IMPORTANT NEWS AND EVENTS

At the beginning of each month, this section will post important news and events pertaining to AAPA students, such as professional opportunities, awards and grants, and current literature in Asian American psychology.

July 2008

Congratulations to 2008 AAPA Leadership Fellows. DoS sends a warm congratulations to Richelle Concepcion, Karen Cone-Uemura, Sam Wan, and Paul Wang for their great leadership and service to AAPA.

Summer 2008 Newsletter. Check out the new edition of our newsletter by following this  link. Thanks to Drs. Emma Phan and Chun-Chung Choi for editing this issue.   

Student Volunteer Opportunity. Patricia Lee (happyleep@yahoo.com) and Matthew Lee (leem4@ohio.edu), Volunteer Coordinators for the AAPA conference would like to invite you to become student volunteers. We currently need volunteers to help with staffing different aspects of the annual conference, including the registration table, the book sale, the mentor-mentee lunch, and the awesome AAPA Awards Banquet. If you are interested in volunteering, you may have already ticked the box on the online registration form, however if you missed the box or would still like to volunteer, please send both of us your name and email contact information.

AAPA 2008 Convention Registration. Online registration for the 2008 AAPA Convention is now available here. The convention will take place August 13th, 2008 at the Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston. Deadline for early registration and awards banquet is July 23rd. Find the convention program here.

AAPA 2008 Convention Book Promotion. AAPA members who have published books in the immediate past year (August 1, 2007 to August 1, 2008) that are primarily about Asian Americans or Asian American psychology are invited to have their contributions featured at the convention. For further inquiries, please contact Conference Co-Chairs Doris Chang (changd@newschool.edu) or Grace Kim (grace_kim1@yahoo.com). 

Call for Papers. Association for Asian American Studies Annual Conference. The conference theme is “Challenging Inequalities: Nations, Races, and Communities. The conference will be held April 22-26, 2009 in Honolulu, and deadline submit is October 31, 2008. Please visit their website if you are interested.

Current Literature in Asian American Psychology. As a resource for students, a listing of articles using “Asian American” as a PsycInfo keyword will be provided each month. The following articles are from June 2008:

McKown, C., & Weinstein, R. S. (2008). Teacher expectations, classroom context, and the achievement gap. Journal of School Psychology, 46(3), 235-261. 

Ozer, E. J., Cantor, J. P., Cruz, G. W., Fox, B., Hubbard, E., & Moret, L. (2008). The diffusion of youth-led participatory research in urban schools: The role of the prevention support system in implementation and sustainability. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(3-4), 278-289. 

Cho, S., Hudley, C., Lee, S., Barry, L., & Kelly, M. (2008). Roles of gender, race, and SES in the college choice process among first-generation and nonfirst-generation students. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 1(2), 95-107. 

Lewis, R. S., Goto, S. G., & Kong, L. L. (2008). Culture and context: East asian american and european american differences in P3 event-related potentials and self-construal. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(5), 623-634. 

Sy, S. R., & Brittian, A. (2008). The impact of family obligations on young women's decisions during the transition to college: A comparison of latina, european american, and asian american students. Sex Roles, 58(9-10), 729-737. 

Brown, B. B., Herman, M., Hamm, J. V., & Heck, D. J. (2008). Ethnicity and image: Correlates of crowd affiliation among ethnic minority youth. Child Development, 79(3), 529-546. 

Zhang, J., & Wang, Z. (2008). Factors associated with smoking in asian american adults: A systematic review. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 10(5), 791-801.

I am honored to be elected the 2006-2008 AAPA Student Representative and Board Member. I hope that during my term I can represent the needs of AAPA students in efforts to solidify our vision of student solidarity, connection, representation, mentorship and development. AAPA has always been a welcome home for students. In my experience the AAPA executive committee has worked hard to meet the needs of students so that students can grow to become the future of our profession and community. We are fortunate to be surrounded by many brilliant and inspiring professionals, whether that is in the area of research, practice, or advocacy. In return, I hope that I too can contribute to that vision and the development of future students. I will do my very best to continue the great contributions made by my predecessors, much of which we have the fortunate opportunity to build upon and gain from their respective wisdoms and experiences.  

As Student Representative, I plan to continue the work started by those who have come before me. For instance, my main objective during my term was to solidify the foundation and functioning of the recently formed Division of Students (DoS). Through the Division we have already made many great strides due to the hard efforts and dedication of the DoS executive committee. For instance we are working on the following: (i) to serve as a support system and resource for all AAPA students, (ii) to provide and solidify a mentoring program that extends beyond the mentoring opportunities and connections formed at the national annual AAPA convention, (iii) to provide funding and recognition to student achievements in the form of awards that will be announced on an annual basis at the convention in three main areas (Leadership, Service & Advcacy), (iv) to develop the student section of the website so that the visibility of students is extended and so that the website is more useful for all AAPA students from all areas of the profession, (v) to provide an easier and use friendly approach for students to gain access to and to disseminate information relevant to student issues in the form of the AAPADoS listserv, and (vi) to give back to the community in the form of fund raisers on an annual basis. My hope is that each of these endeavors will provide various opportunities for students to get involved in and to connect with the larger association. Each of these efforts can also provide students with the foundation and springboard towards making their own marks in their career with the comfort of knowing that there will always be this safe home base of supporters.    

My commitment is to foster the student community and to focus on the well-being of student members. The formation of the Division illustrates AAPA's commitment to its student members and its responsiveness to our needs. I urge you to take advantage of these various opportunities and feel free to take ownership of the division, the website, and the listserv as a vehicle of getting involved.

My visions and ability to serve this position well is only as good as your participation will allow. I welcome your ideas, suggestions, and feedback. Your voice is important and I'm here to serve you. Please do not hesitate to contact me. This community is ours to build together!

Arpana “Annie” Gupta, M.Ed.

Student Spotlight