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“Hey, Chinese girl! Get the ball!”
“But I’m not Chinese?”

“Go back to your country.”
“I was born in the U.S. I am in my country?”

“You’re not Asian, you don’t have small eyes!”
“I thought Bangladesh was in Asia?”

“I know what Asian sounds like: ching, chong, chang!”
“I don’t even know what that means?”

In an age where stereotypes are often used for comedic relief, our students have shed light on the darker side of “funny”: Stereotypes not only hurt self-image and isolate students, but they can also lead to bullying. AALEAD Middle School students had the opportunity to participate in a workshop where they were able to speak their mind, share experiences and reflect on how to respond to stereotypes and bullying.

Students broke out into groups and presented skits reflecting different kinds of bullying (physical, emotional, psychological), which included the stereotyping of Asian Americans, such as the ones mentioned in the dialogues above. Each skit represented realistic situations. Following the skits was an open discussion on various stereotypes cast against the students themselves and how students have and can respond to bullying in any form. Students revisited the incidences at South Philly High in 2009 and more recently, with the death of Private Danny Chen. Thank you to our students for being open, strong and hopeful.

In light of recent events in our community at-large, AALEAD hopes to continue this discussion with our students on breaking stereotypes and  preventing/responding to bullying. Please visit us again for more on how AALEADers are getting involved in the anti-bullying movement!

AALEAD Middle School students recently got to have fun in the kitchen and make two unique, exciting dishes: parathas and fortune cookies.  Parathas are an Indian flat-bread that the students dipped in yogurt and butter chicken sauce.  Pretty tasty, eh? The students learned to fold the dough, put in some spices and to their delight, actually fry the parathas.  For the fortune cookies, students wrote fortunes for their peers to receive and learned how to make the batter, bake the cookies and then fold them in the special way needed to make fortune cookies look the way they do.  They then exchanged the cookies and hopefully found out something good about their future!

On January 19, AALEAD had the unique opportunity to be featured on Comcast Newsmakers. AALEAD Executive Director, Rosetta Lai, eloquently spoke about AALEAD’s mission and programs, as well as encouraged the public to support the upcoming Annual Dinner on March 21. Event details can be found at:  http://bit.ly/w3hX2I

Comcast Newsmakers is a unique local news program that provides local, state and federal officials, as well as community leaders, with a platform to discuss issues and ideas important to the communities they serve, allowing them to better connect with their constituents and the community at large. Five minute Comcast Newsmakers segments air on CNN Headline News at :24 and :54 past the hour.

Check out the video below:

On January 16th, AALEAD programs participated in various community service projects. Like last year, the SSP program took some students to Pope Branch Park for clean up activities. In the morning we waited to be grouped up and given assignments. They had complimentary doughnuts and coffee for the participants.  Many people from different organizations teamed up to clean up trash in the park and in the neighborhoods. We found old tires and buckets.  We were able to fill up three bags worth of trash.  It was a great day doing something positive for the community, while having fun!

During the month of January, 2012 two high school students went to the White House to attend the Asian American White House Initiative Youth Summit. It was an amazing opportunity to go to the White House and see what is being done for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. We sat through a seminar listening to the accomplishments of successful Asian Americans who have made it into the government. They talked about some important issues concerning Asians, the Asian LGBTQ community, the education system, politics, etc. They taught us to first realize what the issue  were and create some of the goals we want to accomplish.  It was a great experience and we’re glad that we went.

Written by  an AALEAD student.

On Saturday, January 14, the AALEAD family kicked off the Year of the Dragon together at the Maryland Vietnamese Mutual Association’s (MVMA) Tet Lunar New Year Festival at Montgomery Blair High School. Students enjoyed the festivities, complete with an exciting dragon dance, umbrella dance, cultural fashion show and karaoke, in addition to Vietnamese food and service vendors. Hope you had a great time!  Thank you AALEADers for being wonderful. We can’t wait for all that is to come in the new year!

Middle School Students at MoCo Budget Forum

On Tuesday, 2 AALEAD middle school students presented at one of the Montgomery County Executive’s Budget Forums at the Mid-County Community Recreation Center.  Henry and Jessa were both nervous in preparing but they wrote incredible pieces and impressed the crowd and the County Executive!  Both students spoke about what AALEAD means to them – Henry shared that AALEAD is like a family to him and helps him to know that he will have family and friends wherever he goes.  Jessa said that AALEAD staff are like brothers and sisters who can help her with her school and personal problems.

As the only youth in the room and almost the only Asians, they held their own.  Henry managed to get the County Executive’s attention and get called on first and Jessa asked if Ike Leggett would continue to support AALEAD – he replied that “yes, it’s a great organization”.  Most importantly, our students left the forum feeling so proud of themselves.  All of us at AALEAD are so proud of you, Jessa and Henry!

This weekend AALEAD students and staff joined hundreds of fellow volunteers for the 2012 MLK Day of Service, at the Silver Spring Civic Building in downtown Silver Spring. AALEAD has hosted this special day for several years now to put together toiletry packages for distribution by the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless. This is the first year AALEAD participated in the large  group setting.

During the event, AALEAD had the opportunity to be interviewed by the Silver Spring Patch. The picture and article follows below:

Ryan Ball (l) Francine Gorres (c) and Melor Suhaimi (r) of Asian-American LEAD collect toiletries for the homeless. Credit: Ben Gross

Montgomery County residents personified the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., through learning, crafts, donations and more at the Silver Spring Civic Building as a part of the county-wide 2012 Day of Service. Other locations included the Bethesda North Marriott and Conference Center, WSSC’s offices in Silver Spring and Giant Food stores in Montgomery County.

In conjunction with the Montgomery County Volunteer Center, the GapBuster Learning Center—an education and leadership program for Montgomery County—hosted hundreds of volunteers of all ages, races and creeds, guiding them through a number of activities sponsored by local organizations.

Some volunteers made “I Have a Dream” catchers which could be donated to local nursing homes or taken home to remind them of Dr. King, while others like the Milofsky-Pinard family made “Sweet Thoughts” cards for local nursing homes.

“I took my daughter Sophie to the MLK Day in Rockville a few years ago, and we helped make peanut butter sandwiches for the hungry,” said Lisa Milofsky-Pinard. “It was really rewarding to see her making something that was not for her, but would make someone else happy.”

Other projects volunteers participated in included MLK-themed collage making, flower arranging, pencil holder-crafting and get well card construction. All projects created during the 2012 Day of Service will be donated to local organizations that help people in need, according to Dr. Yvette Butler, GapBusters’ founder and executive director.

“What a great turnout this is,” said Dr. Butler. “This year we have more organizations, hundreds more volunteers and ten more tables than last year. And with all that, we still ran out of some materials for projects,” she continued.

A number of other local service-oriented organizations welcomed the donation of physical goods. Silver Spring’s Asian American LEAD collected toiletries which were sorted and compiled into small packages for eventual donation to the Montgomery Coalition for the Homeless. “We generally do this drive at our offices, but this year we wanted to feel more a part of the community, so we joined in the MLK Day,” said Francine Gorres, the Maryland High School coordinator.

County Executive Isiah Leggett opened the event with a short speech, inspiring the assembled volunteers, which came from as far as East County, and as close as Blair High School. “We brought out the boys’ junior varsity and varsity basketball squads to the MLK Day,” said Montgomery Blair High School PE teacher Damn Pigrom. “We try to take advantage of every opportunity to get them out and do community service and this is a great day to do it!”

One of the more active and vocal groups at the Civic Building were purple-bedecked members of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, who were collecting coats, long-sleeve and polo shirts to donate to the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless.

While always happy to have volunteers on MLK Day, GapBusters took advantage of the attendance of many young people, looking to sign them up for their “Leadership in Training” program, which aims to help participants improve their presentation and critical-thinking skills and ultimately their academic success. “We’ve gotten a lot of great responses to the LIT program here today,” said program associate Jonathan Gibbs.

Article courtesy of Silver Spring Patch. Click here to view the original online.

Come celebrate the Year of the Dragon with AALEAD as we highlight the personal success stories of our students, introduce you to our VIP hosts, and much more. At our event, you will have the opportunity to network among some of Washington’s top business and government leaders who are all committed to serving the needs of Asian American youth.

Individual Ticket: $125
Table of Ten: $1000
Click here for Corporate Sponsor Package info

Contact: Rick Chen
(202) 884-0322 x 104
rchen@aalead.org

Check back for exciting updates on the program!

Please enjoy the photo highlights from last year:

Last month, Bancroft AALEAD 3-5th grade class from took a trip to the Rock Creek Park Planetarium! Rock Creek Planetarium is the ONLY planetarium in the national park system and with it’s dome shaped ceiling designed to reflect light, it can duplicate the motion of the stars and planets as they might be observed from any point on Earth.  Our AALEADers were very excited to learn about the solar system and see some planets from a new perspective.

waiting for the show to start

After the show, students spent some time exploring the nature center:

Group Picture!