Community Dinner 2022
APASA’s annual Community Dinner, as told from the perspective of Minah Yang, our External Community Chair, Anthony Xu, one of our APASA interns, and Charley Kim, our Web Development Director.
Despite the obstacles we faced in planning Community Dinner, from COVID pushing the first two weeks of school online, to a postponed date that caused complications with our venue and guest list, the night we had been preparing for all semester was finally here. As our professional guests and student attendees trickled in, the smooth jazz playing in the background was quickly joined by excited chatter.
The weeks leading up to Community Dinner were quite the whirlwind. The sudden shift to an online start to our semester pushed back our event indefinitely, sending the committee into a slight panic as we considered our options moving forward. Luckily, our two weeks over Zoom were not extended, and soon enough we were back on track to opening up our spring programming in person, even if we had a postponed date and some new guests.
That might’ve been why TCC Forum was filled with such a lively atmosphere as soon as the doors opened; after a difficult start to the semester, everyone seemed eager to meet and talk to new faces. While people strolled in, our committee worked hard amidst the buzz of voices to make sure our guests could find their way to the venue.
After everyone was seated, our stylish emcees for the night Brian and Kimberle took the stage to kick off the event and introduce our guests for the evening:
Meet our guests! Pictured from left to right: Aileen Kim, Benson Trenh, Haylie Chu, James Choi, Jeanne Jo, Jerry Won, Kent Nguyen, Ken Tsumura, Komal Dhingsa, Mary C. Jordan, Nisha Randhava, Ragini Bhasin, Rashelle Nagata
We were fortunate enough to have 14 professionals from several different companies, including Google, Jubilee, and Meta come to speak with students and share their experiences navigating the post-college world and their relationship with their APIDA identity.
After our emcees introduced each of our guests and gave a quick overview of the itinerary for the night, it was time for the rounds of small-table discussions to start! For each round, students were given 5 minutes to decide which professional they wanted to speak to, and then had 15 minutes to speak to the guest about anything they wanted to ask or hear about. Conversation topics ranged from general questions surrounding identity and career changes to more specialized topics based on each guest’s respective industry. After three rounds of seated conversations, students were given another 15 minutes of free networking time to talk to all of the professionals they were unable to talk to during the first three rounds.
Before we knew it, it was time to wrap up our event! Our emcees announced the winners of our raffle prizes, which included a face mask set, a 2022 planner, a Hydro Flask, and a mini Herschel backpack. Though COVID restrictions prevented us from being able to eat dinner during the event, we handed out prepackaged meals from Manas and bottled mocktails to attendees as they left.
Another incredible event with great conversations! Massive thanks to our amazing guests who took the time out of their busy schedules to talk to our attendees, Manas for providing food and the Community Dinner committee for planning and running the event. Thanks to everyone who came out and looking forward to another great Community Dinner next year!