Intro to Intern 2!

Asian American LEAD — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:56:51 +0000

Hey! I’m Ruthie, one of four new summer interns at AA LEAD!

Hailing from the home of the Red Sox, Boston, MA, I just finished my first year at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, studying public policy and law. It’s my first time in DC and I think I’m falling in love with it, for me it’s a mix of west coast/east coast mentalities.

I love rain, playing and watching sports, adventuring to new places, youth enrichment, jamming on the piano, bass and vocals, meeting new people and learning new things.

All of the interns have been anxiously planning and waiting to start hanging out with the students and learning from them while teaching them some things we’ve encountered too.

Feel free to ask me anything else, I might just surprise you!

Hey

Asian American LEAD — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:19:47 +0000

Hey all, I am Chut. I just came back from college and I am working at aalead for the summer. I grew up in DC and graduated from Bell. I been in and out of AALead since I was a kid. Some of the things I like to do are boxing, learning history, football, and biking. See you guys soon.

Left: My posse brother Ibrahim Right: My brother Tuan

Greetings!

Asian American LEAD — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:15:37 +0000

Hi everyone! I’m Elisa, one of the other interns here at AALEAD (just intern, not intern1 or intern2). I just graduated from Harvard where I volunteered with a bunch of afterschool and mentoring programs for youth in Boston’s Chinatown. Although I went to school in the Northeast, sunny California will always be my home!

Some facts about me:
1. I don’t drink coffee (I relied on energy drinks for those college all-nighters)
2. I’ve never gone surfing (a common question asked to Californians)
3. I LOVE Jamba Juice and almost always (99% of the time) order the same thing
4. I’ve definitely forgotten how to ride a bike (trust me, I tried)
5. My favorite stuffed animal as a kid was a toy platypus.

Curious about anything else? Feel free to start up a conversation with me!

P.S. As the image above suggests, my favorite meal is brunch!

hello AALEAD!!!

Asian American LEAD — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:05:31 +0000

I’m Intern 1 but you can call me Pam (not Pammy). I am currently a student at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and is spending the next month and half here in DC with the TFAS program. I am excited to be working with the AALEAD youth this summer!!! can’t wait to meet them all and implement all the new ideas I have everyday, well most of them.

A few personal things about me.. I love starbucks (iced white mocha anyone?), I enjoy playing football, and Shopping (stress reliever, the mall is my track). Just a few years ago I started to really get intouch with my artistic side again so, back at home I have my own web design company and maybe one day I’ll start my own clothing line, a bakery shop, and a photography studio!

Meet PinkPink and NiNi, I miss them dearly, they’re my babies. I got news yesterday that NiNi lost her first tooth she is only 3 months and PinkPink is 2 years old. Since we’re on age, I am 21 and enjoys going out to eat, SUSHI!?!?!? welps, school in DC is intense and I should be studying right now for my midterm later on today.

I’m really enjoying my time here at AALEAD with all the extremely, passionate employees, LOVING IT!!!!!

toodles!!!!

AALEAD participates in Fiesta Asia 2010

Asian American LEAD — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:37:25 +0000

On Saturday May 22nd, AALEAD staff, students, and volunteers participated in the 5th Annual Fiesta Asia Street Festival on Pennslyvania Ave. There were lots of games, cultural exhibitions, and even a flash Bollywood dance (Look for the AALEAD orange shirts!)

AALEAD also proudly carried our banner in the Festival’s parade and cheers of “AA-LEAD! Take the LEAD!” filled the air.

Thank you to all the staff, board members, volunteers, and mentors who came out for this wonderful event. And special thanks to Christian Oh and Wuiping Yap for making AALEAD’s particpation in this event possible.

See you again next year!

Visiting Kaboom and meeting with Roopal

Asian American LEAD — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:31:22 +0000

Girls Leadership Program organized a field trip to Kaboom on May 26th 2010, where the students got a chance to meet Roopal as an Asian American female professional and also to know about Kaboom which is a national non-profit that empowers communities to build playgrounds.

Roopal gave an introductory tour of the office and explained about Kaboom to the students. They liked the environment of the office which was very colorful and refreshing.Later on, they heard from Roopal about her professional background and her experiences.

Thanking Roopal for her time and having the girl s at Kaboom!

Students reflection on Karaoke experience

Asian American LEAD — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:18:18 +0000

On May 20th 2010, we (AALEAD Girls Leadership Program) spent the Thursday afternoon at a Karaoke bar in Virginia . We had a very fun crazy afternoon where we enjoyed singing our heart and soul out. There was a variety of songs including hip hop, ballads, rap. We even tried singing in Korean but could not complete it. While singing, we also had snacks and enjoyed eating Kimbap, Dok bokki.

Afterwards we went to a Korean café named Shilla and we had a chance to taste two Korean desserts one of which was PatBing Su.

This will be an unforgettable experience and we all hope to do it again. Kamsamnida AALEAD!!!!!! (Thank You in Korean)
By GLP Students

Raising awareness on HIV/AIDS, Cancer while helping children at Children’s Hospital

Asian American LEAD — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:16:51 +0000

For 2 weeks, the Maryland Middle School and DC Elementary After School programs collaborated to help Children’s Hospital to raise toys, books, and activity books for their little patients. Through our staff member Carol Hazelwood who has volunteered at Children’s for over 16 years, we were able to connect with the hospital. As the middle school AALEAD’ers raised the donations, the elementary AALEAD’ers decorated bags to hold the items. Both programs also helped to fold 1000 paper cranes inspired by Sadako Sasaki’s story, Thousand Paper Cranes. While we collaborated, the students also communicated with each other through short videos. They were able to talk to each other and say “hi” through these video recordings. Each week the middle school AALEAD’ers were so excited to see the elementary AALEAD’ers.

The Middle Schoolers were able to raise over 60 items!!!! Below is a video from two students, Thao and Alex, who took it upon themselves to go around their neighborhood and raise donations.

This is just one of several stories of how students really took responsibility to help Children’s Hospital. AALEAD is so proud of our students for thinking of others above themselves! GREAT JOB EAS and MD MS! You guys Rock!!!!

May is… Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

Asian American LEAD — Thu, 27 May 2010 09:08:00 +0000

To celebrate APAHM, AALEADers at Blair High School created a display to educate the Wheaton Community about Asian American culture! The left side, pictured below, featured some of their favorite famous Asian Americans: Bruce Lee, Lucy Liu, and John Cho. The right side featured Asian characters that have become a part of American culture, namely the geisha figure, Anime, and Naruto. Stop by the Wheaton Community Center on Georgia Ave if you get the chance and check out the students’ handiwork!

Girls Program enjoyed learning about Korea

Asian American LEAD — Thu, 20 May 2010 04:23:15 +0000

AALEAD had three wonderful interns from Korea this year and one of them was Jieun, who gave a presentation on Korea and its culture to the students in Girls leadership Progra

She started with an Ice breaker based on the song by Wonder Girls (Wonder girls is a South Korean girl group, which began their entry into the American market in 2009, with lead single “Nobody”; the single became the first song by a Korean group to enter the Billboard Hot 100).

The presentation was very informative and all the students showed great interest in it as it covered the basic information about Korea, its culture and about the youth there. After the presentation, we had different questions from the students about the country, drama and food, especially they were surprised to know that an average Korean student spends more time in studies as compared to an American student.

We also played baskin robbins 31. It is a Korean game where you start out by singing, “baskinnn robbins 31- so going in the circle, each person counting either 1, 2, or 3 numbers. So you keep counting until you get to 31, which is what you DO NOT WANT TO SAY, because then you get a punishment.

Over all, It was great to learn about Korea from Jieun and also er experiences in US as an international student.