Leadership

• Bringing out the Family of AALEAD

  By Emily N., current AALEAD youth and Pallavi Rudraraju, VA Middle School Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff Last week, AALEAD’s VA Programs sent off our youth for winter break with a fun and activity-filled Winter Holiday Party. For many of our new AALEADers, it was the first time they interacted with staff and youth outside of their school. As a program coordinator, I am thankful for and proud of all the hard work our VA youth put in to the party. Our Youth Councils play

• Capturing The Essence Of Our Elementary School Program

  By Saadia Ahmad, DC Elementary School Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of Saadia Ahmad They say a picture is worth a thousand words; so when I was asked to do this blog at a time where AALEAD participated in the Lights On Afterschool campaign, I wanted to capture the essence of our DC Elementary School Program through

• Giving Tuesday 2017- AALEAD Cultivates Young Leaders

  By: Fahduma Majid, Communications and Development Intern and Charles Kuo, DC Programs Manager Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff What is defined as charity? Can “giving” only be defined as a monetary value or is there merit t

• Grateful for AALEAD

  By Neel Saxena, Executive Director Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff It’s Thanksgiving week and this marks the 1 year anniversary of my transition to Executive

• How the AALEAD Community Supports Youth

  By Stephanie Lim, DC Middle and High School Program Coordinator & AALEAD DC Middle and High School Youth Photos Courtesy of Stephanie Lim The beginning of another cycle of after-school programming is an exciting and busy time for staff and youth. Staff have been hard at work preparing lesson plans and act

• AALEAD Origins: Rooted in our Past, Creating Our Future

  By Neel Saxena, Executive Director Photos Courtesy of Various Staff Logo Courtesy of DC Programs Manager, Charles Kuo Asian American LEADs orgins are rooted in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC where Sandy Dang, AALEAD’s founder, saw the unmet need in low-income Vietnamese refugee youth and made supporting th

• When It Comes to Our Youth, Expect the Unexpected!

  By: Pallavi Rudraraju Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff As I near the start of After School Programs in Fairfax County, and head into my fourth month as the VA Middle School Program Coordinator, I feel so grateful for a wonderful beginning to my journey in the VA Middle School Program. Over the past few months, I have worked with MD and VA high schoolers during their leadership retreat, co-facilitated the VA MIC CHECK Summer Program, and learned immensely along the way. One important less

• Standing together with ALL youth!

  “Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use, and the regular exercise of choosing kindness over cruelty would change us.”

  -Gandhi By: Neel Saxena, Executive Director Photos Courtesy of Various Sources This past Tuesday, the current administration announced the end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), thrusting the hopes and dreams of 780,

• Let’s Keep Going, Together

  By Mecca McPherson, DC Middle & High School Summer Program Intern and Stephanie Lim, DC Middle & High School Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff It’s been such a fun summer for us in the DC Middle & High School Summer Program. We’ve visited museums, gotten the ball rolling on some dope summer projects, staff and youth have facilitated activities and workshops, and we’ve survived through some very contentious rounds of Uno. We accomplish this by spending ne

• Who Tells Your Story?

  By Diane Bui, MD Middle School Coordinator Photos Courtesy of Sanctuaries DC Storytelling is a skill each person has, but often goes unnoticed. This summer, Asian American LEAD (AALEAD) wants to focus on youth stories and storytelling skills. AALEAD wants to empower our youth to take control of their own story in order to provide a safe space to be open about who they truly are. Our summer theme MIC CHECK focuses on just that: highlighting individual experiences and using a creative outlet t