The Inaugural Asian American/Pacific Islander Leadership Experience (AAPILE) and Chicano/Hispanic/Latino Leadership Experience (CHLLE)
What happens when you enhance an already-successful African American Student Leadership Experience (AASLE) by building in opportunities for coalition building with other students of color? You get a partnership with the Asian American/Pacific Islander Leadership Experience (AAPILE) and Chicano/Hispanic/Latino Leadership Experience (CHLLE).
AAPILE and CHLLE celebrated its inaugural experiences on January 5-8, 2017, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. More than two dozen AAPILE and CHLLE students from eight colleges and universities across the country came together as part of a group of more than 200 AASLE students. Students engaged in conversation with key leaders, including Felipe Luciano, American poet, community activist, journalist, media personality, and politician. As a former chairman of the New York chapter of the Young Lords Party (the Puerto Rican counterpart to the Black Panther Party), Mr. Luciano energized students to recognize the beauty and power of uniting with our brothers and sisters across communities of color.
Students took part in workshops focused on topics such as “Leveraging Your Intersectional Identities to Be the Change, Knowing Oneself and Knowing One’s Impact” and “Building Cross-Cultural Connections and Trust. ” AAPILE and CHLLE students heard from Ms. Loren Nadres, humanitarian, activist, social entrepreneur, and Global Operations Officer and Senior Consultant at the World Bank’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit, and Meghan Enriquez, Founder and CEO of TRUE Conversations, LLC (the nation’s platform for facilitating transparent, real, uplifting and empowering conversation around life’s professional and private most stigmatized issues), President of the Asian Business Collective for Women, and an independent consultant with a health and wellness company.
Overall, it was an unforgettable experience during which participants were called “for such a time as this” – a time to realize that we are stronger as a unit than as individual components. AASLE’s partnership with AAPILE and CHLLE allowed for greater synergy and coalition building within communities of color. The 2017 theme, “Be the Change: Global Vision. Global Reach. Global Impact” encouraged delegates to do more than “talk the talk” but left them ready to act as vessels of transformation both domestically and internationally.
Join us this January 4-7, 2018, for the 2nd Annual AAPILE & CHLLE at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel. Click here for more information