APPRIZEsian American Association Newsletter

January 2011

Welcome Back!

JAN11 | APPRIZE 1

Hello Everyone!!

My name is Dharani Ramanathan and I am the Internal Vice President of the Asian American Association for the 2010-2011 school year!

Some basic facts about me are that I’m a senior and am majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology. So if you ever want questions about classes and what to

take, I could probably be of some help. Some of my interests include tennis, movies, hanging out with friends, AAA events, shopping, baking, knitting, books

photography and the list could probably go on forever. If you ever want to stalk me, you can probably find me hanging around the AAA office during my off time or at AAA events. Definitely come by the AAA office at the union located on the second floor quad side!!! We would love to hang out with you guys there, and it’s always

more fun with more people, so come and also drag a friend along!

Before you guys get involved, you are probably wondering how I got involved in AAA. I joined AAA through fashion show my freshman year. I did not even know

how to dance, but the reason I joined was I heard the song that formal scene was dancing to Yiruma’s Kiss the Rain and I was hooked! I had to join. The reason I

stayed however were for the people of AAA. They welcomed me with open arms and were very friendly towards new members. They would just randomly invite me

to things, plan dinner together and so forth. AAA was a place that fit right for me and was where I was comfortable. I also made most of my best friends in college

through AAA.

As freshman definitely explore your options and have fun with it. Have a goal, or a purpose when looking for new clubs. Randomly tag along with a friend to an

event or just go yourself and try to meet new people. Try something you thought you never would do, like I did with Fashion show. College is a great experience

and will fly past you very quickly. Don’t think it is ever too late to go to an event or get involved. Take every opportunity that college offers you. Don’t every regret you

didn’t do something because you were apprehensive. Go to new events, take a friend along, do something adventurous, or do something you love. Campus has

tons to offer you and all you have to do is explore the opportunities. No matter what you do, AAA or not, definitely enjoy your college experience and experience

it to the fullest! And if you do join AAA come say hi cause I would love to meet you guys!!!

Your Internal Vice President,Dharani Ramanathan

Hello!Welcome back from break! Hope everyone caught up on sleep and delicious, home-made food! I’m really excited to bring you guys our fi rst issue of 2011!

As you may have noticed, we have gone through a name change along with the change of Newsletter Chairs. If you were wondering, “apprize” means to inform. I look forward to apprizing the AAA community of events and other information that may be relevent to your interests.

We have a lot in store for the second semester, ranging from regional conferences to events on campus enriching your knowledge on Asian American issues, as well as free food.

Also, we’ll be bringing the newsletter to an online format as well as the standard paper issue. The online blog will be kept up-to-date regularly and will include many things that are not in the paper issue. So keep an eye out for that!

Have a rockin’ start to the semester! :D

~Winnie

A Word from the Internal Vice President

thanks to:

Cindy Lam, Daniel Wang, Dharani Ramanathan, Joe Man, Junmin Luo, Kim Mok, Nathan Cheng, Ran He, Sarah Hsu, Suran Yoo, Victoria Pippins, Vince Lam, and whomever else I took facebook pictures from... for making this issue possible! :)

JAN11 | APPRIZE 2

Meet the New Officers!

Sports chair

Newsletter Chair

Year: FreshmanMajor: Computer ScienceMinor: Don’t knowNickname: I think Little Spoon was made official :D

Favorite Thing about AAA: All the people in it!

If you could live on any planet, which one would it be and why?I think I would choose the good ol’ Earth because every other planet is barren and terrible.

Favorite motto?“Each of us must be the change we want to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Year: JuniorMajor(s): Political Science

Minor(s): Architectural Studies/Global Labor RelationsNickname(s): Pooh Bear, winniepooh

Favorite Thing(s) about AAA: The people and events

Describe yourself using an animal, and element on the periodic table, and a common household object:

Bunny, manganese, lamp

Favroite motto: “Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.” -Plato

DANIEL WANG

WINNIE CHENG

JAN11 | APPRIZE 3

What’s That? by Katy Pippins

This winter break I was amazed by technology. My dad and brother are real video gamenerds at times. This year they bought the Kinect for xbox. It is the coolest thing I have ever seen. This devices uses a motion sensor and camera to let your body become the remote control. It was amazing. You can control what your avatar does in the game. There are several different games that work with the kinect. My family has only played three: Dance Central, Kinect Adventures, and Joy Ride.

Dance Central is pretty obvious, it allows you to DANCE!! I loved it but I may be a little bias because I love dancing in general. It is pretty simple. You have an avatar that demonstrates the dance moves and then you just follow along. It also has a freestyle portion in the middle of each dance where you shake your thing and then the camera will play back your moves. However the kinect has a hilarious little surprise. When it plays back your freestylin’ moves, the kinect speeds up the playback time. This was the source of entertainment and humiliation for several hours for my family this winter break. But this is only one of the mind blowing games we dabbled in, Kinect Adventures was also astounding.

Kinect Adventures has many different little games that involving ducking, dodging, jumping, and hitting. One of these games is called 20,000 leaks where your avatar is in a glass box under the ocean and you must plug any leaks caused by evil little fi sh. Some times you get a bunch of leaks that cause you to use your head, knees, elbows and an other body part to plug the leak. This game is just as fun to play as it is to watch.

But this is only one of the fi ve games Kinect Adventures offers. River Rush is a game where you use your body to control a raft in a river while collecting coins for points. Sometimes you even have to jump to avoid obstacles in the river. The entire time you are playing the kinect is taking pictures of what you look like as you maneuver through the course. These are only two of the fi ve games the Kinect Adventures has and boy is it fun. But there is one thing the Kinect Adventures doesn’t have and that is cars. Luckily there is another game for kinect called JoyRide.

Joy Ride is a racing game … zoom, zoom baby. There are regular racing tracks, battle racing, and stunts and tricks. The fun thing about the racing is using your body to control the car. The battle racing also vaguely reminds me of Mario Kart. You can also do a stunt and trick show where you have to pose like your avatar to make the car do a trick. The more races you win and the more stunts you pull off allows you to unlock and trick out your own unique car for your avatar to drive. If you are a gamer or someone who likes to get up and move, I defi nitely suggest trying out this new mind blowing toy. What could be cooler than using your own body as aremote to control your avatar? Maybe actually being in the game like the movie Gamer or Tron, but who knows it could be right around the corner.

by Katy Pippins

This winter break I was amazed by technology. My dad and brother are real video gamenerds at times. This year

JAN11 | APPRIZE 4

2011 has been great so far. I started off the year by going to someone’s birthday party, and then a week later, I would go on my first cruise ever. We have been planning this ever since last summer. The night before this vacation, I could hardly sleep because I was so excited to go on vacation with my close friends. :D

It was a 5-day cruise, with stops at Grand Caymen, Caymen Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico. Cruises are super fun. It was basically non-stop eating for 5 days. I had so much food that I was full all the time. All the food was great. The only downside was that all the dessert looks so pretty but only some tasted good.

There were also plenty of activities to do on the boat. There was mini golf, ping pong, wa-ter slides, pool, hot tub, shopping at the sou-venir stores, watching shows at the different lounges , and of course, the casino.

We watched a couple comedy shows in dif-ferent lounges. They were so funny. We also gambled at the casino a couple time. There were some wins and losses. But overall every-thing was so much fun. I would recommend that you should experience a cruise at least once in your lifetime.

While the cruise was fun and all, I did get seasick a couple of times, especially during the night time when the boat would be moving at a higher speed. So if you do go on a cruise in the future, make sure to have medicines, seabands, or sea patches!

Now that vacation is over, it’s back to reality, back to the cold weather, and back to school. On the bright side, there’s only two more months until Spring Break. :D

My Winter Vacation! :)by Cindy Lam

JAN11 | APPRIZE 5

Ambassadors 2011 with AAA @ UIUC CampusOutreach Chairs: Suran Yoo and Junmin Luo (suranyoo@illinois.edu, luo11@illinois.edu)

Hello fellow students and welcome to a new year of fresh starts, ideas, memories, and friendships!

As your beloved outreach chairs for AAA, Junmin and I are super excited to launch and share with youour annual fantabulous spring program called Ambassadors: We Are.

I know, SUPER PUMPED RIGHT?!?!?!

Us too, us too.

But before you start jumping off the walls like we just did, let me give you that extra adrenaline pump by telling you what exactly goes down:

1. What exactly is Ambassadors?

It is a program started by past AAA president Jennifer Lo to guide individuals to be more knowledgeable and informative about Asian American history and issues. The program then gives students tools to make a diff erence in the campus and community through Asian Americanawareness.

2. What does it mean to be an Ambassador?

Ambassadors take part in 3 mini-conferences (each 3-4 hours long) this spring that are held by highly qualifi ed mentors and occur once a month in February, March, and April. Each present an Asian American related topic and for a couple of the conferences, we will follow up with an outreach event where students can apply their knowledge and make a diff erence in their personal lives as well as with their community and country. And yes, you read it here – the program is completely FREE! At the end of the program, participants will walk away with a certifi cate and a binder to reference what you learned and the knowledge that you can make a diff erence.

3. What are the benefi ts to be an Ambassador?

- become more informed about Asian American issues- boost up your professional resume- get involved in the campus and community through outreach and philanthropy- gain leadership experience- gain training experience for future conferences and mentoring- get involved in the APA community and AAA- network with professors, TAs, and community leaders- make lasting friendships- be able to help peers in real life with problems or questions

JAN11 | APPRIZE 6

4. How do I become an Ambassador?

We will have two information sessions in the month of January (TBA, check your e-mails!) to answer any questions you have as well as have registration sheets. While students are NOT obligated to commit to all 3 sessions, we highly encourage you to full advantage of Ambassadors. Also, the certifi cate and future mentorship is rewarded only to those students who complete the entire program.If you are unable to attend the information sessions (TBA), you can also sign up by sending an e-mail to either outreach chairs with: 1. Your full name and year 2. Status in AAA (offi cer, shadow, fanatic member, non-member, etc.) 3. Which sessions you intend to attend (when announced, check for e-mails) 4. A short paragraph about why you would like to participate in Ambassadors

As this has been a popular program in the past, I highly encourage you to sign up as soon as possible either through e-mail or after the information sessions. Spots will fi ll up fast!

Wow! What else can I say?!?!? Now, I will give you a brief moment to go jump off the walls!!!!!(play amazing pump-up music in background: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNHLywCfnHI)

…......

Actually, that was it hehe. See you all soon and around campus!

With love,

Suran Yoo and Junmin Luo

JAN11 | APPRIZE 7

Livin the AlumNathan Cheng. Cultural Awareness Chair ‘09-’10. Formal Scene Coord. ‘09-’10

It’s been a solid 5 months now since I set foot off campus for the last ti me as a student, and set foot right into the hustle and bustle of the real world. It’s a world completely diff erent from that of a student: it’s a world of no winter breaks, 8 to 5 work days, lack of midterms and fi nals, and going to sleep before—wait for it—midnight. While that may seem completely unfathomable to you right now as you slog your way through another semester of living in UGL/Grainger insert study area of your choice, allow me to give you a sense of what the post-student life (yes, I have a life) is like.

What’s your life like now?

On weekdays, it’s a prett y simple routi ne. I drag my sleepy butt out of bed at the crack of dawn, go to work for 8-9 hours, work out/bum around, and go to sleep. Usually work is draining enough that you might not have the energy to really do much else at night, depending on your profession. Weekends become all the more valuable because of it.

What do you do at work all day?

I stare at a screen all day and watch my bank account infl ate.

Well that was descripti ve. Seriously, what do you do at work all day?

I’m a programmer at Bank of America. I code in Java and work on improving soft ware that traders use to make tons of cash. It’s a prett y interesti ng and challenging job because I’m basically working in both Computer Science and Finance fi elds, neither of which was my original major (Electrical Engineering).

What do you miss most about college?

I think the one thing I miss most about college is the people. Apart from the fact that the majority of my friends are sti ll in college or people I met in college, the college setti ng is also one where social situati ons are readily available, even if it’s something as simple as “studying” in a group for completely unrelated classes in ISR unti l the sun rises. In the work place, unless you consciously set up events and hangouts, social situati ons are harder to come by. You can’t simply stroll down the street in downtown Chicago and run into a bunch of friends heading to class, or just bum around in Union Stati on as if it were the AAA offi ce (well, you could I suppose…). The lack of social opportuniti es has probably been the single biggest adjustment to my lifestyle that I’ve had to make.

JAN11 | APPRIZE 8

m LifeWhat place do you miss most on campus?

Too many places to choose from, but if you put me on the spot about it, I’d have to say the RSO, and specifi cally the AAA offi ce. Having spent two years of my college career hanging out there, doing everything from mingling for half an hour in between classes to working on senior design (NOT something I miss…), that’s probably the kind of place that is the hardest to replace, if it’s replaceable at all, in the real world.

What should everyone do before they graduate?

I’m not privy to everyone’s litt le “bucket lists”, but if you do have one, obviously make sure you do it. If you don’t, just set some ti me aside and think about all the things you’ve meant to do (visit the Japan House, go to C-Street, whatever else it is you like to do) that you haven’t gott en around to. Consciously thinking about it and brainstorming forces you to do something about it. Oh, and take a swim in thealumni fountain when it gets warm out. It’s really nice in there.

Words of wisdomYou may be broke, you may be swamped with work, you may be stressed and brain-fried, but in the end, college is (usually) the most memorable ti me of your life, and where you make the most friends. Use that ti me well and fi nd some ti me to enjoy yourself when you can. You’re only in college once.

Well there you have it, a nice litt le glimpse of my early post-college life. Hope you weren’t scared away by all this real world talk, it’s really not that bad. Enjoy your ti me in college, and I will be on the other side waiti ng for you to join the old guys…I mean graduate.

Less than three,

Nathan

JAN11 | APPRIZE 9

Asian american music

Rocketeer ft. Ryan Tedder- Far East Movement

If You Stay- Joseph Vincent

The Effect Album- Decipher

Be ft. Taiyo Na, Magnetic North, MOVeMedia- afterschoolspecial

Check out these works from Asian Americans!

JAN11 | APPRIZE 10

Ran’s Cook’orner“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”

- Virginia Woolf

Jalapeño Pepper Shrimp

1 lb. shrimp (peeled and deveined)3 jalapeño peppers (sliced and deseeded); use 2 if not a fan of spice2 tsp. lemon juice3 tsp. oil2 stalks scallion (you can also use a medium red onion, chopped)3 cloves minced garlic salt to taste

1. Put oil in a wok on medium heat and wait until almost smoking2. Add garlic and scallions and sauté for about 2 minutes3. Add shrimp and cook until light pink4. Add jalapeno peppers and cook 1 minute5. Add lemon juice and salt to taste

This goes well with pasta too!

Chocolate Chip Blondies

1 cup flour1 tsp. salt1 stick butter (melt and let cool)1/3 cup white sugar1/2 cup brown sugar 1 tsp. vanilla extract1 egg (room temp.)1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat 350 degrees F, spray 8” x 8” pan w/ non-stick spray

1. Mix butter and sugars; add egg, beat, and then add vanilla extract2. Mix in flour and salt until just moist (don’t over-mix!)3. Fold in ½ cup chocolate chips and pour batter into pan (smooth out)4. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top of batter5. Bake ~40 minutes (check 5 minutes prior). Stick a toothpick into the center and if it comes out clean, it’s ready. 6. Cool on rack….haha chyeaa right. Just eat it. I know you can’t resist.

JAN11 | APPRIZE 11

First Semester Wrap-Fa

shio

n S

how

Prac

tice,

Ulti

mat

e Fri

sbee,

Fam

ily O

lym

piad

, AAA

paloo

za, F

ootba

ll Ga

me

JAN11 | APPRIZE 12

-UpFashion S

how FundraiserAlumni W

eekend

JAN11 | APPRIZE 13

Sem

i-For

mal

Offic

er S

ecre

t San

ta, O

ffice

r/Co

ord

Bon

ding

JAN11 | APPRIZE 14

Jan. 22- Canopy “Winter and

Spring” Back to School

Party!

Jan. 28- TASC Winter Wonderland

Semi-Formal

Feb. 2- Lunar New Year!

Sudoku #37 Sudoku #09

AAA MISSION STATEMENT

• To serve and promote the needs of Asian Americans at the University of

Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

• To educate the university and community on current Asian American

issues.

• To promote awareness of Asian American heritage to the University

and community through programming on Asian American history and

culture.

• To provide social activities for Asian American Association members.

• To support and work in coalition with other groups who serve and

protect the Asian American community

contact AAA280 Illini Union (Student Org. Complex) #256http://www.aaauiuc.comaaa.uiuc@gmail.comAIM s/n: AAAUIUC

EXECUTIVE BOARD

PresidentSwetha Ramanathan

External VPBeth Kopacz

Internal VPDharani Ramanathan

TreasurerMike Nyugen

Secretary Mark Chen

sraman21@gmail.com

ekopacz2@illinois.edu

draman2@illinois.edu

nguyen11@illinois.edu

mchen38@illinois.edu

COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Academic/Alumni Cindy Lam Vince LamBig Sib/Lil Sib My Huyen Ho Simon HuynhCultural Awareness Vichaya Chavalit Ju LeeFundraising William ThaiNewsletter Winnie ChengOutreach Junmin Luo Suran YooPhilanthropy Joanne Lau Iris ZhangPublicity Lucy WenSocial Annie Lam Christine LinSports Frank Lin Daniel WangAdvisors Lee Cheung Brian Liu

yinglam2@illinois.edulam6@illinois.edu

huyenho1@illinois.edushuynh3@illinois.edu

chavali1@illinois.edujulee2@illinois.edu

thai3@illinois.edu

cheng24@illinois.edu

luo11@illinois.edusuranyoo@illinois.edu

winglau1@illinois.eduazhang9@illinois.edu

xwen3@illinois.edu

alam8@illinois.edulin97@illinois.edu

lin84@illinois.eduwang371@illinois.edu

lcheung2@illinois.edufliu20@illinois.edu