Our 11th Annual Asian American Community Development Conference took place Nov. 9, 2018 at the Asia Society. Participants engaged in lively and illuminating conversations about critical issues facing our communities. AAFE co-hosted with the Asian American Federation.

The conference kicked off with a presentation by Howard Shih of the Asian American Federation, “Asian Poverty: Challenges in Community Development,” which set the stage for the policy discussions that took place later in the afternoon. You can read the full version of the report here.

Our first panel delved into the contentious debate around admissions at New York City’s specialized high schools and addressed potential strategies for making our schools more equitable for all students. The panel was moderated by Adam Lubinsky, the facilitator, Brooklyn District 15’s Middle School Diversity Working Group and Managing Partner of WXY Studio. Panel members included: Josh Wallack, Deputy Chancellor of Early Childhood Education and Student Enrollment at the Department of Education; David Lee, Founder of CoalitionEDU, a network of alumni, students and parents who support the examination policy for admission to New York’s Specialized High Schools; Jason Wu, a graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School vocal advocate for the city’s reform plan; and Lynn Shon, STEM teacher at Middle School 88 in Park Slope; member of Brooklyn District 15 School Diversity Working Group.

The second panel took on the issue of Civic Engagement in Immigrant Communities. It was an interesting conversation, just three days after the Midterm elections. Panel members included: Steve Choi, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition; Suman Raghunathan, Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT); Theo Oshiro, Deputy Director, Make the Road New York; and Hua Hsu, Staff Writer at The New Yorker, author of the recent article, “The Rise and Fall of Affirmative Action,” and Associate Professor and Director of Program on American Studies, Vassar College.

We have posted the videos from the conference below.