognition for her writing when it was published in the San Francisco Examiner on May 10, 1969.

[7] Her initial work with the AACI was critical to Asian American and minority representation in school textbooks.

[8] In 1970, after California State Park Ranger Alexander Weiss discovered Chinese poems carved on the walls of Angel Island Immigration Station, Yu worked to designate the site as a National Historic Landmark.

[5] The National Historic Landmark designation prevented the Station from being demolished by the California State Parks Administration.

[12] At the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 2019, Connie Young Yu gave the opening Commencement speech at Promontory Point, Utah's "Golden Spike" Ceremony.