By: Freidricka Camille, College and Career Mentoring Program Coordinator, and Jiafu L., Annandale High School Alumni, Class of 2019 Photos courtesy of Freidricka Camille This summer 2019 marks the one year anniversary since post-secondary planning for high school seniors was fully incorporated into the College and Career Mentoring Program (CCMP), which supports older youth in AALEAD in planning for and navigating post-secondary transitions in life after high school. For youth who choose attend
By: Sharon Rajadurai, VA Summer Programs Intern and AALEAD Virginia Youth Program Coordinators (YPCs) Photos courtesy of AALEAD staff Virginia Summer programs have been two weeks filled with fun, learning, and growth. Our days begin with ice breakers and team building activities led by our eager Youth Program Coordinators (YPCs). YPC is an opportunity for our high school AALEADers during the summer to develop their leadership skills by participating in the
By: Alani Fujii, MD Summer Program Intern
Photos courtesy of Various Sources
Nice to Meet Again, AALEAD!
Hi everyone, my name is Alani Fujii, and I am the Maryland Summer Programs Intern at AALEAD! I am entering my senior year at Barnard College pursuing an Urban Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies degree. I am also a former AALEAD youth! From 2011-2015, I was in the Maryland afterschool and
by Neel Saxena, Executive Director Photos Courtesy of Neel Saxena & Bitmoji Today is Halloween, one of my favorite “holidays” because it was a time in my life as a youth to be able to define for myself how I wanted the world to see me and emulate a favorite character and see someone I did
By: Tyler Lin, DC Elementary School Program Summer Intern Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff At the DC Elementary School site, Barnard Elementary, the average day is hectic as it comes. Well, you probably wouldn’t think that if you cam
By: YLan Nguyen, MD Middle School Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff AALEAD Maryland ended its five-week summer program with exhibition walks and presentations. Youth were split into five “houses” or teams for the entire program. In these groups, youth participated in meaningful team-building activities and worked on their final art exhibition project.
By Freidricka Camille, Community College and Internship Programs Coordinator Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff It’s that time of the year again! The sun is shining, the A/C is running, and new interns are diving in as part of our team for summer programs. We are delighted to welcome four new interns. In addition to their bios, we wanted to learn a few fun facts about them. So, we asked them questions such as:
By Neel Saxena, Executive Director Photos Courtesy of Saadia Ahmed On March 22, 2017, AALEAD hosted the Aspire to LEAD fundraising event at Top of the Town in Arlington, VA. This was AALEAD's 4th such fundraiser and my first as Executive Director. Last year I was behind the scenes and this year I had the incredible opportunity to join our youth in sharing our often overlooked stories as Asian Pacific Americans. This year's theme was Envision, Create, Transform. For our youth, staff, mentors
By Victor Romos, DC Middle & High School Summer Program Intern Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff Have you ever tried to keep 20 youths' attention during an activity for more than 10 minutes? It's hard. My summer with Asian American LEAD (AALEAD) was fant
By Pallavi Rudraraju, DC Elementary School Summer Program Intern Photos Courtesy of AALEAD Staff I distinctly remember the emotions that washed over me when I received Tina’s e-mail offer to join the Asian American LEAD (AALEAD) team for the summer: shock, excitement, eagerness, and a little bit of nervousness. I was thrilled to accept for so many reasons, but mostly because working with AALEAD would mean combining two of my life goals: youth development through teaching and Asian American i