Strengthening Alumni Ties
Yale Lion Dancers at the NYC Lunar New Year banquet
This year, AAAYA held over 20 events to build and strengthen our alumni network. Local chapters in New York, Northern California, Southern California, and Chicago put together a diverse program of social, educational, and cultural events, including Lunar New Year banquets and speaker events with distinguished Yale faculty and alumni.
A stronger, more connected alumni community exists not only for its own benefit, of course. By building and sustaining our membership, we’ve enabled more programs to benefit the Asian American community on Yale’s campus as well as our larger Asian American communities.
Connecting with Campus
San Francisco Spring Break Externs and Sponsors
In 2010 AAAYA dramatically expanded its spring break externship program by offering 46 job-shadowing opportunities in 7 cities to Yale undergraduates. And since it’s never to early to start building an alumni community, AAAYA started reaching out to students before they even reach campus through admitted student outreach efforts. In addition, New York alumni hosted two sophomore outreach/mentoring dinners and an Annie Le scholarship benefit concert, making this a busy and well-connected year for alumni-student ties.
Service to the Community
NYC Day of Service volunteer at the Yung Wing School in Chinatown
Giving back to our broader Asian American communities remained an important priority for AAAYA in 2010. We participated in AYA’s second annual Day of Service by providing volunteers with service opportunities in New York, Chicago, and Southern California that benefited Asian American communities in those cities. Beyond these one-day events, generous alumni donations made it possible for five Yale undergraduate to participate in summer internships at Asian American community organizations.
Over the past decade, dozens of students and organizations have participated in these internships and made lasting impact in Asian American communities, both in major Asian American populations centers like New York and California as well as places with smaller Asian American communities like Minnesota, Washington, and Illinois.
Looking Forward & A Call to Action
AAAYA has accomplished so much since its formal organization in 2006. We’ve sponsored 7 New York City community service fellows, 8 Tina Yeh community service fellows, 55 spring break externships, 8 AYA Day of Service sites, and dozens of social events for alumni to get to know each other. In 2011, we hope to build on this momentum and expand our programming even further, both in our current local chapters in New York, Northern California, Southern California, and Chicago, as well as metro areas where we’d like to start new chapters: Boston and Washington, DC.
This is where you come in. We can’t do any of these things–sustain growth in our current chapters or expand to new ones–without additional volunteer help. There are dozens of ways to help, especially for those living in Boston and Washington, DC, who are willing to help organize their fellow alumni into a local chapter. Even if you don’t live in a city with a current or future chapter, you can help cultivate and expand our virtual communities on Facebook, Yahoo, and LinkedIn.
If you’d like to get involved, contact us. Contact your friends. Help us build our alumni community into something we can all be proud of.
