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!

December was a busy month for our AALEAD Middle School students, to say the least. This season, our students stepped it up and decided to give back to the AALEAD community and community at-large.

Our students took part in preparing decorations for the Maryland Holiday Party. Each middle school created a banner with their mark on it–their names and a word or phrase that describes what AALEAD means to them.

Both our high school and middle school programs also had a chance to think about the holidays in a different light this year. After a mini workshop and discussion on the Make-A-Wish Foundation, students participated in Macy’s “Believe” campaign. Every year, Macy’s donated up to a million dollars to Make-A-Wish for every letter to Santa they receive. AALEADers wrote letters to Santa with their wishes for others or their own non-materialistic wish. Together, we submitted nearly a 100 letters. That’s $100 from AALEAD that went to Make-A-Wish this year!

Traveling for the holidays and staying at a hotel? Have a collection of new toiletries collecting dust under your sink? Grab those extra toiletries and donate them to Asian American LEAD’s toiletry drive for the homeless. Our 4^th Annual Martin Luther King Day of Service will be on Monday, January 16^th (time and location TBD).  We will be collecting toiletries to benefit the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless.

We will be collecting toiletries such as: soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, toothpaste, tissue paper, toilet paper, etc. You may donate your toiletries by either mailing the items to 11141 Georgia Ave Suite #215 Wheaton, MD 20902 before January 13th, or drop them off to the above address.  For special pick-up for donations, please call 301-942-9333 or email mdhighschool@aalead.org.

Happy Holidays!

This winter at AALEAD, Maryland Middle School students practiced teamwork while licking their fingers by building gingerbread houses and marshmallow forts.
Students were excited to decorate gingerbread houses and work in teams. Groups who constructed the most well put-together houses were rewarded with eating theirs’ first. Students learned the value of planning ahead of time as well as the importance of dialogue by listening to each others’ ideas and cooperating together. Part of the challenge was not eating the building materials before you finish! Students also competed to engineer the most stable structures through use of just marshmallows, toothpicks and gummy worms. The results speak for themselves!

It’s never too late to recognize our students who love to give back to the community! On Wednesday, November 30, AALEAD joined the Montgomery County Collaboration Council for a night of Community Celebration. Our students were right there with us to help greet and welcome guests from all over the county and serve delicious hors d’oeuvres during the reception. Thank you to all our students for always doing your best and representing AALEAD with your best foot forward!

On December 16th, our DC Elementary and Secondary School AALEADers gathered at Asbury Church to celebrate the Holidays and a great first semester! There was food from Eastern Empire in Columbia Heights,

crafts and activities for the elementary school students (facillitated by our AALEAD secondary students!),

some great student performances,

and lastly, the evening concluded with gifts for each of our students! A very special thanks to PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte’s Asian Business Resource Group, and NBC for generously “partnering with Santa” to make this possible!

We would like to again thank everyone who has invested their time and energy with us over the last year. This holiday party is something that the students look forward to each year. We have been able to share many great things with our students and we are grateful. Our students were especially excited to meet Michelle Kwan, who took time to visit us.  We look forward to another amazing year and we wish all the families and friends of a AALEAD a Happy Holidays. We will see you all in 2012!!

Can you believe it’s already December?!

AALEAD has jumped right into December with the first community service event of the month on Saturday, December 3^rd hosted by Gifts for the Homeless. AALEAD DC and MD students joined together, early Saturday morning, and met up in DC at the Gifts for the Homeless site to fold and sort clothes.  The clothes were then delivered by volunteers to local homeless shelters around the region!  After folding and sorting clothes, AALEAD walked a couple of blocks to the National Mall to play some games and enjoy the weather (it was a sunny, 60 degrees, ‘normal’ December day!)

It was a great opportunity for DC and MD students to spend a beautiful Saturday earning a couple of community service hours, spend some quality time with each other, and to kick off December giving back to the community!  Thank you to all of AALEAD staff, volunteers, mentors, and board members who joined in the fun, as well!