The Asian American Cultural Center and Association of Asian American Yale Alumni will be hosting the annual Alumni Banquet on Friday, November 12th, from 5:30 – 7:30 PM, at Bentara (76 Orange Street, New Haven, CT). The cost of attendance will be $20/person.
At the banquet, AACC and AAAYA will honor Ms. Mary Li Hsu, Yale College Class of ’80, as the recipient of the second Annual Friend of the Community Award at their annual banquet on November 12, 2010. Ms. Hsu was a former Assistant Dean of Yale College and Director of Asian American Cultural Center from 1992 to 1999, a period during which the number of Asian American students at Yale College rapidly grew.
Following the Banquet, the South Asian Society will be hosting their annual show, Roshni, which features South Asian dances and performances at Battell Chapel, and we encourage all alumni to attend and catch a glimpse of student life.
For questions about the Banquet or Roshni, contact aacc.alumni@gmail.com.
RSVP for the Banquet by leaving a comment below with your Name, Year/School of graduation, and any guests (Note: email address is required but will not be published).
About Mary Li Hsu, 2010 Friend of the Community Award Recipient
Asian American Cultural Center (AACC) and Association of Asian American Yale Alumni (AAAYA) will honor Ms. Mary Li Hsu, Yale College Class of ’80, as the recipient of the second Annual Friend of the Community Award at their annual banquet on November 12, 2010. Ms. Hsu was a former Assistant Dean of Yale College and Director of Asian American Cultural Center from 1992 to 1999, a period during which the number of Asian American students at Yale College rapidly grew.
The Friend of the Community Award was created to honor those alumni and non-alumni who have provided outstanding service and contribution to the Asian and Asian-American community at Yale. Mr. Jack Hasegawa, a former General Secretary of Dwight Hall, received the first award in 2009.
During her tenure, Ms. Hsu recalls, the Asian American community at Yale evolved by growing in total size, as well as in the diversity within. Whereas in the 1970s and 1980s the community had three main groups (Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans and Korean Americans), the 1990s saw significant growth in the number of Southeast Asian Americans and South Asian Americans. To reflect this, students formed separate groups to celebrate their ethnic and cultural heritage. Her challenge was to allow this diversity to flourish, while at the same time encouraging unity as Asian American community. She accomplished this, in part, by allocating a significant portion of AACC’s budget to Asian American Student Association (AASA) and the various ethnic and cultural groups could share in the funding by becoming and remaining members of AASA. “It was a social, educational and political education and exercise for the students, and they learned that without solidarity, they had no bargaining power against the University,” remembered Ms. Hsu.