News

In the past spring there developed a friendly competition between members of the Classes of ‘71 and ’76: these classes prepared to celebrate their 40th and 35th, respectively, reunions by raising a class gift for the benefit of Asian American Cultural Center (AACC). Working closely with Dean Saveena Dhall of AACC and members of Yale Development Office staff, Alice Young (YC ’71) and Kunduck Moon (’76) solicited their fellow class members to make a donation to add to the AACC endowment started in 2006. These donations also count toward 1) each class’s reunion gift raised from all members of the class, not just the Asian American alumni and 2) the current capital campaign that Yale is conducting.

This is the second time that members of Classes of ’71 and ’76 have raised funds for AACC: as of end of May this year there was a balance of some $76,000 in the AACC endowment which was started in 2006 by members of Classes of ’71 and ‘76. The AACC endowment is managed by Yale’s David Swensen and his staff as a part of Yale’s overall endowment, and income from it will be used to supplement the program budget from the University.

The competition is over and the numbers are in: Class of ’71 raised $20,001 and Class of ’76 raised $30,500! To be fair, the number of Asian Americans in Class of ’76 was about four times that of Class of ’71. So, including the new pledges, AACC’s endowment now well exceeds $126,000!

If you will be celebrating your class reunion next year, please contact Dean Dhall, Alice Young, or Kunduck Moon to find out how you can organize your fellow Asian American classmates to donate to Yale and AACC simultaneously.

AACC thanks Leighton Chong, Lowell Chun-Hoon, , Glenn Lau Kee, Don Nakanishi, Brad Wong and Alice Young of Class of ’71, as well as Otto Chu, Tonny Ho, Ken Inadomi, Carol Lee and Kunduck Moon of Class of ’76 for their generosity and support.

AAAYA NorCal: Snow Falling on Cedars by TheatreWorks – April 2011 – Mountain View, CA – Recap

Besides watching an excellent adaptation of the award-winning novel, we had the benefit of an exclusive panel discussion of the 442nd Regimental Combat Unit and the Japanese American internment experience organized by Carol Mimura ’79 BK.  About 20 AAAYA members and their families and friends attended this emotional performance.  The true stories and histories passed on after the performance was even more moving than the play.  Below are Carol’s personal reflections on the event and the context of the play.

Carol Mimura ('79 BK, daughter of James Toshiaki Mimura and niece of Charles Mimura, both highly decorated members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Unit), Randall Nakano (portrays Zenhichi in the production and dedicates his performance to his family who endured incarceration and especially sister, Carolyn who was born behind those barbed wires), and Julie Wong ('86 TC, AAAYA NorCal president). Photo by Emilie Robert Wong.

AAAYA welcomed about 20 attendees after the performance for an informal discussion about the relevance of the play to racism, the Japanese-American internment camps, and the 442nd Regimental Combat Unit.  The play captured some of the hysteria and xenophobia surrounding the bombing of Pearl Harbor which, for two of the actors, Randall Nakano and Mia Tagano, paralleled their own families’ experiences.  We are grateful to Randall Nakano, who discussed his personal connection to the themes of the play and dedicated his performance in the play to his sister, who was born in one of the incarceration camps.  He described his outrage as a student of Asian-American Studies at Berkeley, upon learning details about what his parents and sister were subjected to in the “relocation/incarceration camps” that they had not shared with him first-hand.  His frustration with a pervasive tendency for internees “not to talk about those years,” as though they were somehow shameful or embarrassing, is shared by many.

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AAAYA NorCal – Yale Extern Social Gathering – March 2011 – San Francisco, CA – Recap

Thanks to Dan Vu ’99 TC (YCSF Board) for hosting the AAAYA Extern social gathering at AT Kearney and Katharine Hsiao ’82 ES (AAAYA National Board) for organizing the AAAYA externships.

It was great to catch up with this year’s AAAYA externs Mike Jin ’13 TC and Kathy Zhong ’13 ES at the end of a power-packed week and learn more about Yale’s externship program.  Mike worked on outsourcing/in-house recommendations for Texaco’s help desk at AT Kearney and Kathy Zhong worked in marketing of photo-voltaic solar panels at SunTech Power with Wei Tai Kwok ’85 TC.

Also in attendance: Jimmy Lu ’77 TC (AYA Board of Governors), Harry Chang ’84 SY (AAAYA National President), Julie Wong (AAAYA NorCal President), and Yen Yen Chan ’94 SY (’02 Yale School of Forestry/Yosemite Park Ranger).

Yen Yen Chan '94 SY '02 FOR, Katharine Hsiao '82 ES, Harry Chang '84 SY, Kathy Zhong '13 ES, Martin Jin '13 TC, Julie Wong '86 TC, Jimmy Lu '77 TC, Wei Tai Kwok '85 TC and Dan Vu '99 TC

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A huge thank you to those who attended our Third Annual Lunar New Year Banquet! We raised $6000 and received $850 in donations and pledges on that evening.

All proceeds from the Banquet will benefit the AAAYA Yale Community Service Summer Fellowship Program. It is not too late to make your fully tax-deductible contribution! Your donation is only one click away:

AAAYA-NY would like to acknowledge Ken Inadomi, Kunduck Moon, Rocky Chin, Carol Lee, Jai Chandrasekhar, Billie Tsien, Ting Han Yik, Eric Chun, Lisa Kramer, Peter Young, Eric Ng, Alice Hom, Wei-Tai Kwok and David Lat for their generous support of our fundraising goals.

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