Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association - Approach

Approach

While setting goals, the National Board has identified 5 levels of student activism. The community at large needed more resources to educate, unite, and equip the general body of Taiwanese Americans across the United States. The campuses at each school needed support in getting linked to the nationwide network and founding new chapters of Taiwanese American student groups. The individual students needed more information, ideas, contacts, outlets and guidelines for personal and collective activism.

ITASA directly addresses 5 levels of the Taiwanese American body.

1. Regional Conferences held in the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast provide students with annual conventions promoting education, activism, leadership, culture, performance and friendship. For the past decade, the ITASA East Coast Conference has attracted an average of 345 students from schools all over the United States.
2. Leadership Retreats provide old, new and aspiring campus leaders with training, peer support and shared ideas to start each year with a clear game plan and stronger leadership tools.
3. Mixers provide students with the opportunity to mingle and share ideas with others students in a more social setting.
4. ITASA Awards provide recognition to Taiwanese American students and student organizations across the United States in categories such as Outstanding New TASA, Outstanding Website, and Outstanding Leader. Awards are distributed on an annual basis at the ITASA East Coast Conference.
5. Premier Website provides students everywhere with an interactive community, leaders' guidelines, campus profiles, contacts, vital links and scholarship information.

In addition to these larger initiatives, ITASA also distributes an electronic copy of the ITASA Newsletter to the Taiwanese American student community. The newsletter is distributed on a quarterly basis. It typically contains updates on National Board activities, descriptions of events held by Taiwanese American student organizations across the country, and information regarding ongoing events within the Taiwanese American community.

ITASA also issues regional grants to Taiwanese American student groups. Regional grants are given to fund events that are both intercollegiate in nature and conform to ITASA's mission statement. In the past, regional grants have funded the ITASA Winter Mixer in New York, NY, the University of California at Irvine Lantern Festival, and other similar events. Regional grants are reviewed, approved, and distributed by the Finance Director and Regional Governors.