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• Exploring Our Options

  By Shaima Ahmad VA High School Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff and Youth For the past few weeks our MD, DC, and, VA youth have been coming together every Monday and focusing their attention on college readiness and planning for the upcoming annual youth summit. College preparation is a vital part of the high school summer program. We hope to give our high school youth an opportunity to learn as much as possible about the college process and prepare themselves in the best way

• Story Time: AALEAD Ohana & AALEAD Summer Serve Team Up!

  By Ari Pak, MD High School Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff and AALEAD Youth Yesterday two AALEAD summer programs, MD Summer Serve middle and high school program and DC AALEAD Ohana elementary school progra

• The Power of Lōkahi

  By Pallavi Rudraraju, DC Elementary School Program Intern Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff Last week at the Walker-Jones Education Campus, our Ohana learned and embodied the Hawaiian value of Lōkahi – teamwork and cooperation. AALEAD was introduced to the term via our interactive weekly assembly, led this week by Ms. Diana and Mr. Justin. During the assembly, youth also learned about their upcoming field trip to the National Building Museum and Newseum and were taught the Banana Dance and Whi

• DC ES Summer Program Week 1: We’re all about Ohana!

  By Charles Kuo, DC Elementary School Program Coordinator and Pallavi Rudraraju, DC Elementary School Program Intern Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff

  ‘Ohana: family, derived from oha (taro plant); ohana refers to how we all come from the same root

  Summer has arrived and the DC Elementary School  Summer Program is underway! This year the DC Elementary School will be celebrating the meaning of Ohana. Ohana is the Hawaiian word for family. It mea

• DC Summer Kicks Off!

  By Shobana Modur, DC Middle and High School Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of Shobana Modur

  FINALLY! DC Summer program is here! This week kicks off the DC Middle and High School Summer program with AALEAD. This summer, 20 AALEADers will set sail into our program where they will embark on career exploration & mentor middle and elementary school AALEADers in finding their way in the transitions from elementary, middle, and high school. The AALEADers have a lot of knowledge an

• AALEAD MD Summer Serve: First Week

  By Melor Suhaimi, MD Programs Manager Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff The 2014 - 2015 school year wrapped up quickly, but MD AALEADers jumped right into the summer program at AALEAD's MD Summer Serve. Located at Parkland Middle School in Rockville, MD, AALEAD high school youth kicked off the week on Monday, getting to know each other through fun icebreakers, received more information on college, and began planning for AALEAD's Youth Summit, which will take place at the end of July. Every Mond

• Message from the ED: Remember and Prevent

  Thirty-three years ago this week, Vincent Chin was killed in a hate crime in Detroit. Last week, Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Cynthia Hurd, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson, Ethel Lee Lance, Daniel Simmons, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, and Susie Jackson were killed in a hate crime in Charleston. There are thousands more we could name who have died as a result of hate crimes. What do we do about this? We have become numb to hearing about human deaths – even those from mass shoo

• To Good Things Ahead

  It is hard to believe that after nearly 6 years, my time with AALEAD has drawn to a close as my husband and I are moving to North Carolina for his work. There are no words to capture what an impactful experience it has been and how grateful I am to have been a part of the AALEAD family. I will not say goodbye, because saying goodbye to family is just not something you do, but I will say “thank you”:

  To my colleagues, I want to say thank you for inspiring me continually with your

• This Is How It’s Done!

  By Shaima Ahmad, VA High School Program Coordinator Photos Courtesy of Shaima Ahmad Brainstorming, planning, voting, and most of all, listening to their peers, is what went into throwing an awesome Va High School Program End of the Year Party. For the past few weeks our youth have been working together and within their individual committees to party plan.  The youth divided into food, entertainment, and decorations committees and delegated a group leaders for each group. In this whole process,

• Greetings from the New AALEAD Program Director

  By Mylynh Nguyen, Program Director Photos courtesy of Mylynh Nguyen Dear Friends and Families of AALEAD, I am delighted to join the AALEAD team to serve as the new Program Director. I started in this new role on June 9th, and just within a few short days, I have had the honor of witnessing the sincere dedication of the AALEAD staff and the exuberance of our some of our youngest elementary school youth. I have also already had the great pleasure of meeting some AALEAD parents and guardians. I