“During my leadership journey with AALEAD, I learned a lot about myself as well as learned new things in general. I became more confident and comfortable around my surroundings and the people around me. When facilitating my own workshop, I was getting more used to being able to talk in front of a bigger crowd. I’m always nervous when I talk in front of a lot of people. Working with the middle schoolers, I was able to learn that in order to have leadership, you have to be patient with all of them, as well as responsible for their participation. Learning from this leadership journey, I can take all that I have learned here, and hopefully use it in the future as I continue to take the leadership journey.”
“I really enjoyed being a high school leader [through AALEAD] and it makes me happy to know that some middle school students enjoyed spending time with me. I learned that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Each person’s strengths and weaknesses are essential to creating a cohesive group. I also learned that each leader is different from on another and it’s just a matter of how a leader handles things that makes them unique and different from each other. Having to spend so much time with both high school and middle school leaders definitely opened up my vision of what a family is. I cannot emphasize enough the bond and quality of the relationships between staff, leaders, and students; and I thank AALEAD for continuing [to do] an awesome job orchestrating [programs].”
“AALEAD allowed me to develop more my artistic side through various of art projects and performances. Also by helping the community through volunteering, this encouraged me to try to contribute to the community more often. I participated in… Lemonade Day, which aims to teach elementary-mid school children entrepreneurial skills by sending volunteers from colleges to teach them. This experience of mine, reminded me of the good times in AALEAD, when we were going to the middle schools and took the time to teach these children something good and valuable through fun games. It made me also realize that it is of a very big importance that we, in the community should contribute more often with such projects to the growing generation, because it has a very positive effect on their intellectual development and by providing them this type of support, their horizons open up more and in the future the chances of going on a wrong direction will be more unlikely.”
“Yes, AALEAD has helped open my eyes to the world of Asian American Advocacy and has helped me develop spiritually and mentally as a person. AALEAD has helped me refine and embrace the qualities that I once hated about myself into qualities that make me the leader I am today.”