Author: Shavalyea

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

My experience at AASLE was really amazing, and I must say that the African American Student Leadership Experience was indeed an exceptional life-changing experience. I was fortunate to have been a part of a blissful weekend of tutoring, learning, networking and fellowship. In the course of the experience, I learnt so many things, but two key points stroked my passion as a student leader and as an individual at that time. “I was made to understand how important it is to do more than I was already doing.” I would like to quote Dr. JaNay Queen, she said “some of us shouldn’t be here today based on statistics and predictions, but guess what, we are here. We are here because we are survivors, we are strong-willed, we have love, and we are the future.” I developed the consciousness of becoming a game changer; I knew I had to strive towards transformational leadership. I was taught that if I wanted to be a good leader, I had to be young and stay young. Not just young physically but young at heart…

Dr Njeri also shared that as a leader in whatever position, we learn a lot of life and leadership lessons, so we must have a goal, learn how to fulfill promises and also how to get people to share in our goal.’
“Today, I understand that running for a position is not about me or my self-interest, it’s about service and the people I want to lead.”

I left Washington, DC with a changed mind-set, I knew I had to consciously impact lives and leave a mark everywhere I went and that is what I have done. Before graduating from AUN, I served in several student leadership positions and represented the University around the World to the best of my abilities. Since graduation, I have started Kintsukoroi, a foundation to help out with counselling and empowerment for the vulnerable population of children and women displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. God has really done so much for me, and the least I can do is to put smiles on every face around me and leave people better than I met them. I didn’t let my history determine my future, and today my testimony is boundless. I credit my experience at AASLE with opening my eyes and challenging me to be a better ME!

Respectfully Submitted,

Blessing Douglas, AASLE Alumna
American University of Nigeria