Asian American Journalists Association

We’re excited to officially welcome our newest board member, Lauren Kawana! Lauren was the former president of AAJA Hawaii, and is a graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism as well as a previous AAJA-SF scholarship awardee. We are delighted to have her on the team.

Here’s her candidate statement with more details on her background and why she wanted to serve:

I have served a term as a board member and a term as the president of the Hawaii AAJA chapter before moving here to the Bay Area in 2012. Previously the managing editor of a business & lifestyle magazine in Hawaii, I moved to the Bay to pursue documentary film and now work for two local documentary production companies. I love the AAJA community and its mission to celebrate fairness and diversity in journalism. I would be happy to further its reach and goals in 2016 as an at-large board member.

In addition to Lauren, we have three returning board members to celebrate: National Rep Kevin Lee, Secretary Christine Hsu, VP of Broadcast Anny Hong and Treasurer Quynh Tran. We’re so happy you will be serving on the board once again!

Here’s a recent board picture that almost has all of us in it (we missed you, Anny!):

From left to right: Ravi Kapur, Donna Tam, Quynh Tran, Christine Hsu, Lauren Kawana and Kevin Lee.

One last and very important thing: At-Large Board Member Ling Woo Liu and VP of Print Tomio Geron have stepped down this year. We are sad to see them go, but so grateful for their service. Thanks again for all your hard work!

AAJA-SF is excited to announce that we are hosting the 2015 National AAJA Convention! Although it’s a year away, plans are already underway to make sure the Bay Area gives our colleagues from the rest of the country (and Asia!) the best experience possible.

AAJA-SF will present a promotional video of next year’s convention this August at the national convention in Washington D.C., and we’ve decided to do a bit of crowd-sourcing for our video.

The idea, inspired by AAJA National President Paul Cheung, is a parody of the viral video “#SELFIE,” by The Chainsmokers (AKA “But first, let me take a selfie”).

For the next two weeks, AAJA-SF is gathering #AAJAselfie photos/video for our convention video. We’d really love to see members taking selfies at their favorite Bay Area landmarks or in their newsrooms/offices, but most of all, we want to include as many members as possible. So, please, got out there and take those selfies. Tag them #AAJAselfie and have fun! Put them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or just email them to us.

We’ll take whatever selfies are taken by July 28th and put them in our video. If you have any questions, contact 2015 Convention Co-chairs Donna Tam and Kevin Lee at donnytam@gmail.com and eelnivek@gmail.com.

Need some ideas? Here’s a few Bay Area “landmarks” we’d love to see photos of:

The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter is offering grants of up to $500 each to help local members attend this year’s AAJA Convention in Washington DC.

This year’s convention is your chance to go to the nation’s capital and connect with other AAJA members. Interested in developing your mobile reporting skills? Considering a move into the freelance world? Need your resume critiqued? The convention program has you covered.

Register for the convention here.

The San Francisco Bay Area chapter offers convention grants each year to help our members pay for registration, travel and lodging expenses. The awards are based on need and your interest in helping out the chapter. (Interested in volunteering? Email board member Tomio Geron at tgeron AT gmail dot com).

Deadline to apply for a convention grant is MONDAY, JULY 1, 2014 TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014! 

To apply for a grant, please fill out and submit your application online. You will be notified that your application has been received. You will be required to show proof of registration for the conference and be asked to volunteer at the convention.