Sunday, March 12, 2006
Harvard Asian American Alumni Reunion Dinner
I went up to Boston this weekend for the first ever Harvard Asian American Alumni Reunion Dinner, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Asian American Association. It was extremely well organized. Kudos to everyone who played a part in organizing this wonderful event. I ran into many classmates that I haven't seen in a while, as well as met new interesting alums in diverse professions.
Fred Ho, a renowned composer, writer, and producer, was the guest speaker. Fred, class of 1979, was instrumental in the founding of AAA in 1976, to help galvanize Asian American students to get Harvard to recognize Asian Americans as a minority student group. Fred is currently the CEO of Big Red Media, Inc.
On the way to the Dudley Union, I ran into my friends Jeff Yang, Bill Yao, and Nelson Wang. Jeff was the founder of Harvard's first Asian American magazine, East Wind, and after he graduated, founded A Magazine. Jeff now writes on Asian American culture for SF Gate, and is a Consumer Strategist on Asian & Asian American Markets for Iconoculture.com. Bill is the CIO for a hedge fund, and Nelson is a Senior Editor at Time Inc. Another former AAA Co-President, John Kim, is now an EVP of Rakuten USA, a large Japanese media company, and CEO of Linkshare.
I was also very impressed with the current student leaders at Harvard that I chatted with. Jeff, Bill, Nelson and I were roaming the upper floors of the Dudley Union when we ran into Sarah Paiji. Sarah was a former AAA Co-President, and one of the main organizers of the reunion. She told us that she wanted to create an Asian American Alumni database and reunion since freshman year. Well, she managed to act on her vision. During my years at Harvard (1988 to 1992), several of us AAA officers also wanted to do the same thing, but we never got it done. So here's to Sarah and her colleagues for executing on the vision!
Towards the end of the evening, I spoke with Yi Chen, another main organizer of the event. She's only a first year student! I think it is great that young people take the initiative and volunteer to lead the planning of events. At this point, I also want to give a plug to my high school, Hunter College High School in New York City, since Yi attended Hunter briefly. Earlier in the evening, I also spoke to Sewell Chan, a reporter for the NY Times, who also attended Hunter and Harvard. We noted that there was another Hunter / Harvard alum, Jennifer 8 Lee, who is a reporter for the NY Times. I met another recent alum, Joy Lin, who is an editor at CBS News.
I think it's great that more and more Asian Americans are going into journalism, and are in a position to influence the media, educate the public, reduce stereotypes, and hopefully reduce racism in this country.
Fred Ho, a renowned composer, writer, and producer, was the guest speaker. Fred, class of 1979, was instrumental in the founding of AAA in 1976, to help galvanize Asian American students to get Harvard to recognize Asian Americans as a minority student group. Fred is currently the CEO of Big Red Media, Inc.
On the way to the Dudley Union, I ran into my friends Jeff Yang, Bill Yao, and Nelson Wang. Jeff was the founder of Harvard's first Asian American magazine, East Wind, and after he graduated, founded A Magazine. Jeff now writes on Asian American culture for SF Gate, and is a Consumer Strategist on Asian & Asian American Markets for Iconoculture.com. Bill is the CIO for a hedge fund, and Nelson is a Senior Editor at Time Inc. Another former AAA Co-President, John Kim, is now an EVP of Rakuten USA, a large Japanese media company, and CEO of Linkshare.
I was also very impressed with the current student leaders at Harvard that I chatted with. Jeff, Bill, Nelson and I were roaming the upper floors of the Dudley Union when we ran into Sarah Paiji. Sarah was a former AAA Co-President, and one of the main organizers of the reunion. She told us that she wanted to create an Asian American Alumni database and reunion since freshman year. Well, she managed to act on her vision. During my years at Harvard (1988 to 1992), several of us AAA officers also wanted to do the same thing, but we never got it done. So here's to Sarah and her colleagues for executing on the vision!
Towards the end of the evening, I spoke with Yi Chen, another main organizer of the event. She's only a first year student! I think it is great that young people take the initiative and volunteer to lead the planning of events. At this point, I also want to give a plug to my high school, Hunter College High School in New York City, since Yi attended Hunter briefly. Earlier in the evening, I also spoke to Sewell Chan, a reporter for the NY Times, who also attended Hunter and Harvard. We noted that there was another Hunter / Harvard alum, Jennifer 8 Lee, who is a reporter for the NY Times. I met another recent alum, Joy Lin, who is an editor at CBS News.
I think it's great that more and more Asian Americans are going into journalism, and are in a position to influence the media, educate the public, reduce stereotypes, and hopefully reduce racism in this country.
