Awesome should be in one of those many A’s…I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the heavy lifting you all took on to make it a truly historic event. 30+ years back, we were fighting to open doors for Asian Americans (as Jane [Bock] reminded us at the Plenary, we had to fight just to get our mailbox!). This weekend it was gratifying to be among so many, from different generations, who have achieved a place at the table—but still remember where they came from, and still care deeply about giving back. That theme was present in every panel I attended, and it was the genius of the organizing, as well as the spirit of the HAAAA community, that made it the heart of the summit. Bravo! — Renee Tajima-Pena ’80
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I wanted to thank you so much for organizing this amazing event. I must say that I did not know what to expect, but was profoundly impressed by not only the flawless planning and execution of it but also the caliber of the events, panels, and the Pitch Competition. My college roommate and I were sitting at a bar before the Pitch Competition and were talking about how educational and inspirational the event had been. In a way, it was even transformative. I think I have just added “be a speaker at the HAAA summit” on my life goals. — Jason Bae ’07
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Looking back, we were fortunate to have gone to school at Harvard, but I also think that Harvard was lucky to have had us as students! It was so great to feel the energy and talent and goodwill around the room. What an incredible Summit you put together. And sticky buns as the finale! — Alice Young JD ’74
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Since my time as an undergrad, I had wanted to see a weekend-long event for our alumni given the success of the Black Alumni reunions, but had my doubts on whether our community could organize and rally around an event of the same scale. I still cannot believe that we drew over 400 attendants who were so eager to reconnect and engage, from all over the country/world, across all class years. The overwhelming success of the Summit really legitimized our relatively new alumni efforts and has set a strong tone for H4A and high bar for future summits and events. — Sarah Paiji ’06
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I just wanted to thank all of you again for throwing a spectacular summit and for including me in your roster of speakers. I cannot begin to tell you how much attending and being a part of it meant to me. I couldn’t help but tear up looking at all the attendees. Back in the ’80s, we hardly dared let ourselves dream about a future like this—a room full of incredibly accomplished, wonderful, creative, beautiful Asian American sisters and brothers. Amazing. Many thanks again. For all. — Pauline W. Chen ’86
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What an incredible weekend. I’ve never felt more recharged despite getting such little sleep. Looking forward to the next! — Jay Chen ’01
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I wanted to congratulate you on an extremely enjoyable and successful Summit. Thank you for initiating this idea. It is impressive how many Asian-American Harvard grads have gone on to do well. I guess I did end up being the oldest female alum from the college attending the Summit! I will let others know about it when the next one rolls along. — Jill Cheng (Tsui) ’67, MTS ’72
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What a wonderful weekend meeting the most brilliant yet modest and family- and community-minded people. Just wrote a note to the Yale AAAA (my undergrad alma mater) saying they have a hard act to follow! — Linda Chin Workman MS-HSPH ’84
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I’m sure the summit was meaningful to different folks in many different ways, but for me the conference theme was truly apropos—it was a great time to step away from the daily grind, reflect on things, and reconnect, especially with my old world of journalism and the interesting things media folks are doing in this time of transition. — Susan Moffat ’83
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The recent HAAAA meeting was one of the best organized I have ever attended. The quality of the panel discussions was outstanding. The Pitch Session was so innovative and inspiring. Kindly keep up the good work. If any HAAAA member wants to come to India, he/she is most welcome to contact me. — Surat Singh SJD ’90
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I was just reflecting on what a great conference the Summit was on so many levels—educational, social and just plain fun!— Nan Bischoff (Zabala) ’91
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Throughout the summit, I was so inspired by all the Asian-American alumni who have come before me on the Harvard campus who have achieved so much in their respective fields—but most importantly, as my career path starts to take a more definitive shape, how they are using their talents to positively give back to society that has also given much to them. I greatly enjoyed volunteering, and thank you for including me in such wonderful and meaningful work. — Brian Na ’09
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It was great seeing old friends I hadn’t seen for years and making new friends. I think the best thing about being a Harvard alum is the opportunity to get to know other alums who are so interesting. I have to say I was so impressed with and very humbled by what people were doing. Come to think of it, not dissimilar to how I felt as an undergrad. Congrats on a spectacular job. — Dan Riew ’80
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Just wanted to say thank you so much for hosting such a WONDERFUL weekend! To be honest I didn’t spend much time in Asian-American-affiliated organizations during college, but I’m so glad to know that there is such an inspiring network of alums, all doing interesting and important things out here in the real world. — Audrey Kim ’09
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It is clear that a lot of thought, creativity and energy went into the activity-filled weekend. The speakers on the “Social Entrepreneurs” and “Entrepreneurship Exposed” panels provided some very useful ideas and pointers that I have brought back to my workplace. The Pitch Competition finalists really impressed me with their imaginative ideas, passion, and presentation. Additionally, I really enjoyed hearing Chris Lu’s personal experiences and his thoughts on the opportunities and challenges ahead for Asian Americans. Finally, as an attorney enforcing anti-discrimination laws, I appreciated the shared experiences of many Summit participants as Asian Americans. Thank you for creating the forum for us to return, reflect and reconnect! — Kam Wong ’91

A Milestone for Asian-American Alumni by Sarah Zhang October 19, 2010

At the Asian American alumni summit—the group’s first-ever University-wide gathering—even the menu seemed symbolic. Attendees at the opening reception on October 15 mingled over drinks and Korean barbecue beef—fitting considering the audience, but also one of the most popular dishes in the College dining halls today, and thus perhaps a subtle sign of the Asian-American community’s growing influence within Harvard. The summit celebrated progress made since the 1970s, when an Asian-American presence was virtually nonexistent on campus, and examined remaining challenges faced by Asian Americans today.

Organized by the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance (HAAAA, one of the more than 40 Shared Interest Groups approved by the Harvard Alumni Association), the three-day event drew more than 400 alumni from six decades and all of Harvard’s schools. “We are immeasurably diverse as a group, yet we share many of the same goals,” said Jeannie Park ’83, who co-chaired the summit with Jeff Yang ’89. President Drew Faust echoed that sense of solidarity in her remarks at the opening ceremony: “I hope that this is the first of many such gatherings…because your input and your presence mean an enormous amount to us.” Read more

Impromptu photo just before the last session.

The Summit was organized by a veritable army, with two generals who led us. The committee surprised those generals, Jeannie Park ’83 and Jeff Yang ’89, Summit Co-Chairs, with gift certificates to Momofuku (so spa gift certificate for Jeannie!)

He added that Aol has 3 content audience priorities — women, tech and young influencers (reflected by the purchase of TechCrunch last month), and multicultural.

Regarding the power of social media publishing tools, Eun noted he wrote his senior thesis on the reparation bill for Japanese Americans. He said he is convinced, that if social tools been around then, the Japanese Americans would have countered the hysteria. There was not a single documented case of sabotage or espionage by a Japanese-American, whereas there were numerous cases of such activity by German- and Italian-Americans (who were not interned).

With regard to the new world, Chan asked at a certain point, “What happens to people like me?” Eun responded, “Reminds me of joke, Enough about me, what about you. What do you think of me?”

He said there was an opportunity for experienced content creators to add value, whether though reporting, analysis, or hitting people’s passions.

Renowned physician-author-columnists Pauline Chen ’86 and Darshak Sanghav ’92 explored how medicine has changed since their Harvard days. How do the realities of practicing health care today compare with the ideals that led them into the field? What do they tell would-be med students? And what’s their advice for confused and fearful patients?

Sanghav said he is mistaken for Atul Gulwande, the surgeon and author.

After a long night of presentation and deliberation, the judges of the Live Finals of the inaugural Elevate Pitch Competition finally settled on three grand prize winners: Drum roll please!

The AOL Award for Creativity: The Secret Court of 1920

The Perkins Coie Award for Innovation: Diagnostics One (which also won the crowd-selected DFS Audience Award)

The Dr. James and Mrs. Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Award for Change: Fenugreen

Each award included $2,500 in cash, as well as thousands of dollars of in-kind prizes and one-of-a-kind mentorship luncheons with Harvard alumni who are top venture capitalists, industry leaders, and influential creative executives. And all eight finalist teams received packages of the full edition of  Creative Suite 5, donated by Adobe Software.

Yet in a sense, everyone who participated in the event won.

Served at the Sunday brunch, courtesy of Flour Bakery, by Joanne Chang ’91, who spoke on “The Road Less Traveled” panel. Yum/ They were made famous by Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Chang called it an inflection point, where they went from making around 12 a day to now over 500, and it’s still not enough to satiate demand.

Waves of Summit-goers headed to the Hong Kong, an institution which  has served many generations of Harvard students. The must-order:  scorpion bowls of course. With the long straws and the plastic floatie  things and all. Lots of cross-generational bonding.We ordered peking  ravioli, chow fun, scallion pancakes, congee, fried tofu, pea shoots and more.

Read More…

Diagnostics One, with Samuel Sia GSAS ’02, wins the $500 cash prize for the audience award. He had around 28 percent of the vote.

Diagnostics One, which focuses on cheap blood testing in rural Africa, came out the audience favorite. Won $500.

The most interesting piece of advice from Andrew Chung was to the speculum team: collect the speculum from judges after they look at it. The poor judge at end was awkwardly stuck with the device.

Team: Kavita Shukla ’06, Swaroop Samant

Fenugreen is a patented, inexpensive, natural, non-toxic, and biodegradable food packaging material that could revolutionize the food value chain, significantly reducing inventory, transportation, and labor costs in a sustainable way. Fenugreen extends perishable food shelf-life by 2-4x – addressing the 25% of food that is lost to food spoilage annually (at a cost of $450 billion).

Team: Stephen Chiu ’97, T.K. Yang ’98, Jimmy Quach ’98

Locoto is the online marketplace and platform for designing, trading and scaling low cost tools & technologies for communities in the developing world and the NGOs that work with them. Over 1.9 billion Asians live on $2/day. 1 billion lack housing, electricity, and safe water. As humanitarian organizations struggle to meet these needs, universities, corporations, and designers are creating “appropriate technologies” – low cost tools for the developing world. Products such as UV water disinfectors, biomass cookstoves, and off-grid LED lights are saving lives and building economies. Locoto’s community-based approach will greatly transform an undervalued sector and marketplace.

Samuel Sia GSAS ’02, now an assistant professor at Columbia University, drew blood in his demo of diagnostic device by pricking himself.
Overheard: “Is that a biohazard?”

Team: Samual Sia, GSAS ’02

Our non-profit organization will provide access to life-saving diagnostics in remote parts of the world where the sickest patients reside. Our low-cost device can diagnose blood-based diseases by anyone, anywhere in 15 minutes or less. Our patented technology has been tested in sub-Saharan Africa on hundreds of patient samples. It requires only a finger-prick of blood and gives the result less than 15 minutes. The diagnostic test is also remarkably inexpensive.

Team: Eddie Lee ’09; Eric Lu ’09, HMS ’14; Jason Y. Lee

The Jubilee Project’s vision is to tap into the power of social media by creating entertaining videos that empower, enable, and inspire others to do good. We create videos that advocate for important causes by raising awareness, fundraise for social-impact organizations and spotlight ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

The team behind “Build a Better Speculum” had an exhibit on hand. Andrew Chung, an expert commentator, later recommended that they take back the speculum from the judges. The last judge was stuck with it.

Team: Anjana Sharma, HMS ’11; Gillian Sowden, HMS ’12; Imani Anwisye HMS ’11

The vaginal speculum used on women hasn’t changed in over 100 years! We are three female med students on a quest: to build a better speculum. As doctors in training, and as women, we know first-hand that the vaginal speculum is an ancient device that is often painful, invasive and uncomfortable for patients. This is an untouched area of medical innovation that is long overdue, which could improve medical care for half of the human population! We aim to collaborate with designers, MDs, and engineers to build a better speculum.

Team: Kenneth Li ’12, Abel Acuna ’11

“Puppy Love” is a half-hour unscripted elimination dating show where both owner and pet seek the perfect catch. Would-be romantics are taken on a variety of doggy-dates where the chemistry between dog and dog is just as important as that between man and woman. In the end, the owner must decide which pair is the best match: some get left at the pound, others get sent to the doghouse & one lucky winner gets the bone.

Team: Chiu-fu Jeffrey Yang ’05, HMS ’11; Jessica Wey; Keisuke Nakagawa; Yusheng Zhang; Smisha Agarwal

Global Health Bridge is transforming rural health workers’ cell phones into a tool to help them deliver better, more timely care to their communities. Our cell phone-based health information system will enable community healthcare workers (CHWs) in developing countries to provide uninterrupted care and follow-up, even in the most rural parts of the world. Our maternal health platform enables CHWs to collect health information on their cell phones, receive patient reminders, and store/retrieve clinical data instantaneously.

The Tsai Auditorium at CGIS seats over 200 people.

Jeff Yang ’89 and Monica Lee ’88 introduced the Elevate Pitch Finals. These eight finalists have  a chance of winning one of the three Grand Prize packages:

• The AOL Award for Creativity
• The Perkins Coie Award for Innovation
• The Dr. James and Mrs. Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Award for Change

Each award includes $2,500 in cash, as well as thousands of dollars of in-kind prizes and one-of-a-kind mentorship luncheons with Harvard alumni who are venture capitalists, industry leaders, and influential executives.

Acclaimed violinist and member of the Harvard Board of Overseers Lynn Chang ’75 performed a quartet with his son Christopher Chang ’12, Bobby Chen ’14 and Saki Takahashi ’11, while the audience watched on.

Bernard Lee ’92, ALM ’94, a professional poker player with over $1.35 million in career earnings and an instructor with the World Series of
Poker Academy, offered a poster master class. Lee has written the Sunday poker column for the Boston Herald since 2005, and is also the
co-host of ESPN.com’s weekly poker show, ESPN Inside Deal.

A smattering of his tips:

• This game is all about patience. The goal is not to win a lot of pots. The goal is a lot of chips. It’s called value betting.
• Never look at your cards until it’s your turn to play, else you will give off tells.
• Almost everyone has physical tells. Except for Chris Ferguson who covers himself up.
• It’s impossible to focus on nine people at table. It’s possible to focus on three. It’s all about position. You care about those after you.

Aluminum containers. Long lines. Bulk Asian food. This brings back memories of Asian American student events at Harvard. Only now we have nicer plates and the kind of plastic cutlery that looks like metal.

Novelists Gish Jen ’77 , V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan ’02 (Love Marriage) and Tania James ’03 (Atlas of Unknowns) read from their critically acclaimed stories and unpublished works in Emerson. Random fact: James actually was a student of Jen’s when she was an undergraduate, which Jen said made her feel like a dinosaur.

Jen, whose first novel, Typical American, marked her as a breakthrough Asian-American author, discussed her new book, World and Town about a woman in midlife dealing with overwhelming loss and the challenge of starting over. She said that she was probably the only Asian-American English concentrator back in the day.

It was emceed by Deanna Lee ’84, VP, Communications and Marketing, New York Public Library and sponsored by The Asian American Writers Workshop.

Speakers on the politics and public service panel included Norman Bay JD ’86, director, Office of Enforcement, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; David Chiu ’91 JD/MPP ’94, president, San Francisco Board of Supervisors; Mina Nguyen MBA ’09, former deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury and senior advisor for the Republican National Committee; Valerie Santos MBA/MPP ’03, deputy mayor, District of Columbia; Sam Yoon MPP ’95, founder, Asian Political Leadership Fund, former Boston City Councilor.

The panel was moderated by PJ Kim, MPA/MPP ’06, executive director, New York City’s Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, and 2009 candidate for NYC Council. And we’d love to give a shout out to the sponsor, Tony W. Lee ’94.

It was followed by a special reception sponsored by the Asian Pacific American (APA) Caucus at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Top alumni who have made their stamp in Asia offer their thoughts on where the region’s headed and discuss opportunities they see for Asian and Asian American alumni to contribute and work there—and pitfalls to avoid. The Panelists included Yiting Liu ’03, China private equity manager; Alice Young JD ’74, Partner and Chair, Asia Pacific Practice, Kaye Scholer LLP; Roopal Shah ’91, co-founder and executive director, Indicorps; Chuck Chai ’95, former U.S. Treasury Department official. It was moderated by Anand Girid­haradas, current PhD candidate, columnist for New York Times and International Herald Tribune. And we’d like to give a shout out to the sponsor, Byung-Kook Kim ’82.

Christopher P. Lu HLS ’91, special assistant to President Barack Obama and secretary of the cabinet, offered some career advice to the audience: “If you ever have a chance to go to law school with the future leader of the free world, do it.” (Which drew laughs). He addressed a crowd that spilled over into three rooms in the Faculty Club.

Lu said he first met Jeff Yang ’89, the Summit co-chair, in 2008 after he read a San Francisco Chronicle column that argued Barack Obama could be first Asian American president. He reached out to Jeff.

Lu pointed out that in 200 years of the White House, there were not a lot of people that looked like him.

In fact, his wife bought him the entire series of “The West Wing,” and in watching it he discovered the only Asian American character in entire series was a recurring staffer named “Ed”, and it is not clear what his last name was and what he did. Even Wikipedia, knowers of all things, does not know what he does, though the speculation is that he works for the Office of Management and Budget. He appears as one half of Ed and Larry. (FYI. “Ed” is played by Peter James Smith, an actor born in Taipei, Taiwan.)

In contrast, Lu recalled that Obama once grinned at a staff meeting and said: “I love that my staff looks like a Benetton Ad.” Now Lu noted that there were now three Asian American members of cabinet, and that the new Chief of Staff, Pete Rouse, is the son of Japanese-American woman.

At one point Lu asked the audience,  ”How many ppl here have parents who are immigrants?” Almost the entire room raises the hands. Only about four or five people were not children of immigrants.

The lines for the questions extended around the back of the room.

An audience member asked, What can we do as Asian Americans to become more active? Lu responded: that the answer is “to give.” Give to ethnic studies, civic and benevolent associations. “If you can’t give labor, give money. And he also recommended mentoring young people to learn English, if that is appealing.

Another audience member, Margaret Chin ’84 asked about coalition building with other groups. Lu responded that indeed, they did not hear from Asians as much on health care, immigrant,or civic rights issues. But, he noted “Their issues are our issues.”

Keynote is Chris P. Lu JD ’91, Secretary of the Cabinet and Assistant to  President Obama. He is supposed to share his experiences on HLS  classmate Barack Obama’s historic campaign, take us behind the scenes  of the Administration and look ahead to the challenges and  opportunities facing the White House and the nation.

Organized by Jay Chen ’01. Table topics include medicine, law, non-profit, media, entertainment, finance, government, among others.

Liza Cariaga-Lo EdM ’90 EdD ’93, assistant provost for faculty development and diversity, presented on the state of Asian America at Harvard.

She did roll call by decades. There were 3 grads from before the 1970s! The numbers of Asian American undergrads has not changed in 10 years, around 17-18 percent. There are 168 self-identified Asian Americans faculty at Harvard FAS. But varies significantly by field, lower in the humanities than in the hard sciences. Of the university at large, the largest number is in medical fields. Out of 8,0000 Harvard-affiliated medical school faculty, 1,360 are Asian/Asian-American.

The roll call by decades at the plenary spanned six decades, starting with Jack Chun, who graduated with a masters of architecture in 1957.

Co-Chair Jeannie Park was so excited when he signed up, because  registrants officially spanned six decades.

For anyone who has ever pooh-poohed the dating scene at Harvard, there’s reason to believe cupid hasn’t left campus all together.Need evidence? Let’s begin with Love@Harvard a  campus dating show hosted and produced last year by Sanyee Yuan ’12, for HUTV. In each of the episodes, one lucky student has her pick of three potential paramours, whose identities are hidden from her by an opaque screen.

The obvious follow up question: Were there any successful couples that came out of the show?

“There was one bachelorette who ended up dating the camera person’s roommate,” volunteered Yuan.

If that’s not good enough evidence for you, how about this: DateHarvardSquare.com, the latest internet sensation founded by Harvard grads, which allows any woman willing to pay a monthly fee access to the dating profiles of Harvard University educated men, who can join for free.

Okay, okay, want hard evidence and not new-age details about the current dating scene at Harvard? Here we go. The real life answer to the question every Asian American freshman considers when they’re staring at the wall on a lonely Friday night: Is it possible to find a campus soulmate who even your parents will be happy to meet?

Jane Bock ’81 met her husband John Chow ’79 for the first time in the Science Center. Assigned to work together by the Asian American Association, they were Big Brother/Big Sister mentors of  two incoming freshmen and eventually ended up spending way more time with each other than their positions required.

“I think [the mentees] thought we were stalking them because when they saw us together they thought,  ohmigod they are going to come visit us again,” joked Bock.

Bock and Chow now have been married for 28 years, with two children, one of them Andrew Chow ’14, who also happened to play jazz piano at the opening reception for the summit.  The musicality is fitting given that Chow recalls their first date was a concert featuring YoYo Ma ’75, Richard Kogan ’77, and Lynn Chang ’75.

Speaking of Lynn Chang, who currently serves on the Board of Overseers — he also met his wife at Harvard. Lisa Wong ’79 auditioned for the chamber music course Music 180 three days into freshman week. Chang just happened to be the teaching fellow that day evaluating her performance.

“I started to play and Lynn said, ‘Oh, I hear you’re from Hawaii, I know some people from Hawaii’” recalled Wong, “and he just started a conversation while I was standing there with my violin.’”

“That was our first meeting, officially ” said Chang in a separate interview, “And then I would run into her because I used to play a lot of concerts as a graduate there. She would come to all the concerts. And I don’t want to say she was my groupie, but pretty much that’s how it began. Now, I’m her groupie.”

After seven years of dating, the couple married and had two children, one who has since graduated from Harvard and the other who is currently an undergrad.

“My son also met his girlfriend in Music 180 and now they’re in Bach Society together,” said Chang. “It’s pretty adorable.”

See? Love@Harvard. Really.

On the opening night menu, courtesy of campus catering: Korean barbecued beef with sticky rice in a lettuce leaf, plus a topping of kimchee and red bean paste. For the vegetarians: a tofu and vegetable slaw option.

If you remember the Harvard dining system as the function of a massive, central cooking facility from which food was transported via mysterious underground tunnels, it may come as a surprise that bulgogi is hardly unusual fare, nowadays part of the normal catering options offered by campus food services.

Stephen Romano, the man in the chef’s hat dishing out lettuce wraps Friday night, began working for Crimson Catering 17 years ago, back when there were only 3 employees who offered a limited fare of sandwiches and breakfast pastries. Now, their offerings run the whole gamut and they cater for audiences that can number in the thousands.

Gesturing to the table, on which lay a spread of bulgogi in a frying pan, rice in bamboo steamers, and an assortment of various dishes, Romano said, “They call these ‘action stations’ where they have chefs preparing the food — like we do risotto stations, stir fry stations — this is one of the ones, I believe, is on our new menu.”
Asked to comment on how the kitchen system has changed at Harvard, he said “Fifteen years ago, the central kitchen produced all the soups, sauces, lasagnas and sent it out to all the different houses. Now it’s much more limited. The houses do more of the things like lasagna on site, but they still do make the soups…and sauces at the central kitchens and then it’s shipped to all the different houses.”
“I’m hoping everyone enjoys the food tonight and it looks like they are,” said Romano. “Thanks.”

One of the awards presented at the HAAAS Elevate Pitch Competition is named after the parents of a pair of influential alums.

Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao MBA ’79 announced during the opening ceremonies that her sister Angela ’95, MBA ’01, is the sponsor of the Dr. James and Ruth Chao Change Award, named in honor of their mother and father.

Chao said the story of her parents, who immigrated from China, mirrors in many ways the stories of those in the audience.

“[My] parents grew up at at time when their country, native country, was in utter turmoil, plagued by domestic upheaval, the terror of foreign invasion, and then ultimately the heartbreak of being torn from their land of birth. And even though they saw the worst of humanity, they never gave up hope and they believed in the best of humanity. They came to America separately. My father came three years before us. My mother was seven months pregnant with my third sister. And yet she unhesitatingly said to my father, ‘You have got to go to America because that is the land of opportunity.’”

“At that time, coming to America was so difficult. And we didn’t have any idea when it would be when we departed. It was three long years before my father was able to bring us to america. And needless to say, this indeed has been the land of opportunity and great blessings for my family. And yet my story mirrors every single one of your stories. This is the American story. And you in this room are the future leaders, and some of you are the current leaders already of our nation, our nation is increasingly diverse. And in my former job, I certainly saw that happening as well. So tonight, I thank you so much for believing in us as a community.”

After praising the programming at the summit, University President Drew Faust mused, “There is one particular person I think who would have rounded out the various kinds of talent that all of you represent.”

After a short pause, she continued, “But they wouldn’t give Jeremy Lin a night off from the Golden States Warriors so we’ll have to have him here another time.”

University President Drew Gilpin Faust told the first summit of Asian American alumni that she hopes the gathering is the “first of many… because your input and your presence means an enormous amount to us.”

Faust’s highly anticipated appearance was a sign of political recognition for a growing body of Asian American alumni interested in increasing their profile and influence at Harvard.

Executive Director of the Harvard Alumni Association John P. Reardon, Jr, ’60, Dean of Admissions William Fitzsimmons ’67, and Senior Admissions Officer Dave Evans were also in attendance at the opening reception.
“President Faust, I think your appearance tonight signifies a great deal. It signifies you respect us, that you recognize us, and that we are a community on the move,” said Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, MBA ’79, during her introductory remarks.

Faust thanked Chao, the first Asian American woman appointed to a President’s cabinet, for her leadership in the country and the world. She also made note of the presence of Lynn Chang ’75, the first Asian American appointed to the Harvard Board of Overseers.

“He’s the person who really knows what’s going on so you can interrogate him all weekend,” teased the university president.

Earlier in the evening, summit co-chair Jeannie Park addressed Faust directly in her speech.
“We want you to know that we care about the current generation of Asian students and will go out of our way to try to enhance their Harvard experience, such as our support of the new ethnic studies program,” said Park.

Members of the audience clapped at the mention of ethnic studies, as did President Faust.

- Joy Lin, ’05

Beat Yale. That was the goal summit co-chairs Jeannie Park ’83 and Jeff Yang ’89 set for themselves when they decided to organize the first ever Asian American alumni gathering at Harvard.

“Because we had heard Asian American alumni at Yale had planned a similar event a few years ago and cancelled it because only 75 people registered,” Park said, “We just wanted to beat Yale. And indeed we are expecting over 400 participants at this summit.”

Park’s opening remarks kicked off this weekend’s 3-day summit, which has been over a year in the making. Six decades of graduates, representing all the schools at Harvard (save one, the Divinity School), are expected in attendance this weekend.

“The last time I was in a room with so many Asians at Harvard, there was disco ball on the ceiling, Michael Jackson blaring from the speakers, and a lot of sweaty bodies packed into a dining hall,” said Park. “That was fun, but this is better.”

The opening ceremonies were held in the cavernous auditorium of Radcliffe Gym which, when it was built in 1898, featured cutting-edge Swedish gym equipment as well as a swimming tank. Over a hundred years later, it’s a much different scene. Gone are the bars and the girls in baggy blue knickers. In their place, men and women from a diversity of backgrounds, brought together by sheer determination and a shared interest in each other.

Crimson pride, minus the sport. In the cheery din, the clinking of glasses.

- Joy Lin, ’05

Photo by Junko Kim ’05

Click here for more Summit Opening Reception photos!

Andrew Chung ’99, venture capitalist, flaunts his Harvard-themed bow tie at the Opening Reception.

Secretary Chao became aware of the conference through Jeff Yang ’89. She said, “We’re a community on the move.” She also mentioned that her younger sister, Angela, dedicated an award in honor of their parents.

The only talent that was missing, she noted, to make our pool well rounded was Jeremy Lin ’10. Over 200 people attended the reception in Agassiz Theatre.

His family has a car which he volunteered. Also brought a printer, just in case.

At the Faculty Club buffet lunch. Jeannie brought her own hand cart on the plane. Her luggage overage cost more than her ticket.

Bags are courtesy of Aol and inside there are copies of “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh ’95, the chief executive of Zappos.

A summary of our social media plans for the Summit.

• Check in on Foursquare at the “HAAAA Summit” (pinned to Harvard Yard)
• Tweet your feedback, insights and reactions using hashtag #H4ASummit (NOTE: CHANGED FROM #HAAAA); also watch #H4ASummit for breaking alerts, news and program updates
• Email your photos to pix@haaaa.net — your pictures will automatically be added to the Summit Flickr Set at http://www.flickr.com/photos/h4asummit/
• Read the Summit blog which will have live updates.

Over a hundred student volunteers are helping out this weekend.

An announcement for volunteers from Joyce Yan Zhang ’09 and Bill Yao ’90, Summit Registration Co-Chairs, and Kristen Chen Li ’09, Site and Student Volunteer Chair:

Thank you for dedicating your time to the inaugural Harvard Asian American Alumni Summit!  We were blown away by the incredible response that we received. With 400 expected attendees, and talks, panels, and events that really showcase the depth and breadth of the accomplishments in our community, we are extremely excited for this upcoming weekend.

We are having a mandatory volunteer meeting this Friday, October 15, at 3pm in the Radcliffe Gym(where the opening reception will take place). The logistics are a bit complicated, and we need to go over instructions before the conference officially begins. We have a large number of people arriving and registering at various points. And, because events are sold out, we have very little flexibility and must be vigilant in directing people to the correct events, and redirecting them from events for which they are not registered, as there will be inevitable confusion among participants.

Your tasks will be crucial to ensuring that the Summit runs as smoothly as possible. We are really relying upon every single one of you. Please arrive to your shifts 15 minutes in advance and if, for whatever reason, you are unable to make your shift, it is crucial that you find a replacement. There is no dress code, but many will probably opt for business casual.

We will go over instructions in greater detail and give you your name badge and your volunteer ribbon at the 3pm meeting. Please remember to wear your badge at all times, as they will also give you access to the panels. We hope you take advantage of the exciting programming and meet some interesting new people.

And of course, remember to be polite, upbeat, and friendly to everyone.

Thank you again, and we very much look forward to seeing you soon!

Best regards,

We’ve received several inquiries concerning event access and would like to provide further clarification.

If you are an alum/recent-grad/faculty/staff/grad-student/speaker/sponsor/adult-guest registrant, your registration includes EVERY Summit activity except the three optional “extras” (House Dinner, Poker, Donkey Show). If you purchased an extra, it should say so on your confirmation email, and you can double-check when you check in and receive your registration packet (which will include a complete schedule, map and a participant directory). EXCEPTIONS: If you registered for the Summit after the Gala Luncheon and then the Networking Breakfast were closed out and you paid the discounted registration fee, then you do not have a seat at these events (this affects a small percentage of you). Again, this should be on your registration email and will be made clear at check-in.

If you are an undergraduate/child-guest registrant, your registration includes the Plenary, the Panels, Film Night, the Pitch Comp (beginning at 8 p.m. on Saturday), the Opening Reception and the A.R.T. OBERON reception. It does NOT include the two breakfasts, the Gala Luncheon, nor the Dinner Reception preceding the Pitch Comp, nor Poker, Donkey Show or House Dinner—UNLESS you purchased any of these items as add-ons. Again, this should be in your confirmation email and can be double-checked at check-in.

If you did purchase the House Dinner, you should go to Winthrop House directly at 5:00 p.m. Friday; you will not have an opportunity to check in for the Summit before that. If you can’t remember whether you purchased the House Dinner but wish to attend, just show up, and you can pay  $8 on the spot if you’re not already on the list.

A final note from Jeannie Park ’83 and Jeff Yang ’89, Summit Co-Chairs

It’s hard to believe that after more than a year of planning, the Harvard Asian American Alumni Summit will start in just a few days! Alumni, students and faculty continued registering up to the last minute on Sunday, and we are now expecting a total of 400 to participate in some part of the weekend. Please click here to see the full list of attendees — it’s quite an exciting mix! Because space will be tight, and the schedule even tighter, it is critical to take note of some logistical details:

1. THE SUMMIT IS SOLD OUT. We’re sorry, but we had no IDEA so many of you would turn out! Please do not suggest to your friends that they try to walk in and register, as they will be turned away. For Summit registrants, there are still openings for a few events, as noted below.

2. REGISTRATION will open primarily at three times:  Friday, Oct. 15, 5:30-7:30 p.m., during the Opening Reception at Radcliffe Gym. Saturday, Oct. 16, 8:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Faculty Club. Saturday, Oct. 16, 1:15-5:00 p.m., Emerson Hall. Please pick up your registration packet as early as possible, asyou will need your name badge for entry to ALL events, and some events will require a special ticket. If you cannot arrive when registration is open, please go directly to the Summit event, and we will admit you. The weekend’s final schedule is at summit.haaaa.net/program. NOTE: Early Friday activities do not require a badge. If you would like to visit open college classes on Friday from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., you may go freely; click here for the schedule. You may attend the special Admissions Info Session & Tour on Friday at 1 p.m., even if you did not pre-register; please go directly to Agassiz House in Radcliffe Yard. You may also join the House Dinner at Winthrop House from 5-6 p.m. on Friday, even if you did not pre-pay. Dinner is $8, and you may pay the alum host in cash at the door.
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The numbers have been crunched, the results are in — and our eight finalists who’ll compete in the Live ELEVATE Pitch Competition Finals on Saturday, October 16th, at Harvard University have been chosen.

Congratulations to the following 8 teams below, who were selected by our Semi-Finals judges as the most creative and persuasive pitches — out of over one hundred entries total from around the world.

The competition was fierce: Many unique ideas never even made it to the Semifinal round of 20. But these eight entries now have the chance to win one of the three Grand Prize packages:

• The AOL Award for Creativity
• The Perkins Coie Award for Innovation
• The Dr. James and Mrs. Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Award for Change

Each award includes $2500 in cash, as well as thousands of dollars of in-kind prizes and one-of-a-kind mentorship luncheons with Harvard alumni who are venture capitalists, industry leaders, and influential executives.

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Well over a hundred teams led by Harvard Asian American alums submitted an incredibly diverse and compelling array of entries to the first-ever ELEVATE Pitch Competition on September 22nd, 2010.   

Submissions ranged from screenplays to startups to social initiatives, and came from graduates and students across all of Harvard University’s 12 schools, and several decades of affiliation.    

Now, we’re delighted to announce our 21 ELEVATE Semifinalists, who will be making live web conference presentations this weekend to our second-round panel of judges, who include:    

• Zen Chu, Wyss Institute Accelerator Fund; Harvard Medical School
• Andrew Chung ’99, Lightspeed Venture Partners
• Theresa Loong ’94, Intellitoys and film producer
• Joyce Lan Kim, M.A. ’01, Soompi.com 
• Lindsay Wai, M. Arch ’08, IDEO 
• Katherine Woo ’95, Sofa Labs; Thread.com 
• And several other guest judges 

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Reminder all. The deadlines for early registration is now Wednesday, September 22 (from September 15 originally). We have over 200 registrants already, including promised contingents from faculty/staff and undergrads. After that, the prices for non-undergrads go up $10 to $100 for older alum and faculty, and $70 for recent grads. Undergrads stay at $20

The Elevate Pitch competition deadline is also Wednesday, September 22. Videos are now optional.

Join the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance’s new Northern California Chapter for two kickoff events which will give you a chance to learn more about the Elevate Pitch competition. The two events are a San Francisco Mixer at the Press Club, Wednesday, August 18, 6-8 p.m. and a Palo Alto Mixer at Tai Pan, Thursday, August 19, 6-8 p.m.

At these events you can meet the coordinators and Bay Area judges for the HAAAS Elevate Pitch Competition, a special Summit event where finalists will take home over $25,000 in cash awards, prizes and mentorship luncheons with leading alumni VCs, entepreneurs and creative executives….Got a few entrepreneurial ideas or inventions?  A non-profit concept or creative works in progress – screenplays, manuscripts, music and more?  Give your ideas a test drive and ENTER them in the Elevate Contest! Hurry, as Monday, September 20th is the entry deadline.

San Francisco Mixer
Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 6 – 8 p.m.
at Press Club
20 Yerba Buena Lane (aka 767 Market St., by the Four Seasons)
San Francisco, CA  Tel: 415 -744-5000
Map | Directions | Parking Garage: 5th & Mission Street
RSVP by Tuesday, August 17 | Admission is free; no-host bar.

Palo Alto Mixer
Thursday, August 19, 2010, 6 -8 p.m.
at Tai Pan
560 Waverly Place (btw University Ave & Hamilton)
Palo Alto, CA  Tel:  650-329-9168  650-329-9168
Map & Directions | Parking: Street & Adjacent Lot
RSVP by Tuesday, August 17 | Admission is free; no-host bar.

Thanks to excellent work by Monica Lee et al, the prize money for the Elevate Pitch competition has been increased to $25,000! Here again is a summary of the Asian Team member requirement:

At least one Asian/Asian American student, alumnus, faculty member or full-time staffer of any of Harvard’s 12 graduate and undergraduate schools must:

(a)   play a primary role in the development of the idea, project, program or initiative being submitted

(b)   be the primary contact in all rounds of the Competition,

(c)   be the person registering at our Elevate submission page hosted by Angelsoft — with a Harvard email address. We do verify Harvard affiliations.

(d)   must participate in any live semi-final and final presentationsmust participate in any live semi-final and final presentations

Additional Elevate contest rules and details on the  rules page.

Registration went live today and an email blast went out to alums. Register early! Early registration rates end September 15. Rates for young alumni and grad students start at $60; $90 for older alumni and $20 for undergrads. These generally jump by $20 (except for undergrads) on September 15.
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Gish Jen will do a reading from her new novel, “World and Town,” published by Knopf in October 10, at the Summit, in an event that includes Sugi Ganeshananthan ’02 and Tania James ’03. Details on the authors event, which will be sponsored by the Asian American Writers Workshop, will be finalized shortly.

Gish (whose original birth name was Lillian) actually first became interested in writing at Harvard when studying under Robert Fitzgerald, who helped get her a job at Doubleday, a well-known publishing house. She went to Stanford Business School. But decided that business wasn’t for her. She finally applied to the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, graduating from the program in 1983 with an M.F.A.

She was a writer in residence at Radcliffe in 2002. Her honors include fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation.

Gish Jen is the author of three novels – “Typical American,” “Mona in the Promised Land” and “The Love Wife” – as well as a collection of stories, “Who’s Irish?”

Jen brings both lightness and light to many aspects of contemporary identity, including immigration, ethnicity, intermarriage, and religion. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, as well as a Lannan Literary Award and a Harold and Mildred Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Her short work has appeared in periodicals such as The New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, and the New Republic, and has been reprinted in numerous textbooks and anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Named one of the eight most important contemporary American women writers by critic Elaine Showalter, Gish Jen is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

You can also see her extremely detailed Wikipedia bio.

Bernard Lee '92

Bernard Chang ’92, poker figure, will be joining us for the Road Less Traveled panel. If we are lucky, he might pass along some secrets or two.

Bernard Lee ’92 is a professional poker player and media personality. He’s won over $1.35 million in career tournament winnings, having catapulted into the poker spotlight after finishing 13th at the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event. Since September 2005, Lee has written the Sunday poker column for the Boston Herald, and he is also the co-host for ESPN.com’s weekly poker show, ESPN Inside Deal. Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Lee was a marketing executive for a Fortune 500 firm and earned his MBA from Babson College. Lee is currently an instructor for the World Series of Poker Academy, and is the official spokesperson for the Foxwoods Resort Casino’s poker room. He lives just outside Boston with his wife and two children. Lee’s latest book is The Final Table: Volume 2.

The Road Less Traveled is shaping up to be a great panel. Newest addition: Georgia Lee ’98, writer and filmmaker

Georgia Lee '98

Georgia Lee ’98 is a writer and filmmaker. After graduating from Harvard University, she worked for management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. While at McKinsey, Lee experimented with filmmaking on the side. After Martin Scorsese saw Lee’s first short film, “The Big Dish: Tiananmen ‘89”, the director invited Lee to apprentice on “Gangs of New York”. Ms. Lee’s first feature film, “Red Doors” won the Made in New York Award at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival. “Red Doors” went on to win the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting at CineVegas, as well as the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Award for Screenwriting at Outfest in Los Angeles. “Red Doors” was theatrically released in the U.S. in fall 2006. CBS/Paramount Studios then hired Lee to adapt “Red Doors” into a drama pilot. Lee has since written several pilots for CBS, NBC, and FOX. Ms. Lee has been a juror for both the Sundance Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival. She is currently developing her next feature film as well as writing a drama pilot for SONY.

Chef Joanne Chang '91

Joanne Chang ’91, owner of the popular Flour bakery chain in boston and a partner in Myers+Chang, will cater our Sunday brunch and join the Summit for a panel.

Joanne was originally an applied math and economics major and was a consultant at Monitor for two years, before she took an adult education course on running a food business. Fast forward a few years, and she opened her first Flour Bakery + Café, in the South End in 2000. Now she is opening her third, in Cambridge.

For aspiring bakers, the recipe for her famed sticky buns, which were featured in “Throwdown with Bobby Flay,” is available from Harvard Magazine.

Here is her full bio:

An honors graduate of Harvard College with a degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics,Joanne left a career as a management consultant to enter the world of professional cooking.

She started as garde-manger cook at Boston’s renowned Biba restaurant, worked for a year assisting the owner/head-baker of Bentonwood Bakery in Newton, and in 1995 was hired as Pastry Chef at Rialto restaurant in Cambridge.

Joanne moved to New York City in 1997 to work in the cake department of the critically acclaimed Payard Patisserie and Bistro. Returning to Boston a year later with dreams of opening up her own pastry shop, she brought her French and American training to Mistral where she was the Pastry Chef until summer of 2000.

In 2000, she opened Flour, a bakery and café, in Boston’s South End. Flour features breakfast pastries, breads, cakes, cookies, and tarts as well as sandwiches, soups, and salads. In 2007 she opened a second branch of Flour in the Fort Point Channel area and in 2010 she opened a third branch in Cambridge. Flour has been featured in Gourmet, Food&Wine, Bon Appetit, the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Lucky Magazine, Inc. Magazine, and Boston Magazine and has received numerous Best of Boston awards. Flour was also featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network in which Joanne’s sticky buns won over Chef Flay’s.

Joanne also owns and runs a Chinese restaurant called Myers + Chang with her husband Christopher Myers which they opened in the South End neighborhood in the fall of 2007.

Joanne’s energetic commitment to excellence extends beyond the kitchen. She writes pastry articles and reviews cookbooks for Fine Cooking magazine. She teaches classes and advises pastry cooks both within the bakery and at area cooking schools. Her first cookbook, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery+Cafe, was published by Chronicle in September 2010. An avid runner, she has competed in every Boston Marathon from 1991 – 2006.

Announcing our first sponsors! The Office of the Dean of Arts and Humanities and WilmerHale, the law firm of Harvard Corporation member and Summit speaker William Lee.

Again, sponsorships are important because we are trying to keep registration costs low for recent grads and undergrads.

President Drew Gilpin Faust will join us for the Opening Reception on Friday, October 15. More details soon.

Great news. Christopher P. Lu HLS ’91, Cabinet Secretary and assistant to President of the United States Barack Obama, has agreed to be the keynote for our Summit Gala Luncheon on Saturday, October 16, 2010.

His bio, below, can be found in fuller detail in Wikipedia and Times Topics page.

Christopher P. Lu (simplified Chinese: 卢沛宁; traditional Chinese: 盧沛寧; pinyin: Lú Pèiníng) is Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary for United States President Barack Obama’s executive office, making him one of the highest ranked Asian-Americans to serve in the White House.

He was a classmate of Obama’s at Harvard Law School but was only a casual acquaintance until he joined the newly elected senator’s staff in 2004. Prior, he worked in the Washington, D.C. firm Sidley Austin before taking his first political position as deputy chief counsel for Representative Henry Waxman and the Democratic staff of the United States House Government Reform Committee. He also served briefly as an advisor on Senator John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. Following Obama’s successful 2008 campaign for presidency, Lu was appointed executive director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.
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Two Asian-American alumni are running for positions at Harvard: David Kwong-Yu Tang ’75, candidate for a six-year term on the 30-member Board of Overseers, and Irene S. Wu ’91, candidate for a three-year term on the 18-member Harvard Alumni Association Board of Directors. All alumni should have received ballots in April; they must be returned by noon on May 21, 2010.

David Kwong-Yu Tang ’75 is a leading international business lawyer who manages the Asia practice of the firm K& L Gates. He is past chair of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the American Bar Foundation and the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. He sits on the board of the Blakemore Foundation, which encourages the advanced study of Asian languages and the understanding of Asian fine arts in the U.S. He is also an active board member of the National Bureau of Asian Research, which conducts independent research on issues affecting U.S. relations with Asia. A Harvard Alumni Association Elected Director from 1996 to 1999, he is a member of the Harvard Club of Seattle and served on its Schools He has two children, including Jonathan ’04. he received his J.D. from Columbia University in ’79. Tang says: “I would like to contribute to the successful implementation of Harvard’s recent curricular initiatives, especially plans to increase the global dimension of the undergraduate experience.”

Irene S. Wu ’91 is research director for the international bureau of the Federal Communications Communication. She directs studies on international trends in areas such as the Internet, telecom and media, and regulatory agencies. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins. She is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Communications Culture and Technology Program and the author of From Iron Fist to Invisible Hand: The Uneven Path of Telecommnications Reform in China. She has focused her work on how technological change affects the creation of communities and its implications for political action. A member of the Harvard Club of Washington, DC, she is the vice president for Radcliffe affairs and has serves as chair of community services. “As an undergraduate, through the Phillips Brooks House Association, I taught English to Vietnamese refugee students…I hope that I may serve as a resource to other clubs interested in advancing their community service work.”

Click here to view the full slate of candidates.

Lots of Asian American-ness going on as of late. Here is a new invite from the Harvard Association of Asian and Asian American Faculty and Administrators (HAAAFA). And you thought HAAAA had a cumbersome name! More info below.

The Harvard Association of Asian and Asian American Faculty and Administrators is a new organization established for the purpose of providing opportunities for networking, career development, awareness and support of Asian and Asian-American faculty and administrators, as well as serving as resources for the needs and concerns of Asian and Asian Americans at Harvard. We cordially invite you to attend our exciting kick-off event on Tuesday, May 4, 2010, from 6:00 – 7:30 pm in the Phillips Brooks House, Parlor Room, Harvard Yard, Cambridge. (Directions). Come learn more about HAAAAFA and our plan to serve as a resource for Asian faculty and administrators at Harvard. This will be a great way to get connected and involved with our growing membership.

Please RSVP by Tuesday, April 27th to confirm your attendance via response to teresa_malonzo@harvard.edu. We hope to see you there!

- HAAAAFA Planning Committee

The undergrads have chosen the eight seniors to win the Reflections 2010 awards for contributions to the Asian American community at Harvard and beyond. Led by the Asian American Brotherhood, Reflections started in 2005 as a black-tie event. The goal of “Reflections” is not only to reward the achievements of graduating seniors but also to unify the Asian population on campus. Honorees are not necessarily leaders of Asian-American organizations, but can be Asian Americans who have in a significant way made contributions to the campus.

Here is the note:

Congratulations to Danny Kim, Hernan Gatpandan, Jieun Baek, Lin Gao, Ria Tobaccowala, Rohan Prasad, Roy Matthew, and Yuting Chiang on being our Reflections 2010 Award Winners!

This year, we had a record number of nominations that nearly doubled the number of nominations from last year, Reflections 2009. Still, a group of eight Harvard seniors were chosen from this extremely large, diverse, and accomplished pool of nominees to be honored for their outstanding contribution to the Asian-American community at Harvard and beyond.

Please join us in celebrating not only these eight seniors, but also the achievements of the entire graduating Class of 2010 at the Reflections Award Ceremony next week. The dinner banquet and presentation of awards will take place on Monday, April 19th from 6:00 – 9:00pm at the Student Organization Center in Hilles (SOCH, Room 104).

Tickets are available for $10 from any co-sponsoring organization or the Harvard Box Office. Admission includes dinner, guest performances–starring Dumbfoundead, and speeches by the Reflections 2010 Award Winners and former Boston mayoral candidate Sam Yoon.

We look forward to seeing you there!

-The Reflections 2010 Executive Board, General Assembly, and Selections Committee

Big news, Harvard names William F. Lee ’72  to the board of trustees, also called the “President and Fellows of Harvard College” or the “Harvard Corporation.” He’s the first Asian American named to this august board, and will replace James Houghton, who will step down July 1.

As The Harvard Crimson notes, Lee’s appointment comes 10 years after the Corporation selected its first black member, Conrad K. Harper.

Lee, a leading intellectual property lawyer in Boston, is the co-managing partner at WilmerHale. He has his own Wikipedia page.

As for his Harvard service, he was on the University’s Board of Overseers from 2002 to 2008, where he chaired the board’s committee on finance, administration and management for three years and was vice chair of the executive committee in 2007-08. Notably, he was one of the three Overseers on the presidential search committee that selected Drew Faust. Lee has also taught at Harvard Law School, including classes inintellectual property litigation courses as well as a problem-solving workshop.

As an undergraduate, Lee lived in Adams House. He was active with Phillips Brooks House and served as a student representative to the joint faculty and student committee on undergraduate life.

We are seeking Class Reps for the following undergrad years: 1971-74, 1976-78, 82, 88, 89, 93, 97; and for any graduate school years. Reps will gather contact info for as many Asian-American members of your class as possible; motivate classmates to get involved with HAAAA and attend the Summit; and serve as a conduit between HAAAA and your class. Join the 38 others who have volunteered for this fun job to keep us all connected! To volunteer, please email Alumni Outreach Co-Chairs Edwina Tom AB ’02 and Theresa Loong AB ’94 at alum-outreach@haaaa.net.

The Summit Committee has been working hard since last fall to plan this event, but before we finalize the program, we wanted to solicit further feedback. Would you please take a minute to answer this simple 10-question Survey? It will help us plan the best possible event for you. Please go to this link: The deadline end-of-day March 31.

We are seeking a rep or co-reps from each undergrad year to do the following:

• Gather the contact information for as many Asian/Asian-American members of your class as possible. Identify those who might be interested in attending or volunteering for the Summit, to be held at Harvard on October 16. (We already have lists of 100 or more names per class!)
• Motivate and inspire classmates to attend the Summit and get involved with HAAAA.
• Serve as a conduit between HAAAA and your class.

Details will be sent out re meeting place and time, as well as call-in arrangements by Jeannie Park.

As of 2010-11, Harvard undergrads will be able to choose Ethnic Studies as a secondary field (i.e. a minor) — a culmination of decades of effort by students, faculty and alumni.

The new program is already active, due in large part to powerful advocacy by Asian-American students and alumni. The Crimson’s FM magazine did an extensive piece on the long journey to the program.

Students have enrolled this year in interdisciplinary courses in Ethnic Studies, including classes taught by two visiting professors in Asian-American studies, Denise Khor, a recent graduate from Yale, and Hua Hsu, a visiting professor from Vassar College. Their visiting positions were funded by alumni.

If you are interested in making a Harvard College gift directed toward the Ethnic Studies Visiting Faculty Fund, to help ensure that Asian-American studies remains a vital part of the curriculum, please contact Tara_Karyanis at harvard dot edu; you may also contact HAAAA University Affairs co-chair Jeannie Park (parkjeannie at gmail dot com) for more information about the fund.

You can keep up to date with the issue by joining the ethnic studies e-mail list.

Should the Summit arrange an optional dinner for attendees in one or two of the houses on Saturday or Friday night. Would any alums want to do this? Or only alums with prospective applicant children?

On the upside: It only costs $10 per person, and it doesn’t take too much coordination since we just ask HDS to set aside some spaces). The downside is…well, we all ate there for three years even if the dining halls were renovated a few years ago.

The Ethnic Studies Committee invites alumni to attend and submit proposals for its first conference: ”Public Acts, Public Arts: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Ethnic Studies,” which is scheduled for Friday, April 9, 2010.

The founding assumption of ethnic studies was that there was a disconnection between the interests of the academy and the concerns of the public. In recent years, in anniversary celebrations for pioneeringethnic studies programs and books like Mark Chiang’s “Cultural Capital of Asian American Studies,” there has been a call to reengage and reexamine this unfortunate distance. To whom is our scholarship addressed? What are the “practices” that comprise ethnic studies in a global age? What histories remain unwritten? How do art and ideas find their publics? How might our inherited notions of ethnic studies be expanded to accommodate the sphere of human rights? How have approaches to mobility, diaspora, migration, or indigeneity adapted to new configurations of interests and identities?
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The next summit planning meeting will be Sunday, March 7,  at 4:00 p.m. EST in New York City with dial-in for remote folks. Details will be sent on the summit2010 email list.

The main agenda items will be to review–quickly–the overall progress and to focus on programming proposals from Sophia Lai and Nelson Wang and to assign folks to coordinate specific panels.

• Sophia Lai ’04 has joined Nelson Wang in co-chairing the Programming Committee. They are actively working on Keynote Speaker and Plenary ideas, so please send ideas their way ASAP.
• Judith Li ’06 has joined as Events Chair in Boston and will be working on setting up our “extra” events like dinners, cocktails, parties; we’ll hear more about those from her soon.
• Kristen Li ’09, also from Boston, will be heading up our Site and Volunteer Committee, working on venue logistics, as well as organizing volunteers to help throughout the Summit.
• Dawn Lee ’01 is working with Jennifer 8. Lee 98-’99 as Online Co-Chairs.
• Sabrina Chou ’09 has signed on as our graphic designer.
• A group in San Francisco is convening to brainstorm and build support for HAAAA and the Summit.
• The South Asian Alumni Alliance, led by Vinod Namubdiri and Saritha Komatireddy Tice, are supporting this effort and sharing ideas and contacts.

This is the agenda for the January 24 meeting:

1. Progress Report
2. Planning Committee Structure
3. Programming
4. Timeline

If you’d like to step up your involvement in shaping the core discussions of this event, please let us know, as we’d like to identify a couple of co-chairs to lead the way. You do not need to be in NYC! We’ll need many others to work with them on ideas and speakers, too. (We know many of you have already volunteered to get involved with programming.)

Come see Jeremy Lin ’10, Harvard’s Asian American basketball star, play at Columbia on Friday, Jan. 29!

Join your fellow Harvard Asian American alumni in the New York area to cheer on the Crimson and captain Jeremy Lin, whose stellar performance on the court has some calling him a legitimate prospect to play in the NBA. Time Magazine recently profiled him, and ESPN reports that Asian Americans are turning out in droves for his games around the country.

Tickets are only $5 apiece, and the game starts at 7 p.m. at Columbia’s Francis Levien Gym near the 116th Street entrance at Broadway. We’ll be handing out tickets just outside the gym starting at 6:30 p.m.

Since demand for tickets to this game is high (Lin is becoming a big draw, and Harvard and Columbia both have very strong basketball teams this year), we need to submit our ticket request to the Columbia Athletics Office as soon as possible.

Our next meeting to help plan a summit of Harvard Asian-American alums of all years and schools to be held on campus in 2010. We will be meeting 4 p.m. this Sunday, Dec. 6th in NYC. Please join us, and let anyone you think would be interested.

This note went out from students earlier:

Harvard’s Educational Policy Committee has officially approved the Ethnic Studies Secondary Field! Beginning in Fall 2010, students will receive official recognition from the college for completing coursework in (as the official title calls it) “Studies of Ethnicity, Indigeneity, Migration, and Human Rights.” THIS IS A HUGE VICTORY FOR ETHNIC STUDIES AT HARVARD!

Current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will be able to apply for retroactive secondary credit (meaning – if you are taking “Ethnic Studies”-related courses this year or have in past years) next fall.

Other developments in the Ethnic Studies program at Harvard:

• First Harvard Ethnic Studies Conference to take place on Apr. 9, 2010. We hope this is the beginning of a yearly or at least biennial event!
• Active faculty on Standing Committee on Ethnic Studies, which oversees development of courses, course credit, Ethnic Studies events, prizes, etc.
• Development of several Gen Ed “portal courses” which can double-count for Gen Ed and Ethnic Studies
• Current development of praxis courses
• Creation of Ethnic Studies Prize for the best senior thesis/theses in Ethnic Studies
• Academic advising
• Office at 2 Arrow St. with 1 staff member

Harvard students have had an extensive history fighting for Ethnic Studies (see The Harvard Crimson archives), and our success this year could not have been possible without all the efforts of the students, faculty, and alumni who came before us! We’re honored that we could be here to witness the results of those efforts. Let us celebrate this victory for the time being. Many thanks to the Faculty Committee on ES (which has been VERY open to working with students), the student organizations that have been involved, and individual undergraduate and graduate students alike who have supported and been involved this year and in years past.

Will keep you updated,

Athena Lao and Jessica Roman
Ethnic Studies Coalition

This is an excerpt of the note that went out in October to call for discussion of a summit:

Dear fellow alums:

A number of us have been discussing the need for more visibility, responsibility and clout by Asian-Americans (students, faculty, alums) within Harvard. A lot has happened in the past 18 months: An official alumni association, the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance, was formed. The first Reunion event was held for Asian-American alums this past June. And we have contributed to a fund that brought two Asian-American visiting professors to Harvard this school year and will create a permanent professorship in Ethnic Studies, with a focus on Asian-American studies, within the next few years.

All of this has been accomplished through the efforts of just a few. It seems time to harness our collective resources in a more ambitious way–both to benefit the University and to inspire us and enhance our
ability to make a difference in the other worlds that we care about.

To this end, we have been talking about organizing an Asian-American Alumni Summit at Harvard sometime in the next year. This would be open to alums from all parts of the University, as is HAAAA.

We need ideas and volunteers to help create what we hope will become a regular and must-attend event! If you would like to get involved, please join us at a planning meeting on Sunday, Nov. 1.