Bridging UW Students with Community Leaders
Serving as the Community Outreach Chair for Asian Coalition for Equality (ACE) at the University of Washington, I had the chance to expand my network, and become recognized as a rising community leader by amazing organizations such as Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS), the Southeast Asian American Attainment in Education Coalition (SEAeD), and the Washington State Commission of Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA).
This year, I was honored to host the 2016 A Night with Community. I had the task of coordinating an event that brought bridged community members and students are the University of Washington. Also giving students the chance to connect with organizations that are combatting the disparities that Asian and Pacific Islander communities are facing. At first, the task felt overwhelming, but I was constantly reminded by community members that this was a powerful event in the making and I was leading the charge. I had not only outreached to 12 organizations and having them confirm, but I gave the community a first look at a rising community leader.
Building the bridge between UW students and Community Organizaitons
With eleven community organizations present and actively engaging with students, I can say that all of those who attended A Night with Community benefiited.
Working on my speaking in front of a crowd of 60!
Speaking has always given me the butterflies, but speaking in front of the audience on my passion easeed the nerves. This is only the beginning of a bridge that will connect UW students to various community members and organizations.
Leadership Competencies
Personal Values:
Planning and coordinating the event made me reflect on why I am involved with ACE and the purpose of A Night with Community. At the peak of stress with constant communication between students and community organizations, it became really easy to regret taking lead of the event, yet the praise and encouragement from the community members for taking initiative gave me the chance to remember my personal values. Through the chaos of my schedule of balancing full time school, an intensive internship, two part-time jobs, and my RSO's, my passion for bridging the community and students and my passion of becoming a rising community leader persevered; the result was success.
Responding to Change:
Working around the schedule of various organizations was a really demanding task. Setting up appointments to meet and discuss the event, along with the often occurrences of rescheduling really kept me on my toes. Some days my email would flood with rejections, confirmations, and very ambiguous responses, all tentative to change as the event was approaching. Up till the end of the event, I was prepared to respond to any changes, whether it be students coming in at fluxuations to community members canceling. Bridging the students at UW with community members is a task that taught me to be ready for the variabilities of life.
Writing:
The amount of emails that had been sent from the beginning of the planning to the post-event follow-ups, is uncountable. Reaching up to the count of thirty emails sitting in my inbox, the structuring of my emails had to be very concise and clear to reduce the amount of clutter. Further, each email had to be constructed towards the community organizations, so taking short cuts with mass email was rarely an option. Efficiency in writing out emails and having the organization to track emails was a learning curve I had to manage and develop in.
Follow-Through:
The most important competency I must attribute to the success of the event after personal value is being able to follow-through with action and consistency. Being able to confirm attendance of organizations and students via email and message was a task that was accomplishable on days’ notice, but really confirming with them and setting aside meetings according to their schedule was very difficult. Once I had a stable control over my schedule and had the motivation to take time out of my day, the event began to really come to life after visiting each organization in person. Learning to follow-through also really gave me a footing in being recognized as a rising community leader.
Productive Relationships:
I would not have been able to lead the event without the help of my fellow board members in ACE and the community members who really supported me in seeing through the event till the end. With the relationships tested within the board, I really had to lower my pride and allow others to help and support me throughout the planning of the event. With this only coming near the end of the event, I strive from then on to ensure that the dynamics of the group will be valued and productive relationships be made in future events.