Dear MAASU members,

It is time to start the next MAASU program! From now until March 31st MAASU will be helping an organization called Feeding America. This organization provides food for low income families in the United States for many years now. Participating schools will collect as many canned goods as possible. At the end of the program all canned goods will be donated to the Feeding America branches in your area. Last year, the University of Minnesota collected over 8,000 canned goods, which is an amazing feat.

This is another opportunity for you to compete against other Midwest schools for a free MAASU membership for one year! We highly encourage everyone to participate in this program to help others in need.

For more information about the program and Feeding American, please download the canned food drive proposal here. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to contact our Programming Co-Chairs (virixz@gmail.com & anthony.nguyen14@gmail.com)!

Dear MAASU members,

The deadline for the Habitat for Humanity Challenge is next Sunday, January 31st. Please get your pictures, hours, etc. to our Programming Co-Chairs (virixz@gmail.com & anthony.nguyen14@gmail.com) to be considered for the prize of free one-year MAASU membership for your school!

Hear what member school Mizzou has learned from their volunteer experience with Habitat for Humanity:

Even if you're unable to participate in the program before the deadline, we hope you and your APIA organizations will volunteer in your local communities if you don't already. Be on the look out for another program from MAASU soon!

Dear MAASU members,

We know you are all eager to find out more about MAASU 2010 Spring Conference (SC) "Make it Count" at OSU, especially to set your budgets. Registration will start around $40 and hotel rooms will range $80-100. The website and registration will be up soon! Thanks so much for your patience.

MAASU would like to invite you to apply for two awards that will be recognized at the SC banquet:

Charles Chang Leadership Award: In honor of the founder of MAASU, this award is given to an individual student who has demonstrated leadership and dedication to the APIA community. The recipient will receive a $500 scholarship and plaque.

Board of Advisors Award: Each year this award recognizes one APIA student organization or school that has made great accomplishments and efforts on their campus and in the MAASU community.

Click the links for more information about the awards, the selection criteria, and how to apply for the awards. The deadline for all applications and nomination forms will be due February 26th, 2010 and to receive the awards you must be present at MAASU 2010 SC.

We look forward to receiving your applications...and look out for the SC website soon! :)

Happy New Year, MAASU!

We wanted to share with you all a great internship opportunity from May 24 – August 13, 2010 in DC!

OCA, a national organization dedicated to ensuring social justice for Asian Pacific Americans (APA). The OCA Summer Internship Program engages interns with numerous activities to bring to life all that Washington, DC has to offer. In addition, OCA will bring the interns to our annual national convention, the largest APA conference in the country. The 2010 convention will be in Houston from June 17-20. The convention will feature speakers, entertainment, workshops, and our signature gala. Applicants are strongly encouraged to make sure they are able to attend convention.

Summer interns will be placed at a paid full-time position in a federal agency, nonprofit, or congressional office that matches their interest. Interns can also be placed at the OCA National Center and work first-hand with one of the largest APA organizations in the country. In addition to their placement, summer interns will be highly engaged in many OCA activities and be involved with grassroots organizing. All OCA summer interns are also required to research, create, and present a campus action plan before the conclusion of the internship. Interns are expected to identify an issue, challenge, or problem on their campus and to organize and develop solutions to address their issue.

For more information and the application, go to OCA’s website at www.ocanational.org and click “Internship” under “Programs.” Applications for the summer internship are due March 1, 2010.

Please contact the OCA National Center at (202)-223-5500 or iho@ocanational.org if you have any questions! Good luck and please share this opportunity with friends who may be interested as well!

Please check out our MAASU November 2009 Newsletter! Read about the Leadership Retreat at Whitewater, the Habitat for Humanity program, "Anything But Clothes" @ University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma States' Ropes Course, Homecoming @ University of St. Thomas, the Fulbright Fellowship for MAASU Alumni, and more!

peace, love, & maasu

Hello, everyone!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving break with your friends and family, enjoying yummy Eastern and Western food...

Before you get caught up in finals and winter break, we just wanted to remind you that our Habitat for Humanity program will be going on until the end of January! Please get your schools involved to represent MAASU across the Midwest, give back to your community, and possibly get one free year of membership for your school! :) Download the proposal for more information and create a flyer to get your school involved!

Learn about our upcoming newsletter from our PR Co-Chairs David and Kha, with a special guest to explain the Habitat program, in our very first VLog for November 2009!

Stay warm!

peace, love, & maasu

Hello everyone!

A very special thank you to the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater (aka "U-dub-dub") planning committee for hosting us and planning such a wonderful Leadership Retreat! This was the first time UWW hosted a MAASU conference, and we saw many familiar and new faces.

"WOW! Congratulations to MAASU LR 2009!! We hope you all gained leadership skills and made some new friends. On behalf of the MAASU Planning Committee from UW-Whitewater, we would like to thank all of you for attending this year’s LR conference. It has been an awesome experience. We hope that you will take what you learned and fuse it into your organizations at your respective institutions. Thank you again for attending and WE will see you all at Spring Conference at The Ohio State University!"
-- Soua Lor and Ka Vang, MAASU 2009 LR Co-Chairs

Post about your experience and how excited you are for the Spring Conference at The Ohio State University!

MAASU 2009-2010 Executive Coordinating Committee at LR

It's important for us to stay abreast with Asian American issues. Be sure to read up on Nobel Prize recipient Professor Charles Kuen Kao and Representative Anh 'Joseph' Cao in the MAASU blog. Also download the Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP) 2009 APA Representation on Fortune 100 Boards (right click and save as) to learn about absence of APAs on corporate boards.

We look forward to seeing everyone again in April at OSU! In the meantime...

• Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and help your school get one year of free MAASU membership!
Make a flyer to get your school involved.
The last day to submit your hours for the competition is January 31, 2010.
• Start thinking about bidding for 2010 LR/2011 SC or applying for the Executive Coordinating Committee
E-mail us with any questions or interest.
• Join our Facebook group and post your pictures from LR
• Become a MAASU member school and/or encourage other Midwest schools to do so.
• Submit your APIA org updates to our PR chairs so they can feature you in future newsletters.
• E-mail us your APIA org website so we can add you to the Links page.

Look out for future updates on here, remember to stay in touch/network with everyone you met this weekend, and we'll see ya'll in 5 months at SC!

Peace, Love, & MAASU :)

MAASU is proud to announce that its first newsletter and service program have been released for the 2009-2010 school year!

Download the October 2009 MAASU Newsletter and find interviews, LR updates, words from our ECC Chair & Director, as well as many other neat things on the APIA movement in the Midwest!

From now until November 1st, MAASU will be helping the non-profit Habitat for Humanity (HFH) in a little competition! Participating schools that log in the most amounts of volunteer hours throughout the month of October will be announced as HFH Champs at MAASU LR! We highly encourage everyone to participate in our MAASU On Campus program. This will be a great opportunity for everyone to help families who are in need of a home, and volunteering for HFH as a part of MAASU and your own APIA organizations will show your communities that Asian Americans are also caring members of American society. MAASU’s goals involve breaking down barriers and we believe that this proposal is a step in the right direction. So grab your hammer, put on your tool belt and have fun! Download the program proposal to learn about logging hours, your local HFH chapters, and more! Feel free to edit this flyer template to spread the word!

Also, early registration for MAASU 2009 LR @ the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater ends THIS FRIDAY, October 9th. Register now at lr.maasu.org to benefit from discounted registration and ensure your school name is printed on the official LR t-shirts!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to time constraints, schools in the process of applying for MAASU membership for early registration may go ahead and register early by Friday's deadline as long as your membership form is received by Monday, October 12th. Please be sure to write in the "Special Needs/Comments" section of your registration form "I am registering as a member school, but my school has just mailed our membership form and payment on ##/##/##" to be eligible for this special consideration. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Be sure to read our action-packed first newsletter, participate in the Habitat for Humanity program and maybe become the HFH Champ at LR, and register for LR! See you in a few weeks at Whitewater!