Tuesday, December 15, 2009

AALEAD goes to Virginia BEACH



Dec 4th to the 6th, 2009

Watch the Community Summit Trailer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ssY0S3mv4

Watch Performances!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnSQF7_8m_I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0uGul-Vr70&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgYUC-uxVac&feature=related


A large number of Filipino American student organizations banded together this week to promote a "Community Summit" at the Philippine Cultural Center of Virginia. These organizations worked under the name FAYA (Filipino American Youth Alliance). These students put together a full days worth of programs and workshops to discuss issues such as; cultural identity, social issues, and the future of the students' role in the community.
AALEAD was able to bring down 8 students to this event. As our students registered, they were introduced to different student organizers from the "Summit". The AALEAD students began to help with set up and organizing the workshop rooms. The workshops focused on personal stories, financial literacy, healthy lifestyles, and group dialogues. Between workshops, students began to hear from guest speakers who created the foundation for community organizing in the Filipino American community at Hampton Roads.

Following comments are from one of our high school students, David Doan:

Going to Virginia Beach was one of the most interesting trips we had at AALEAD. We learned a lot of stuff like about the Filipino culture. We learned about how to conserve money and we also put together skits and performances. We put together skits and the end of the day after all the workshops and hardworking we used to the skits to show what we learned. We met a lot of new people and the students there were awesome! The adults there were also very helpful.

After the trip to Virginia Beach, it inspired me and also my cousin to help AALEAD be as outstanding as the program down in VA Beach. The program down there is mostly student ran with little or no adult help. If we could atleast do what they are doing we can make AALEAD a better place for other people to come and join our program.




1 comment:

jamesanderson said...

It's great to see these Filipino American student organizations coming together for a Community Summit in Virginia Beach. The workshops, guest speakers, and cultural exchange sound like a valuable experience for students. Kudos to AALEAD for participating and aspiring to make their program even more outstanding!
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