It was a busy summer and fall for AAAYA! Here are some of our activity highlights from the past few months:
Yale Day of Service
On May 15, AAAYA participated in Yale’s Day of Service by hosting volunteer sites in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Volunteers in New York painted a mural, planted flowers, prepped teacher kits, and organized the library at P.S. 124, the Yung Wing School. Volunteers in Los Angeles helped run the San Tai San (3 on 3) basketball tournament at the Little Tokyo Children’s Festival. Volunteers in Chicago cleaned, painted, picked up trash, and planted flowers as part of Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce’s Keep Chinatown Beautiful program.
Volunteers at the Yung Wing School in New York City
More pictures from the day’s activities are available here.
Northern California Annual Picnic
On July 17th, over 100 alumni, students, and pre-frosh attended AAAYA Northern California’s annual picnic in Don Ramos Park in Palo Alto. Everyone enjoyed a potluck lunch, beautiful weather, volleyball, and great company.
Chicago Summer 2010 Welcome Event
AAAYA Chicago hosted a summer welcome event for incoming and current Yale students on August 17, 2010. The intimate gathering was held at the home of Tiffany Co, a board member of AAAYA. Alumni and current Yale students had a chance to enjoy good Chinese food and conversation as everyone shared their experiences at Yale as well as their experiences living in the Windy City! A great time was had by all!
Yale China Curator’s Talk at the Museum of Chinese in America
On September 9, the New York Chapter of AAAYA, along with the Yale-China Association, co-sponsored the opening reception for the exhibit “Both Here and There: Yale-China and a Century of Transformative Encounters” at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City. The reception featured talks by Nancy Yao Maasbach, Executive Director of Yale-China and curator Ming Thompson, Yale-China’s first Design and Curatorial Fellow. The standing-room-only crowd was also treated to first –person narratives by former Yale-China “Bachelors,” now known as “Teaching Fellows,” who told many moving and funny stories of their experiences teaching English in China. The exhibit demonstrated the power of Yale-China’s grassroots exchange between communities, cultures, and individuals who lived an ocean apart. Photographs, memorabilia, oral histories and very rare film footage of early twentieth century China highlighted the programs of education, health, public service, and the arts that Yale-China has pursued since 1901.
MOCA board member and playwright David Henry Hwang
MOCA board member and architect Maya Lin
AAAYA board member and Yale-China Executive Director Nancy Yao Maasbach
Exhibit curator Ming Thompson
“Welcome to Chicago” Reception
Yale Chicago hosted a “Welcome to Chicago” party at Piece Pizzeria on September 20. Around 100 Yale alumni attended the event. Not only did it remind alumni of the pizza found in New Haven, it brought back fond memories of the Yale days! The reception was also a great opportunity to meet and recruit members for AAAYA Chicago. People seemed interested and enthusiastic to learn more about AAAYA Chicago and to become more involved with our organization. Hopefully, this will lead to many entertaining AAAYA Chicago events in the upcoming months!
Master’s Chai with Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu
On October 7, AAAYA of Northern California held a “Master’s Chai” with federal Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu, YC ’82. Judge Ryu started by describing her childhood and family life growing up in a community with few Asian Americans. She then captivated and inspired the audience with tales of her time at Yale, her numerous career accomplishments, her appointment to the federal bench, and the challenges she has faced as an openly lesbian, Asian American woman. She also reflected on what Yale meant and continues to mean to her life. Questions were then taken from the audience of more than 20 alumni and friends, and the evening concluded with the guests mingling with Judge Ryu and with each other over drinks and refreshments. AAAYA of Northern California would like to thank the Association of Yale Alumni for their financial support of the event, the law firm of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips for donating the event space and arranging the food and drinks, and the Yale Clubs of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, GALA, and the local Yale women’s group for helping to publicize the event.
Summer Internships – Service to Asian American Communities
This summer, AAAYA was able to sponsor five summer internships for serving Asian American communities:
Tina Yeh fellowship recipients:
Timmy Phan, Seattle, WA – Helping Link, serving the Vietnamese American community
Siyue Chen, Naperville, IL – Asian Health Coalition of Illinois
Thu Do, Washington, DC – Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center
Yale Community Service Summer Fellowship recipients:
Katherine Park – New York, NY – Museum of Chinese in America
Sanket Karuri – New York, NY – Asian American Writers Workshop
These internships have tremendous impacts on the students and the communities they serve, and they’re made possible through contributions from alumni like you! Each year, we conduct fundraising drives to raise the money needed for students’ stipends, but if you’d like to contribute now, you can make a tax-deductible donation to AAAYA today.
Thank you to all of the students, alumni, and friends who made these events possible.
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