Monthly Archives: May 2017

• Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

  By Neel Saxena, Executive Director Photos: Various Sources As the month of May comes to a close we mark the end of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. We continue the journey of a collective identity that began in the 1960s. As we celebrate the diversity of a unified APA identity, we continued to be mired in the monolithic perspective of APAs that ignores our individuality, particularly for our youth. APA youth voices have played a significant role in shaping APA history and at Asian Ame

• Celebrating AALEAD’s Volunteers

  By Vi Bui, Mentoring & Volunteer Programs Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff Here at Asian American LEAD (AALEAD), volunteers are a crucial resource to our youth development work. In some cases, such as with the mentoring program, we literally would not be able to provide these opportunities to our youth without the commitment of our volunteer mentors. Last April, we celebrated National Volunteer Month

• Power of Youth Workshops

  By YLan Nguyen, MD Middle School Programs Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff For the past two months, AALEAD youth at Newport Mill Middle School have been planning their own workshops. Youth-led workshops are one of the ways that youth can choose what they want to learn about and how they want to learn. [caption id="attachment_15110" align="aligncenter" width="300"]

• My Career, My Choice

    By Charles Kuo, DC Programs Manager Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff

  The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Do

• Finding My Voice

  By Freidricka Camille, Community College and Internship Programs Coordinator Photo Courtesy of AALEAD Staff   My name is Freidricka Camille, and I am excited to join the AALEAD family as the new Community College and Internship Coordinator. A little bit about me, I was born and raised in the Philippines for eleven years before my mom and I immigrated to the United States to live with my dad. It was the summer before 6th grade.  When I lived in the Philippines, I had imagined that

• Coming full circle…

    My first job in California was with the Pacific Asian Alcohol Program, which is a social service agency that provides counseling and referral to Asian Pacific Americans (APA) who were convicted of drunk driving and other misdemeanors. Many of our clients were recent immigrants who do not speak nor understand English. The county could not provide translators most of the time, so our clients would bring their elementary or high-school age children to do the translation. I witnessed how t