MAASU LS RECAP
By Hoyon Mephokee
MAASU Fall Leadership Summit took place this year on November 12, 2016 at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Among the attendees were those from The Ohio State University, University of Missouri, Ball State University, University of Minnesota-Duluth, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. The format of the Leadership Summit was much like that of any other conference. However, from personal experience, the LS was much smaller and more intimate than the Spring Conferences that I was used to. The Friday night check-in mixer had food and games, a low-key way for us to get to know students from other schools. This was a welcome atmosphere, and I had a great time meeting fellow APIAs from across the midwest.
The opening ceremony included speeches from Phan Le, chair of the LS Planning Committee, Daphne Yu, executive chair of the MAASU Executive Coordinating Committee, and guest speaker Joseph Bokum Lee, MD, MAT. Joseph is a pediatric resident and dual masters of public policy candidate at the University of Chicago,
where he serves as a representative on the Diversity
Diversity and Inclusion Trainee Committee. He spoke briefly about himself before talking about the importance of getting, and staying involved and of securing mentors. He talked about the anger that many college students feel when they see or experience incidents of hate and bias, and the importance of internalizing that anger and fire. This was what stuck out the most to me - the need to internalize this fire, and the fact that we had to take action on our campuses now, because it takes only one person to spur change. If not us, then who? If not now then when?
Being of the Executive Coordinating Committee, I was only able to attend my first and third workshops, as the second workshop period was for the ECC to meet with the M-Reps and other APIA leaders. This meeting was very well received by me and by the other attendees. We talked about the climate on our campuses, various problems that our campuses faced and how to address them, as well as more specific issues that our respective student organizations were experiencing. We talked about problems with member retention, finances and funding, with our
"If not us, then who? If not now then when?"
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