2016 Pacific Bridges

PACIFIC BRIDGES

COMMUNITY FOR LIFE

Laos Fellows (from left) Sam Stroup (Malaysia ‘14, Laos ‘15, Carriebright ‘16), Kathy Rivera (Laos ‘15), and Steph Kim (Laos ‘15-’16) celebrate Hmong New Year in Xieng Khouang with long-time PiA friend and Lao Rugby colleague Lao Kang (center middle), her sister, and her friend

Notes from our Fellows about their new friends, jobs, and communities in Asia

A note from Executive Director Maggie Dillon + exciting news about the PiA Alumni Network & Website

“Community For Life” ft. Wing on Wo & Co. in Chinatown & Dhamma Moli Nunnery in Yangon

VOICES FIELD FROM

“In the past year, I’ve received much more from my colleagues, rugby community, and friends than what I’ve given myself. My colleagues welcomed me into the Lao Rugby family... I’ve had the chance to meet people in the office, at trainings, and on the pitch who constantly demonstrate what it means to to be dedicated to a cause that’s bigger than themselves and to endure and never give up despite the hardships. Everyday I’m surrounded by people, both at work and outside of it, who have big hearts, who are compassionate and always extending a hand to offer support. I am forever grateful for PiA for introducing me to the people at Lao Rugby and in Laos. Through work, I’ve had the opportunity to interact and collaborate with individuals who are the definition of dedicated and hard working for a selfless cause. Just being in their presence is an honor in and of itself. The 9 Lao fellows of 2015-2016

have been some of the most inspiring, intelligent, unique, and wholesome people I’ve ever met. I still have so much to learn from the people here, and they are the reason why I decided to stay on for another year.”

Stephanie Kim Lao Rugby Federation Vientiane, Laos

“I live alone here. It’s the first time I have done so in my life. For the first few days I would just walk up and down the main street of UB rather than just sit in my room. In each of my first few afternoons, I saw around twenty middle-aged Mongolian men sitting at lunch tables behind the Police Station playing chess. I used to play competitive chess (until a striking defeat in a Southern California tournament to Sky, my chess teacher’s son, which I thought gave him a type of unfair competitive edge. I’ll never relent). Nevertheless, the game is a

point of pride for me, and on my fourth day, I approached the tables expecting to glide to a victory. I got whooped, badly. But two men, without words, took the time to replay several moves for me. They taught me several mistakes in my opening moves. Since then, I’ve gone back and these regulars have warmly welcomed me back. They’re eager to beat me in chess, and then try to explain my errors. They don’t know anything about me past my name, and I can’t pronounce their names well enough to commit them to memory. We bond over the game, over the strategy, over the clandestine maneuvers and their laughter after a swift checkmate. I don’t think I’ll ever be good enough at Mongolian to hold long conversations or discuss the intricacies of a Sicilian Defense -- however I would like to ask them how they are, to learn their names, and let them know that I’m thankful that they invited me in to play a game in their neighborhood.”

Jesse Brooks Institute of Finance and Economics

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Khon Kaen you feel the love that Thailand Fellows Kara Weinstein, Julian Peterson, Celeste Endlich, Jacob Kennedy, Andrea Malleo, Bailey Binke, and Aly Beveridge have for one another?

AIP Foundation Fellows Molly Ellison & Peggy Moriarty (Viet Nam, ‘16) enjoy lunch in Ho Chi Minh City

Wondering what our Fellows are up to in Asia? Take a look at these snippets to find out more about Steph’s rugby family in Laos, Jesse’s chess crew, Mikey’s students, and much more!

Wuhan teaching Fellows Tony Louthan (China ‘15-’16) and Annina Zheng-Hardy (China ‘16) are tickled pink by this delicious pomelo!

Mongolia Fellows Will Danforth, Isabella Bersani, and Jesse Brooks (Mongolia ‘16) in Ulaanbaatar

“After about a year of living in the same neighborhood I developed a strong sense of community with the people in my neighborhood. One of the best parts of my PiA experience was the opportunity to live in a part of the city where I could practice my Chinese everyday, and live as locally as possible. I built up a patchwork community of the people who I encountered on a daily basis. Even though it wasn’t a formalized community, it offered me a sense of belonging and purpose. And that was an integral part of the overall positive experience I had working with PiA.

I became close with the families who ran my favorite restaurants, the apartment building supervisor, the bus driver, the woman who helped me with my bicycle, and so many other individuals throughout the community. I spent time talking and bonding with these folks and developed really positive friendships that made me feel like a local, and made me feel like Hangzhou was my home. I liked that when I came back from a business trip the woman at my local dumpling shop would ask me where I had gone and genuinely cared about how it went. I liked that I knew her whole family and they would always sit and chat with me for a few minutes after I had finished my meal. It was really nice not to feel like an outsider, and to have built up this community of people who mean a lot to me.”

Noah Willingham Zhejiang University of Technology Hangzhou, China

“Having been in Phnom Penh for just over a month now, I have gotten past the ‘acclimation phase.’ This was a selfish phase that involved me learning how to exist and participate in this city. Now, I’m onto a much more open learning phase, during which I realize everyday how little I knew the day before. My personal mission during this year is understanding. I want to understand the folds of this country deeply. I know the stories of the people of this country are rich, varied, and often unbelievable. My inability to share in the Khmer language is a massive obstacle in my learning about their personal histories. I believe learning the stories of the people of Cambodia will define my year here. Learning Khmer will be the most important step I can take in becoming closer to this culture, its people, and their stories.”

Taylor Holloran

ChildFund

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

“Teaching is awesome. I mean it’s like a roller coaster. Or like trying to balance 27 plates with only four limbs and a head. I love it. I’m actually making my first quiz right now - it’s weird to be on the sausages. Kanoa and I have been frequenting a night market close to my place and we just sit on plastic chairs and rave about the food, while surrounded by students and vendors and occasional farangs. Every one just comes together and is excited.”

Katya Alexeeva Payap University

Chiang

Mai, Thailand

“Catherine’s chemistry students invited us to a welcoming party for new students in the department. The “party” was more like a talent showcase, featuring singing, dancing, Catherine and a student in a viola-accordion duet, Gerard singing Kesha, and Catherine and I battling it out for musical chairs champ.”

Amalya Megerman Shihezi University Shihezi, China

Vi Thanh Fellow Megan Szurgot (Viet Nam, ‘16) with her colleagues on Women’s Day

PiA alum Alex Ward (Philippines ‘15) and current PiA Fellow Eric Johnson (Philippines ‘16) at the Hinrich Foundation in Manila

Luang Prabang Film Festival Fellows Jessica Arce and Eliza Mott (Laos ‘16) jumping for joy with supervisor Gabriel (and Obama)

Clockwise from top-left: YK Pao Fellows Kai Richter (China ‘16), Pete Mihalcik (China ‘15-’16), and Shannon Griffin (China ‘16) at school in Shanghai; teaching Fellow Kaylin Blount (China ‘16) with a friend in Jishou, China; Fellow Robin Palmer (Kazakhstan ‘15-’16) with her students at KIMEP University in Almaty

UPDATES FROM HQ: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MAGGIE DILLON

Dear Friends of PiA:

Every fall, the PiA team crisscrosses the continent in an effort to visit every PiA Fellow and partner in Asia, as well as to re-connect and catch up with our alumni and friends who call towns and cities across Asia home. Whether they are lending a couch or a comfy bed to crash on (or a mosquito net to crash under!), lending a ride on their motorbike or helping us hail a finger cab in Almaty, leading us to the best xiaolongbao stall at the night market or treating us to the best string hopper biriyani in town, our Fellows, partners, alumni and friends never fail to make us weary travelers feel welcome and at home.

At PiA, we talk about the word “community” a lot. We invite applicants to reflect on the concept of community in their applications, asking them “What is the best community you have ever been a part of?” We discuss community in our interviews with potential applicants, asking them what they hope to learn from their new communities in Asia and how they want to contribute to their communities later in life. We emphasize the importance of building and maintaining interdependent communities at orientation and throughout our Fellows’ experiences in Asia, underscoring the service ethos of PiA: community always comes first.

Community is indeed so important to us that it’s one of the main pillars of our tagline: “A change in perspective. A job that matters. Community for life.” In this edition of Pacific Bridges, we’ll be focusing on “community for life,” and celebrating the unique and special communities PiAers are a part of, immerse themselves in, create, and contribute to throughout their lifetimes. First, though, some updates on, you guessed it, the PiA community:

New Partners

This fall, we are thrilled to welcome a host of new partners to the PiA community, including: American University of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan), Dhamma Moli International Buddhist Education Center (Myanmar), Global Environmental Initiative (China), International Water Management Institute (Nepal), Lake House (Sri Lanka), Luang Prabang Film Festival (Laos), Population Services International (Myanmar & Nepal), Rato Bangala School (Nepal), University of Macau (Macau SAR), and World Education (Nepal).

Passing the Baton

PiA is lucky to have a remarkably engaged and extremely generous (in every way!) Board of Trustees, whose commitment and dedication to the organization are second to none. In 2016, PiA welcomed the following long-standing Trustees, whose energy, efforts and contributions have made PiA as strong as it is today, to the Emeritus Board: Andy Brown, Robert Knapp, Scott Seligman, Alison Yu, Nancy Broadbent Casserley, W. Bruce Comer III, Steven Diamond, Joel Epstein, Karen Karp, Melanie Kirkpatrick, Nozomi Terao, Lynn White III, Marvin Suomi, Constance McPhee, and Josef Silverstein. Collectively, these incredible individuals have served nearly 300 years as Trustees. We could not be more grateful and indebted to them for their dedication to Princeton in Asia.

In addition, Rick Berry (PiA ’76, Japan) stepped down after 8 years of dedicated service as Chair, and Russell DaSilva (PiA ’76, Japan) stepped down after over a decade of service as Chair of the Executive Committee. We thank Rick and Russell for their tremendous service, and congratulate Sharon Volckhausen (PiA ’91, Korea) and Elizabeth Chandler, who were elected to three-year terms as Chair and Vice Chair of the Board.

Working with PiA’s Trustees – unparalleled in their intelligence, commitment, generosity, and spirit - is one of the highlights of what is, without a doubt, the best job in the world. We thank them for their service and their stewardship!

As always, we are incredibly grateful for all that you do for PiA. Thank you for your generosity, engagement, commitment and support, which make PiA the most special community we have ever been a part of.

With fondness and gratitude, and on behalf of the PiA team,

Maggie Dillon Executive Director

PiA is back in Macau, and it feels so good! Corinne and Jordan (Macau ‘16) show Maggie Dillon the sights.

PiA Taipei alumni Dante (Taiwan ‘13) & Conrad (China ‘08) show Maggie the Taiwan food scene

Sri Lanka Fellows Chris Patacsil (Sri Lanka ‘16) and Sam Bresnick (Thailand ‘15, Sri Lanka ‘16) + and PiA Safety Advisor Arj Wignaraja + a visiting Maggie Dillon + visiting IWMI Fellows Andrew Reckers (Nepal ‘16) and Maddie Dahm (Laos ‘16) + PiA alum Mike Dunford (Laos ‘11-’12) enjoy a group dinner in Colombo

PiA ALUMNI NETWORK & WEBSITE

As we’ve criss-crossed the globe catching up with alumni and friends of PiA, we’ve heard one consistent piece of feedback: PiAers love other PiAers and want to have places to connect with each other. So, because we couldn’t build a worldwide yurt, we have built a digital ger for our PiA community-- read on to find out how to get involved! (photo: PiA alums and Fellows flying kites in Beijing)

PiA Alumni Network: PiA’s first-ever official alumni and friends association!

For over a century, members of the PiA #communityforlife have been gathering in restaurants, markets, bars, and living rooms around the globe to share stories, make new friends and reconnect with old ones, and reminisce about the year(s) that indelibly altered their perspectives on the world. With the launch of the PiA Alumni Network, PiA is bringing together these widespread families of PiAers under one banner and making it easier than ever for our community to remain strong! The PiA Alumni Network aims to foster a lifelong community of PiA alumni and friends who will create awareness, participation, and support to the work of PiA across Asia and the world.

The Alumni Network is organized into regional chapters led by dedicated local volunteer alumni. Nine inaugural chapters have begun operations in Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Singapore, and Washington, D.C. Each chapter will organize seasonal events for PiA alumni and friends to socialize, network, volunteer, and explore Asian cultural opportunities together in their communities. And the festivities have already begun! Many of these chapters threw send-off parties for outgoing fellows from their cities and welcomed back returning fellows by showing them the best dim sum in town. Alumni chapters have also toured a sake brewery, cheered on the Seattle Mariners, and picnicked in Prospect Park!

Want to get involved in your local chapter? Find your chapter leader(s) contact information under the ‘For Alumni’ section of the PiA website. Interested in kickstarting activities in your area? Email Natalia, PiA’s Director of Alumni Relations, at piaalum@princeton.edu.

PiA Alumni & Friends Website:

A PiA-exclusive social networking platform!

Princeton in Asia’s alumni and friends website - princetoninasia.360alumni.com - is LIVE! And with over 15% of the PiA alumni community on board already, we couldn’t be more proud or more excited of this blossoming digital community. This welcoming, portable home has an array of functions, including individual alumni profiles, an online directory and searchable interactive map, direct messaging, groups management, a jobs board, and event organizing, among other exciting features.

All PiA alumni already have a profile created on the site, preloaded with their PiA fellowship information and the contact/career information we had on file. Getting started is as easy as claiming your profile, setting a password, and connecting with fellow alumni and friends. Friends of PiA can sign up with any email address and create a profile. A site administrator will set you off to the races shortly.

We hope that you will choose to join this vibrant digital community, which is tailor-made for the PiA family, password-protected and accessible only to the PiA community. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, or would like to opt-out of participation in this digital network, please be in touch with us by emailing piaalum@princeton.edu.

Special thanks to Fiona Miller, the Alumni Network Task Force, the Alumni Network Chapter Leaders, and the PiA Board of Trustees for your dedication to turning the worldwide community of PiA alumni into a reality!

COMMUNITY FOR LIFE

In this issue of Pacific Bridges, we are celebrating the PiA ‘Community For Life’-- the unique, lifechanging communities that PiAers become a part of, learn from, and contribute to on their PiA fellowships and for the rest of their lives, wherever they find themselves. To illustrate the power of the PiA community to transform, support, and inspire, we will be featuring reflections from two PiAers who have become an integral part of two very special communities. The first is from Mei Lum (Thailand ‘12, Beijing ‘13), who has recently taken over her family’s 126 year-old business in Chinatown and turned it into a community space, and the second is from Brittney Woodrum (Myanmar ‘16), who is our inaugural Fellow at the Dhamma Moli International Buddhist Education Center in Yangon. (photo: Mei Lum inside Wing on Wo & Co.)

“P Khem ja!,” I screamed. P Khem walked out of her front door with a huge smile on her face, “Sawasdee ka Mei!” It had been a year since I last saw P Khem. I gave her a huge hug, squeezing her tight to let her know how much I had missed her. P Khem offered me my favorite fruit. “I’m so happy to see you. I have many things to tell you,” she said. I peeled open the bag of rambutan, and then stayed up until 4 A.M. laughing and crying with P Khem as we updated each other on how our lives had taken unexpected turns since our last meeting in August 2015.

P Khem and I had developed a close relationship during my first year as a PiA teaching Fellow at Satree Phang-Nga School in 2012. She welcomed me into the Phang-Nga commutniy and taught me many lessons that I carried close to my heart as I embarked to my second post in Beijing at The JUMP! Foundation in 2013, to my short 3-month stint at The Laos Rugby Federation in 2015, and now back at home in New York as I begin a new journey with my family’s small Chinese porcelain business, Wing on Wo & Co.

Wing on Wo & Co. is the oldest shop in NYC’s Chinatown. It was founded in 1890 by my great-great-grandfather, Walter Eng. Originally established as a neighborhood general store, Wing on Wo (W.O.W) has transformed over the past century, expanding in 1925 to house a Chinese herbalist and a roasting pig pit, honing its product to porcelain ware in the 60s, and now at last growing into a socially minded business model with a community initiative at its forefront. The Chinatown community is at the heart of W.O.W’s new direction and initiative, a direction very much inspired and informed by my experiences working in different communities with PiA.

As I move through my daily life here at W.O.W, I find myself repeatedly reflecting on my year in Phang-Nga, and the ways in which I have been moved and inspired by P Khem’s deep commitment and infectious passion to galvanize the Satree Phang-Nga community to take ownership of their school and contribute to Phang-Nga’s future growth. I continually revisit and apply the action-planning tools and program management skills I developed during my years working with The JUMP! Foundation’s China team, and I often think back to the Lao Rugby Federation’s incredible youth-led model for their Pass It Back development project. I would have never imagined that this awareness of self and community that I cultivated first in Phang-Nga, that sleepy limestone cliff encircled town in Thailand, and then continued to build upon through my PiA experiences with JUMP! and the Lao Rugby Federation would eventually transform my experience of place in ways that would shape my sense of purpose.

FEATURE: COMMUNITY FOR LIFE

I left Asia last November with a heavy heart and plans to return to the States for a short period, but then return to Asia as quickly as possible with a stronger skillset to do more meaningful community development work. In the back of mind, though, I wondered how I could continue to work in communities abroad without ever having been active in my own community in New York City’s Chinatown. How could I to aid in another community’s development when I hadn’t even taken the time to truly immerse myself in and contribute to my own? It wasn’t until my family made the decision to sell Wing on Wo & Co. that I began to think about how the loss of years of community history and family legacy would impact not only my own family, but also the greater Chinatown community.

A serendipitous meeting with Diane Wong, a doctoral candidate writing her dissertation on the gentrification of Chinatowns in the U.S last December contributed greatly in shaping W.O.W’s community initiative, The W.O.W Project. After shadowing Diane’s interviews with community stakeholders over the course of three months, I began to process these community stories against the backdrop of the vanishing future of Wing on Wo & Co. Chinatown’s neighborhood and realized that the changes were central to everyone’s concerns. I started to think about how I could join in the resistance against the erasure of culture and history in a gentrifying Chinatown.

Diane and my desire to share the community’s voices and stories soon became the start of a larger vision. We organized The W.O.W Project’s first ever panel discussion this past May focused on the theme of the (re)generation of Chinatown, exploring the role of a new generation of Chinese American business owners running businesses – non-traditional to Chinatown – in a rapidly changing neighborhood. We have since put on a series of public programs – panel discussions, a design challenge, a short film screening, an artist residency – to engage youth, elders, business owners and residents in conversation and idea generation about Chinatown’s future.

In the 20s, mom and pop general stores in the neighborhood like Wing on Wo & Co. served as informal community gathering spaces. In its early years, Chinatown was reminiscent of a small village. These stores were a critical hub for mail and money-wiring services to and from China. They also served as a central place for people to come together, play mahjong and chat over plates of roast pork. Today, W.O.W is rooting itself in and building on its rich historical past for its future. The W.O.W Project is giving new meaning to the neighborhood shop and creating a platform for community members to celebrate the stories and voices of Chinatown locals while gaining an awareness of and engaging with the issues that come with our changing neighborhood.

I’ll never forget my final evening in Phang-Nga. P Khem took me on our favorite ride in town along the back road where we had a perfect view of the sun setting behind Elephant Mountain. P Khem turned to me as we both stared out at the orange, purple and blues in the sky and asked “So, how about your trip in Phang-Nga this time?” I shared with her that coming back to to visit made me realize how much my experience living and working in Phang-Nga had informed my engagement with my own Chinatown community. I re-integrated into my neighborhood just as I had integrated into life in Phang-Nga that year: with an open heart to listen, learn, and honor the culture and history of those that came before me. (To find out more about W.O.W or to get involved, stop by the store in Chinatown or visit wingonwoand.co/getinvolved.

All are welcome!)

Left photo: Diane Wong & Mei facilitating a round table on the Global Effects of Gentrification with the Asia Society’s U.S - China Dialogue Young Scholars Program; Center photo: the bustling interior of W.O.W during the W.O.W Project Summer Series: Chinatown: NY’s Newest Gallery Scene?; Right photo: Mei & her father smiling after The W.O.W Project’s Crate Wood Design Challenge Showcase.

Left photo: Mei, her sister and her cousin spending time with their grandfather at W.O.W in the 90s; Center photo: a watercolor of the storefront done by our very own Alex Jones!; Right photo: panelists posing after The W.O.W Project’s first panel discussion, “The (Re)generation of Chinatown”

Reflections from the Nunnery

By: Brittney

I’m obsessed with communities. We’ve all experienced that larger sense of purpose a community can give us. It feels like a place where we belong, or, simply put, home. I’ll go on and say it, the nunnery is an incredible community, but it reminds me a lot of a community we all know and love: camp.

No one really wants to go to camp, right? It’s that thing your parents force you to do to get you out of the house for the summer. It’s in the middle of the forest and you have no cell phone service. You cry every night for the first week. But as the days go by, things get better. You no longer have the distractions of home, so you find yourself investing more time in the people and activities around you.

By week three you are loving it. Everyone knows you and you feel like you are a part of something greater — but hold on. There’s only one week left. You panic because you don’t know how you will readjust to the real world. Alas, on move-out day, your parents come, you get in the car, and you leave. You cry every night for the first week. Eventually time comes and lulls the pain into a warm memory. But what you don’t realize is that you’ve just captured a glimpse of what it’s like to be truly invested in a community.

Alright, alright, alright — I know. I’m getting to it: the nunnery. So, how is the nunnery like camp? Well, first of all, it is very remote. There is little contact with the outside world, mainly by personal choice, and most of my updates rely heavily on word-of-mouth. Secondly, I get to participate in fun daily activities like gardening, crocheting, and learning Burmese. Furthermore, we have a very strict routine which we all abide by, and, at night, we all sleep together in the same room, bed-to-bed. But all these reasons are really superficial. The real reason that the nunnery is like camp is because it is a community that is completely reliant on the members within its walls. We all have a role to play, and in many ways, we depend on one an-other for our own survival.

Here at the nunnery, my days are routine, but not mundane. This is largely thanks to the nuns.They play many roles in my life — they are my students, my teachers, my friends, and most importantly, my sisters. Our days are devoted to work and class, but our evenings are symphonies of tear-streamed laughter as we sprawl out on the floor under a blanket with to escape the mosquitos. We read, we tell stories, and we dream. It’s incredible. We don’t even speak the same language, but I’ve learned that love knows no language. Their kindness is limitless, and they make me want to be better than my best self everyday. In the classroom, their successes become my successes, and I find that my heart is constantly overflowing with love as I invest more of myself than ever before.

As wonderful as the nunnery is, it also shares a larger similarity with camp. Buddhism talks a lot about suffering. Although I don’t subscribe to any particular dogma, I do love this one key item that the Buddha taught. He explained that we can never truly escape suffering. Even in our happiest moments, we still experience a certain sadness because we understand the impermanence of life. Even as I sit here in sheer contentment, I realize that things will not always be this way. Although it is sad, it is also sobering. It allows me to cherish the gift while I have it and further encourages me to not waste a moment. And that’s what I’m planning to do every day that I get to spend with this community.

In a time when the global community is bursting at the seams and people are at their flakiest, it is a breath of fresh air to take a step back from the rat race and invest everything I have into this one small community. I can’t remember a time when I felt more fulfilled with my life, and although I dread the day I board a plane home, I know these women and the lessons they have taught me will live on forever in my heart, and, unlike the fond memories of camp, no amount of time can ever dull them.

Woodrum, the 2016 van Oss Frontier Fellow (Myanmar ‘16) (above: Brittney enjoys quality time with some of the sisters)

Keeping it in the PiA Family

Not Too Cool For School

Let the PiA takeover of Ann Arbor begin! Ali Raymond (Kazakhstan ’12) has started her MBA at the Ross School of Business. She also plans to pursue certificate for Central Asian studies as well and through that relationship will hope to find more undergrads interested in the “Stans”. Also new to “A2” are Jeremiah Firman (Thailand ’14), Mahalia Kahsay (Thailand ’14), and Katie Proudman (Thailand ’11) studying education, law, and social work, respectively.

Back in good ‘ol New Jersey, Peter Trinh (Singapore ’14) is learning to save lives at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Our very own Fiona Miller (Indonesia ’09) is pursuing her post-baccalaureate to prepare for medical school at Rutgers University. Fresh off the boat from a stint in Dushanbe, Alex Long (Kazakhstan ’09) will be keeping up his Tajik as part of a Master’s degree through the Near Eastern Studies department at Princeton University.

Patrick Douglass (China ’04) and Amy Gedal (China ’04) are excited to announce the arrival of their daughter Zoe Anice Douglass. She was born on September 21 at 12:08pm, weighs 8 lbs 3 oz, and is 20 inches tall. Zoe is a great sleeper, loves to stick out her tongue, and is already curious about the world. She sure sounds like a PiA fellow in the making!

Amy Lehr (Thailand ’00, Myanmar ‘02) married Damon Taaffe last October, but she thought it was better late than never to share the big news with the PiA community! She selected her husband after learning that his aunt has lived in Thailand since the 1960s, and has a coffee plantation near Chiang Mai. She acquired several Thai cousins in the deal, too. Vacation plans for life!

Ashley took a weekend trip to Princeton to say hello to one of her former co-Fellows, Neil Atkinson (Singapore ‘13). And of course, where else would they go for brunch but PJ’s Pancake House? See you again soon, Ashley!

Out of the West Coast, David Cogswell (Singapore ’10) Kasey Koopmans (Nepal ’11, Myanmar ’12), and Manav Khurana (China ’15) are working on their MBA degrees at Haas School of Business. They figured out that they had PiA in common long before the mothership got involved. Down in Palo Alto, Hannah D’Apice (Singapore ’14) is working on her M.Ed. at Stanford, specializing in international education policy analysis.

After a victory lap that consisted of circumnavigating the globe, Ashley Swan (Singapore ’13) has started dentistry school at the University of Pennsylvania. She is in good company with Camille Lin (Hong Kong ’15) who is pursuing a pre-health post-baccalaureate degree.

The New Haven PiA crowd continues to grow! New members include Claudia Sosa Lazo (Thailand ’12) at the Yale School of Management, Ellis Liang (Hong Kong ’15) at the Yale School of Law, and Sean Massa (Indonesia ’15) who is studying religion and ethics and already itching to get back to Southeast Asia next summer.

The PiA presence in Boston remains strong! After helping his home state “go global” at the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment, Hunter Richard (China ’12) has returned to his alma matter to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School. Also in Cambridge are PiAers Tommy Hill (Singapore ‘12)

Congrats, Amy and Damon! Can’t wait to see some sweet pictures from your next trip to the coffee plantation.

New to NYC, Vikram Paul (Kazakhstan ’14, Malaysia ’15) is pursuing a JD at Forham Law School. Up in Morningside Heights, Conor Leary (Cambodia ’14) is studying at the Columbia School of Business, Nicholas Pang (SOS ’13, China ’15) is pursuing his PhD in Sociology, Juliet Debutts is studying elementary education, and Ayanna Runcie (Cambodia ’15) is pursuing a dual degree in journalism and international studies. Over in Brooklyn, Alyssa Northrop (Thailand ’14) is working on her MFA in creative writing at Brooklyn College (which we hope means more of her beautiful poetry!).

Patrick and Amy with their PiA progeny

Ellis came back to visit her alma mater during fall break and dropped by PiA HQ to say hello to staffers Alex Coulston and Audrey Jenkins. Thanks for the lemon cookies, Ellis!

at the Harvard School of Design, Annie Phillps (China ’13) at the Harvard School of Education, Iris Zhou (Hong Kong ’13) at Harvard Law School, and Natalia Cote-Munoz (China ’14) at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Further north, Chelsea Gaviola (Vietnam ’14) has started medical school at Dartmouth University. We hope her memories of summer in Ho Chi Minh City will help her appreciate the long winter in Hanover!

On the Job in the US of A

Maryland native Greyson Mann (China ’14) has received a White House appointment to the U.S. Department of Education Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships where he is eager to have the opportunity promote interfaith dialogue on a global scale. There are also lots of new PiA faces in D.C., including Dave Faherty (Malaysia ’07), a staff attorney at the Board of Immigration Appeals, Betty Cox (SOS ’06, Vietnam ’09), a Program Officer for the Results for Development Institute, and Hailey Flynn (Vietnam ’12) who is working with a social service and

advocacy organization called HIPS through the Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program (but not before she took a post-bar trip back to Vietnam!).

Ramie Jacobson (China ’13) has returned from two years in China and one year in Colombia to his hometown of Boston, where he is working for Harvard Master’s in Public Health program and heading up the new Boston Chapter of the PiA Alumni Network with Winnie Hien (Singapore ’12). Thanks for manning the PiA ship for us in Boston, Ramie and Winnie!

After finishing his degree at Wharton, Farook Ahmed (Korea ’04) has relocated to New York to work for Credit Suisse’s Global Industrials Group. Further uptown, Brittney Melloy (Indonesia ’13) is a now a Program Manager at the Earth Institute of Columbia University. She is excited for her new to position to bring her back to Indone-

sia (and speaking Bahasa) frequently!

Out in the Rockies, Amy Kohout (Laos ’95) has a new appointment with the History Department of Colorado College, where she is teaching a class called “American Frontiers”. Sign us up!

Kassi Chappell (Japan ’12) is sticking around Northern California to teach at an elementary school in Sunnyvale. Kassi, it’s never too early to start planting the Asia bug…

What’s new on the Princeton in Asia bookshelf?

When shopping for new books, please remember to visit smile.amazon.com and select the option to support Princeton in Asia Inc. A portion of the purchase price on eligible items will be donated to PiA. Xie xie, salamat, arrigato, dhanyabad, and happy reading!

Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World

By Katherine Zoepf (Vietnam ’00)

For more than a decade, Katherine Zoepf has lived in or traveled throughout the Arab world, reporting on the lives of women, whose role in the region has never been more in flux. Only a generation ago, female adolescence as we know it in the West did not exist in the Middle East. There were only children and married women. Today, young Arab women outnumber men in universities, and a few are beginning to face down religious and social tradition in order to live independently, to delay marriage, and to pursue professional goals. Hundreds of thousands of devout girls and women are attending Qur’anic schools—and using the training to argue for greater rights and freedoms from an Islamic perspective. And, in 2011, young women helped to lead antigovernment protests in the Arab Spring. Excellent Daughters brings us a new understanding of the changing Arab societies—from 9/11 to Tahrir Square to the rise of ISIS—and gives voice to the remarkable women at the forefront of this change.

Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience

By Melanie Kirkpatrick (Japan ’73)

We all know the story of Thanksgiving. Or do we? This uniquely American holiday has a rich and little known history beyond the famous feast of 1621. Award-winning author Melanie Kirkpatrick journeys through four centuries of history, giving us a vivid portrait of our nation’s best-loved holiday. Drawing on newspaper accounts, private correspondence, historical documents and cookbooks, Thanksgiving brings to life the full history of the holiday and what it has meant to generations of Americans.

While the rites and rituals of the holiday have evolved over the centuries, its essence remains the same: family and friends feasting together in a spirit of gratitude, neighborliness and hospitality. Thanksgiving includes recipes and bills of fare, and Readings for Thanksgiving Day, designed to be read aloud around the table.

Nothing says, “Welcome back to America” quite like Thai food with a bunch of Asia-enthusiasts.

Candace Jackson-Akiwumi (Thailand ‘01) finally made her way back to Thailand, after 15 years, with her husband Eric in tow. Candace and Eric traveled from Chicago, where Candace works as an attorney and where the couple married in 2015, for the wedding of Thai friends she’s known since her PiA days. The trip was also a wonderful excuse for a reunion with old friends and colleagues from Chiang Mai University.

Princeton in Asia: It’s for life

Former NRDC Fellows Chris Page and Craig Spencer (3rd and 4th from left) reunite with their former NRDC coworkers (Anthony Suen and CC Huang) in Berkeley. Naturally, they color coordinated like the Air Quality Index.

Roya Motazedi (Japan

recently wrote us, “I visited Yakage for the first time since I left two years ago and it was SO lovely and perfect and wonderful. It was also great timing because I may have barged in on the new Fellow’s first English lesson at one of the kindergarten schools when I was doing my visits. He confessed that he has already fallen asleep during nap time at the nursery schools, so I know that he’s adapting to the role just fine!”

Have an exciting life update to share, or just want to see your name in lights?

Email us at piaalum@ princeton.edu!

Will Julian (China ’11) spent the summer in Xinjiang learning Kazakh and…wrestling?

Trevor Hill (Japan ’92) and Toby Wahl (Japan ’92) reminisce about their summer spent at Matsushita Electric over lunch in DC!

Jordan Metro (Thailand ’14) recently reunited with Tonge, his former roommate in Khon Kaen, in Japan!

’12)

A new home for PiA

On December 18th, PiA will say farewell to its longtime home on Nassau Street and move on campus to the beautiful, newly-renovated Louis A. Simpson International Building, located on Washington Road across from Robertson Hall (the Woodrow Wilson School). PiA will once again be sharing a suite with Princeton in Africa and Princeton in Latin America, but this time our neighbors will be the other people, institutes and centers at the University who are dedicated to international work, including: the Office of International Programs (Study Abroad, Bridge Year, International Fellowships, International Internship Program), the Davis International Center, PIIRS (Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies), and the Council for International Teaching and Research. PiA could not be more grateful for Princeton University’s generosity in supporting our move to campus, where we live and work at the center of the University’s “one stop shop” for all things international. We also owe a debt of gratitude to Anastasia Vrachnos (PiA ’91, Indonesia), whose tireless efforts as Executive Director in the 00s made it possible for us to find a home on campus. Please stop by so we can show you around our beautiful new home, and please update your files with our new address. Drumroll, please:

[Name]

Princeton in Asia

Louis A. Simpson International Building

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ 08544

$300k for 3000: A Fundraising Campaign In Honor of PiA’s 3000 Alumni

In an unprecedented show of generosity, the PiA community donated over $325,000 to support PiA’s 118th year of cultural bridge building across 20 countries in Asia. On June 1, PiA launched a 30-day fundraising campaign with an ambitious goal to raise $300,000 by the end of its fiscal year. An enormously generous benefactor, known as “Yalie for PiA”, as well as the Tiger Baron Foundation and the PiA Board of Trustees banded together to raise $200,000 in matching funds, promising the PiA community a 2-1 match on their donations (up to $100,000) made during the month of June. The PiA community stepped right up to the challenge --- not unlike the way many of them walked into classrooms of 40 Thai students, mere days after their graduations! 352 alumni and friends, living on four continents, whose PiA fellowships span six decades and 26 host countries in Asia, contributed over $125,000 to the campaign. The final tally made our jaws drop, much like the funny, nostalgic, and supportive messages that accompanied so many of the donations!

We cannot thank the members of our community often enough for their generosity -- even 300k times won’t suffice – which has made possible another year of cultural exchange, relationship building, and experiences of a lifetime. Thank you to all!