On Nov. 30, 2018, Cassie Tammy Wang, an award-winning young artist from the West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, brought 50 passionate students together to found the forty-fourth branch for AYLUS: Greater Princeton, New Jersey (GPA).
AYLUS stands for the Alliance of Youth Leaders in the United States. We are a student-run non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of our communities, which range from our own houses to all across the United States! AYLUS promotes the development of its members LEADERSHIP, INTEGRITY, and INNOVATION, through the planning and execution of volunteer projects that aim at benefiting their communities.
So far 351 students from Princeton, West Windsor, East Windsor, Plainsboro, Hopewell, Lawrence, Ewing, Hillsborough, Hamilton, Trenton, Montgomery, Cranbury, South-North-East-New Brunswick, Monroe, Freehold, Bridgewater, Warren, Metuchen, Edison, North Bergen, and more locations have teamed up with GPA. Together, we are building the best student-run volunteer organization with a strong leadership to make our community a better place!
As the end of 2020 approaches, saying goodbye to one of the most hard years for everyone, although during which GPA members worked hard and received quite a few recognitions from the State of New Jersey and New York besides awards from our local townships and AYLUS national, GPA is looking for another year of broadened community service with an even stronger leadership team.
On New Year’s Day 2021, we welcome the following GPA members to take branch leadership positions, including Presidents, Vice Presidents, Secretary, Regional Development Ministers, and Committee Chairs.
Co-President: Cassie Wang & Annabelle Huang
Co-Vice President: Alissa Wu, Fengqi Wen, Xinyi Christina Chang, Xin Chen & Zihui Xiao
Secretary: Lana Cheng & Amy Lin
Development Minister: Anthony F. Yang (North), Sarah Liu (Central), Steven Li (South)
Art & Save A Life Committee Chair: Cassie Wang
Archive & Environment Committee Chair: Amber Yu
Business Committee Chair: Amy Xu
Journalism Committee Chair: Karen Yang
Education Committee Chair: Donna Nagorny
Outreach Committee Chair: Gina Shen
Professional Committee Chair: Sky Tianyi Han
Sports Committee Chair: Sarah Yan
Greater Princeton AYLUS Leadership Application 2021 for Co-President
Annabelle Huang (2020: Vice President), 11th Grade, Edison, NJ
For the upcoming year, I plan on leading others to take part in more virtual events and to create an “AYLUS Media Production Team” to help facilitate our video production process.
1. I plan on letting every member download the “Be My Eyes” application onto their mobile devices. This is an app created for volunteers to help blind or low vision people to see through phone calling. When someone is in need for help, volunteers will receive a call and resolve the issue that the blind person is dealing with.
2. I plan on leading others to join the “Care Not COVID” project, where members will submit a video of themselves giving thanks or supporting frontline workers for their contributions. Members can also send handwritten letters and doodles and become pen pals with a worker if a video is unavailable.
3. AYLUS members who are interested in advocating for women’s rights and equal representation can join “Girls Inc.” They can become a social ambassador to amplify the organization’s message by creating and sharing social posts and also typing bulk messages on linkedin focused on teaching girls how to navigate gender, economic, and social barriers and helping them grow up healthy, educated, and independent.
4. I plan on also leading volunteers to take part in the “Best Buddies” project where they will be connected with a child with disabilities and send them emails once or twice a week. This will enhance the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and meanwhile allow our volunteers to make new friends and make a person feel more included.
5. I prepare to gather members to transcribe documents on the “Smithsonian”. It is a platform similar to that of the National Citizens Archivist but through a museum instead. Volunteers who are interested in history can learn about it while contributing to the community at the same time and it is a great way to make historical documents more accessible and searchable.
6. I have planned to contact corporate video production company to get it done.Then prepare to establish a “AYLUS Media Production Team” selected from our members in order to make virtual performances accessible to more audiences and easier to execute. The responsibilities of this team would be to gather, create, edit, and direct videos for AYLUS to send to elderlies, veterans, and essential workers. The creation of this team will help facilitate the video production processes and meanwhile increase the quality of the shows. This chosen group will comprise 4-5 student members and be evaluated monthly based on their contributions to creating the videos. In addition, we will not limit the videos created to virtual performances, but also include videos dedicated to AYLUS’s contributions and promotional videos to expand our reach.
Above said, I hope to lead others in joining the many virtual projects listed and inspire volunteers to contribute more for the care of our communities. I hope to collaborate with others to expand AYLUS services across the country, and I hope to become the president of AYLUS and make an even greater impact on the lives of many.
GPA Leadership Application 2021 for Co-Vice President
Fengqi Wen (2020: Vice President), 11th Grade, Princeton, NJ
I have taken part in a lot of volunteer activities such as dinner service at PCCK community kitchen, recycling plastic films, and picking up trash in parks. I have also started a go class in Montgomery but I suspended it in the beginning of the year because of the pandemic. I was one host at the fundraising concert last December for the Save A Life Foundation.
I have taken part in a few of the medical equipment donations including the medical gown donation and the Plainsboro EMS donation. This June, I received the PVSA gold award. I led one of the tree planting events this fall and also helped collect winter clothes for the clothes donation. I’ve also done a poem recitation with three other members of AYLUS GPA for the virtual performance for Veterans’ Day. I also led the AYLUS Walk to End Alzheimer’s Event this December.
I plan to keep doing plastic recycling and picking up trash in the parks next year but I also plan to lead more events such as donation and tree planting as I think the effects of these kinds of activities on the community are easily shown in a short time.
If the pandemic situation eases as time goes by, I plan to start a board game activity with chess, go and other types of games that are very good for brain development and it will be a friendly community for people who enjoy playing these games. I also plan to keep doing poem recitations with other members if we have another virtual concert, and if we have an in-person concert, I would love to be the host again.
I have taken part and helped in quite a few of the AYLUS events during this hard year and I would like to keep up my work and do even better this coming year and that is why I’m applying for vice president again.
Greater Princeton AYLUS Leadership Application 2021 for Co-Vice President
Xinyi Christine Zhang (2020: Vice President), 10th Grade, South Brunswick, NJ
Having been a member of AYLUS for around two years, I have made an abundance of meaningful contributions to this organization. Previously, as the leader of the promotional editing team, I was in charge of tasks such as planning, editing, and producing videos so more people around the country can know about the goals and impact of AYLUS.
This year, I created four videos to help expand the reach of AYLUS and the events we host. My first video was Greater Princeton AYLUS’ first promotional video, which informed the audience about our mission and accomplishments. My second video was a compilation of Greater Princeton AYLUS’ efforts to spread joy during the COVID-19 pandemic. My third video served as a promotional video for the entire national AYLUS organization, detailing its history, branches, and contributions to our communities. Last, I produced a virtual concert for our veterans using clips of our talented AYLUS members. I have also prepared a speech video to spread awareness about Alzheimer’s and our Walk to End Alzheimer’s event.
I play an active role in many concerts at senior centers and veteran homes, as well as several fundraisers. In addition, I have taken part in AYLUS art contests and conservation events. These have all been a source of growth and learning, inspiring me to do more to help our community through AYLUS. As Vice President, I have exercised my leadership through leading and taking part in monthly AYLUS meetings.
Continuing as Vice President of AYLUS, I plan on emphasizing the importance of promoting the events and contributions of our branch so that more people can join, lead, and donate in AYLUS’ events to help our community. We should have several students actively involved in promotional activities, consistently creating videos or flyers for concerts and fundraising campaigns. I also plan on implementing a more organized system where the students are always well-informed about what is going on within AYLUS. The foundation of this system will be built in a shared Google Drive and various Discord Channels. Within this Drive, we can find a clear-cut project production schedule, a master spreadsheet outlining the participants and leaders of each individual project, and details about each event in a designated folder. Specific projects, like the Princeton rescue squad campaigns or making a promotional video, will be organized into the main categories of fundraisers or promotion. Students who are interested in these specific projects can sign up to work on them, and some of them will be assigned as a project leader.
Another category would be volunteering, which includes environment clean-ups, tutoring, concerts, etc. In both cases of projects or volunteering events, students themselves can sign up through something like a Google Form. Participants and leaders of each project should be detailed on the master spreadsheet, along with project deadlines and event dates. Various channels in Discord should be dedicated to these major categories of projects, with everything that is usually posted on WeChat also going on the Discord. This way, each member of AYLUS won’t miss out on any important dates and each student can fully be in control of their projects. All of this activity, most importantly, the deadlines and project assignments in the master spreadsheet, will be monitored by our President, Vice Presidents, and our Advisor. To keep meetings moving smoothly and always ensuring a consistent flow of ideas, another channel on Discord could be dedicated to encouraging the brainstorming of more events and projects. The end result of all of this will be an organized system in which students can all develop their leadership skills to better serve our community.
In addition, we should also have more projects such as providing encouragement to our troops. I believe that it is important to support those valiantly fighting for our country. Especially during the holidays/around the new year, it is important to show that we appreciate what our troops have done for us and bolster their morale. Through an organization such as support our troops, we can send cards, practical items. in care packages to our troops. Projects such as these will allow us to affect a broader range of people.
I strongly believe that by continuing my position as Vice President, I could make the Greater Princeton AYLUS branch, and AYLUS create an even larger impact on our country.
Greater Princeton AYLUS Leadership Application 2021 for Co-Vice President
Alissa Wu, 10th Grade, Montgomery, NJ
In my 4 months in AYLUS, I’ve worked hard to expand the organization through starting initiatives and bringing new members.
1. Nationwide Winter Clothing Drive to assist those financially impacted most by the pandemic, who are unable to buy new winter clothing for the coming cold. Members bagged thousands of clothing items to send to regional Goodwill stores. We must help those in our community who may be struggling, especially during times of trouble.
2. Cards and PPE Donations to Senior Citizens to bring the warmth of the holidays to our seniors, whose lives have been hugely affected by new visitation restrictions, while also helping them easily obtain sanitizing products and snacks.
3. Public Speaking and Performance Videos like my promotional video for Walk to End Alzheimer’s, video speech to promote Environmental Protection by Recycling, and musical flute performance for the Veteran’s Day Concert.
4. Environment Protection Events such as taping a speech about the importance and methods to recycle, and participating in tree planting and park cleanup events. We only have one planet, and we must emphasize the need to keep it clean.
I recognize the importance of empathy, giving back to society, and protecting our environment; as Vice President, I hope to create more initiatives and opportunities for AYLUS members to expand our organization and demonstrate these values.To catalyze the expansion of our branch, I will begin:
1. Social Media Development. I will maintain an AYLUS Instagram, which our members will interact with. When someone starts an initiative, they will send the flyers and the caption to me to post. I will work with other leaders to keep the account updated with event photos, promotional videos, etc. This will make it easier for members to keep track of events, and new people to discover AYLUS, through reposted stories and flyers.
2. Younger Students Outreach Events. I will create events to explain the impact of AYLUS to younger students. We can email the principal to put them on the Morning Announcements, or email teachers to notify their students. Once this pandemic is over, I will also work with members to organize in-person meetings with students.
3. Summer Programming Classes. I will work with other members to start classes teaching the coding fundamentals, such as booleans, loops, arrays, and more, which will provide a basis to understand common programming languages. I will also teach students to create basic websites using HTML.
GPA Leadership Application 2021 for Co-Vice President
Zihui Xiao (2020: VP), 11th Grade, West Windsor, NJ
In the year 2020, due to the COVID-19, I mainly contributed to indoor and online activities:
• I joined several concert video-recording by playing the piano and reciting poems in order to spread love, peace, and encouragement to the medical workers, as well as to promote the reputation of the AYLUS organization.
• I organized a speech on “protecting the environment by recycling” to inform many people about the importance of recycling. In this speech activity, there were over 5 people who contributed their own creative ideas on how to raise the people’s awareness of recycling and how can we as local residents to promote local recycling.
• I have hosted several monthly meetings. Also, I helped to recycle, pick up the garbages, and protect the park environment over two or more times during the quarantine time under the six feet apart distance rule.
For the following year, I will mainly focus on connecting people’s talents to different types of activities:
• I would host different concerts about different topics so that members can show off their talents regarding different themes.
• I would continue to host the different topics of speech activities, not just only focus on giving the speech but also focus on actually implementing it. It is really hard to do it this year because many people would be still afraid of going outside to actually do the volunteers, but I think the next year would be much better since the vaccine would be released really soon.
• I could corporate with others; therefore, the speech activities could be one of the sources for advertisement.
Overall, I want to apply for the Vice President not only because I think I have the ability and experience to do it, but also I really like and enjoy to help people and society. I want to spread love and peace to everyone.
GPA Leadership Application 2021 for Co-Vice President
Xin Chen (2020: VP), 11th Grade, Princeton, NJ
I am applying for the position of Vice President of Greater Princeton Branch of AYLUS.
I have won the Presidential Gold Award of Service in 2019 and 2020. I actively take part in the service activities organized by AYLUS, including various online performances, tree planting, and fundraising activities. I have done the editor’s work of AYLUS TIMES with good quality and launched the Gratitude Cultivation event in 2020.
In addition, we keep on conducting environmental protection projects by adopting the community park and recycling plastic bags activities. During the fight against the epidemic, I have done some COVID-19 related researches and wrote papers.
In the coming 2021, I will continue the environmental protection activities, take part in the community services organized by AYLUS, and organize veterans service activities according to the actual situation, spreading the experience of caring and patriotism to the AYLUS members.
GPA Leadership Application for South Jersey Development Minister
Steven Li (2020: Development Officer), 8th Grade, Princeton, NJ
At the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, I donated to help buy ventilators for hospitals. I wanted to help people in need. During the first waves of the pandemic in the US, I donated around 400 masks to AYLUS so they could send them to hospitals in New York. New York, being a busy city had lots of cases and became one of the most affected states by the pandemic so I knew I had to help hospitals by donating some masks. I also went outside and met up with fellow GPA members and donated cleaning supplies to Princeton University.
I joined GPA plastic recycling program. Every two weeks, I find time to deliver plastics for recycling to a nearby McCaffery’s store. During October, I went to a nearby park with other AYLUS members to plant trees. In November, I went to Goodwill with other AYLUS members and donated winter clothing for people of New Jersey. During December, I donated food to a senior center to help the elderly there. I also walked outside for Alzheimer’s disease to spread awareness about it.
I have also attended any AYLUS meetings I could to listen to new ideas and learn about what the GPA branch was planning for future activities. I also recruit some of my fellow students to be members of AYLUS. Overall, being a developmental officer was very fun as I got to spread awareness about AYLUS and try to recruit new people to contribute to the community service activity. I hope I can continue to be a development minister and continue to volunteer and help others in need.
I plan to continue doing the GPA plastic recycling program by collecting plastic bags and storing them for delivery. I also plan to introduce AYLUS to a few of my friends and see if they are interested in joining.
I also plan to attend any meetings GPA is hosting so I can offer suggestions and listen in on other members’ opinions. I think the meetings are very insightful on plans for Greater Princeton AYLUS so I will try to take part in the plans and help whenever I can.
If the pandemic is still serious in 2021, I will always care for people in need and help them out. I will follow AYLUS call and do more volunteering work.
GPA Leadership Application for Central Jersey Development Minister
Sarah Liu, 10th Grade, Edison, NJ
If I am elected to the applied position for the year 2021, I will contribute greater efforts to create more volunteering activity ideas by working towards new goals. Although I have only been part of Greater Princeton AYLUS for a little more than a year, I have participated in numerous AYLUS-hosted activities and events, including performances and shows, fundraisers, adoption of NJ parks, Citizen Archivist contributions, soft plastic and film recycling, Roots for Rivers events, clothing drives, Treasuring the Trash events, walks to raise awareness for causes, and designing conservation posters for AYLUS.
As social distancing proceeds, it is difficult for students to receive help in subjects that they feel they are having trouble with. Subsequently, free tutoring would be greatly appreciated in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of my 2021 goals for Greater Princeton AYLUS is to develop and operate an expanded tutoring service. Greater Princeton AYLUS already tutors bilingual and math subjects to students, but if our tutoring services can be diversified to a larger number of subjects, more students (from elementary to middle school grades) can be benefitted from the services. By creating a system with interested volunteers and advertising our tutoring services through social media (and additional ways), we can go through a tutor application process that groups volunteers into categories based on their strengths in subjects; the tutor will be able to teach a group of tutees with other volunteers that have the same strength. This goal will also help volunteers can gain insights on how to teach while helping students.
Another 2021 goal for our branch would be to extend our impact by joining more community organizations for activities. For example, if we contacted local animal shelters, we could create events that would allow volunteers to visit shelters and help take care of the animals at the shelter. In addition, we could create fundraisers for the shelters, donating money to help them take care of the animals. These events could benefit AYLUS volunteers as it would create opportunities to gain shelter experience, and could also benefit the shelters as they would be able to receive more help from more volunteers and funds. We could also offer our volunteer services to retirement homes (by volunteering at the home or by creating cards for those that live there) or to community campuses like YMCA, to give more back to our community.
If I am entrusted to a Greater Princeton AYLUS leadership position, I will do my best to help AYLUS achieve more goals in the future that include but are not limited to: expanding our tutoring system and joining hands with more community organizations. Thank you for reviewing my application and giving me a chance to contribute more efforts to AYLUS.
GPA Leadership Application for North Jersey Development Minister
Anthony Yang, 10th Grade, Warren, NJ
I am applying to AYLUS to set up a committee for community service. I participated in reaching out to members of my community for clothes that were used to donate to the needy. I also reached out to members of my community for supplies such as toilet paper and hand sanitizer for a retirement home. Additionally, I ran a mile for the end Alzheimer’s Disease cause. My plans for the future of AYLUS would be to first implement different community service activities such as organizing food drives for the homeless, then donating different resources for the needy, and helping donate money to different institutions researching cures for diseases. I feel that this would benefit our community and the overall world in a way that will help the people around us.
I would also like to apply for the Regional Development Minister. The way I will have AYLUS gain recognition in our community is through the Warrenbrook Local Newspaper, which would put our organization in the paper, describe what we do, and ultimately spark interest in anyone that reads the paper. I will also market and spread awareness of AYLUS by using social media platforms such as Instagram, posting what we do and how others can help. Furthermore, I will reach out to my peers at my high school and advertise our group for more people to join. In addition, I will also broadcast our group and cause different communities in towns such as Warren, Greenbrook, Longhill, and Watchung to join the group.
Overall, I hope that I will be able to have the opportunity to help AYLUS and its development as well as the people in our community and the world around us, thank you.
GPA Leadership Application 2021 for Archive & Environment Committee Chair
Amber Yu (2020: Secretary), 10th Grade, West Windsor, NJ
As a GPA secretary for more than a year, I have assisted the President Cassie with many major projects, such as editing the AYLUS Times monthly, producing the video for “AYLUS: The Five Years of Leadership”, and putting together an Orientation Package for New Branches/Members. Personality wise, I am both a responsible and hardworking person. With my knowledge, experience and skills, I believe that these committee chair positions I am applying for can help me contribute more to the GPA branch.
For the Environment Committee, I have a deep interest in environment protection and recycling. I frequently use weekends or holidays to take part in Adopt a Park and Recycle Plastic Film activities. In 2021, I will continue to make efforts to enhance our influence on the local community and encourage them to take care of the environment.
In addition, Cassie and I recently started a new project called “Treasuring the Trash”, where we use recycled materials to make art pieces. Our goal is to collect artworks to put in an art show to educate people that trash can also be treasure and promote environmental protection through recycling. So far, we have received about 40 amazing artworks.
Since July 2020, I have been a Citizen Archivist for the National Archives. I have created over 1240 tags and 100 transcriptions for the National Archives. By adding keywords and labels to a record, I can help make the National Archives records more searchable in their catalog. For 2021, I’d like to invite more members to take part in this program and give a hand to the National Archives organization.
Thank you very much for considering my application. Please let me know if you need additional information. I look forward to working with the GPA Leadership teams.
GPA Leadership Application 2021 for Business Committee Chair
Amy Xu, 10th Grade, West Windsor, NJ
Since joining AYLUS in July, I’ve been working on my AYLUSxCreations fundraising project. At the beginning, I was just experimenting with ways to fundraise only through online platforms – deciding Etsy and Depop. Going into fall, I worked more diligently on producing a stable stream of income from platforms like Depop, fundraising $50.
Just starting a little more than a month ago, I redesigned the logo and started making hoodies, based on another member’s request. So far, I’ve fulfilled 2 orders, generating around $400 fundraising dollars, with more orders to be fulfilled in the next couple months. From these mere 6 months, I’ve learned so much: overcoming my fear of investing, getting a better feel for the production process, honing my artistic sense, the importance of efficient organization and communication, and how to make well-researched decisions.
Using these skills, my plans for the spring/summer of 2021 is to continue making AYLUS merch, establishing a stream of money, and hopefully launch a more official “collection” of my own! My experience with the winter uniform project especially has opened my eyes to the potential money I can make on a larger scale.
Although I don’t officially have the title of Business Committee Chair yet, I feel as if I already partially responsible for the financial and promotional success of AYLUS Greater Princeton Branch. I am infinitely grateful for the opportunities given to me so far, so in 2021, I will do my best for AYLUS!
GPA Leadership Application 2021 for Outreach Committee Chair
Gina Shen (2020: Secretary), 8th Grade, West Windsor, NJ
During the past year, I used to be a team leader of Greater Princeton AYLUS and became a Secretary later on. I took part in many GPA activities that helped the public a lot, for example, GPA went to the Plainsboro Centennial Park to clean up the garbage that was littered in the area, it was a memorable experience that I’ll never forget. Another fun activity was setting up a lemonade stand to raise money for Ms. Su who is fighting cancer and we had a performance for her as well.
Many also wanted to donate to the “Save a Life” Foundation, so Amy Lin, myself, and a few other GPA members, set up a craft and bake sale 3 times at Hua Xia Chinese School, many people purchased our baked goods and small crafts, and to contribute to “Save a Life” Foundation. GPA had a performance for this very reason, multiple members of GPA made contributions to this performance and many even performed themselves.
While in quarantine, GPA planted trees, and had many outdoor activities where everyone could stay a far distance apart. These are only a few of the many activities I had much fun with, and there will be many more activities to enjoy even more.
One out of the many ideas I have for future activities is teaching others our favorite physical hobbies. For example, GPA will create a zoom meeting while teaching sports that each of us is good at. Another idea is that we can offer an activity for younger kids to join, where the members of GPA can teach them different arts and crafts.
Second, we can donate books to children, and adults who don’t have them. GPA could collect books for a certain period and then donate them to different places that need books.
Third, after quarantine, we can continue to make bake sales or lemonade stands since they were successful, and I donated the money to helpful fundraisers.
The ultimate idea is, creating a zoom while putting members into breakout rooms two at a time so that everyone gets to know each other, and it’s easier to communicate amongst ourselves. These are only a few ideas to help our team become better, I hope that we can create even more ideas to help others out in the future!
I would like to focus on the sale activities, because they have always been successful, and it’s always for a good cause. I have many future ideas to improve our sales activities for it to be even better, such as introducing a buy one get one free system and many others. This way it encourages more people to consider purchasing items from our event.
GPA Leadership Application 2021 for Sports Committee Chair
Sarah Yan (2020: Development Officer), 10th Grade, West Windsor, NJ
Sports have always been an important part of my life. I started with taekwondo and achieved a black belt in fifth grade. Taekwondo has taught me patience and skills for defending myself. Swimming has always been the sport I spend most time on. I qualified for top competitions such as NJ Junior Olympics in 2019 and 2020 and still continue practicing to reach higher cuts whether on land or in water. I am also a part of my highschool swim team, qualifying for finals in large home meets, and being the only freshman to represent the school in the 4 person A relay team at counties.
Sports isn’t all about activeness and physical strength. Mind sports such as chess have also been a huge part of my life as well. Playing chess competitively and winning large competitions such as NJ Open U1600 helped build my mental strength. Helping others through chess, I created ABC Chess to teach to other determined students who have a passion for learning the great mind game of chess. I also created tournaments that happen the first Saturday of every month that students take part in to play against others they didn’t play against yet and also to test their newly learned knowledge.
In the upcoming 2021 year, as a part of AYLUS, I plan to hold virtual monthly events such as chess tournaments open to everyone. These tournaments are open to anyone who knows how to play and can test their skill by playing others who are also interested in the game of chess.
Events such as walking/running (a certain distance) to raise awareness for current events.
If it allows, we can plan on running together as AYLUS. If the situation doesn’t allow, we can each do it on our own time and collage all the pictures in a final project.
GPA Leadership Application 2021 for Journalism Committee Chair
Karen Yang (2020: Secretary), 10th Grade, West Windsor, NJ
As a GPA secretary for over a year, I have been an avid volunteer with AYLUS through tutoring students in math and reading/writing and collaborating with other members, such as President Cassie, to create nationwide projects. These have included editing the AYLUS Times monthly, writing scripts for the video “AYLUS: The Five Years of Leadership”, and putting together an Orientation Presentation for new branches and members.
I am organized, passionate about writing, and love to work with others. AYLUS has given me the chance to continue with these passions.
For the Journalism Committee, I have an eager interest in continuing to work with our student writers and workers. So far, I’ve edited nearly all editions of the AYLUS Times and would like to continue to engage our volunteers in writing articles and developing different media in our newsletters (i.e. comics, jokes), and expanding our outreach, possibly through designing an email newsletter. Similarly, seminars with other volunteers interested in writing would help the community.
I am very grateful for the opportunities that this position will give me and look forward to working with everyone in 2021!
GPA Leadership Application 2021 for Professional Committee Chair
Sky Tianyi Han, 9th Grade, Montgomery, NJ
Volunteer experience: From 2016 to 2019, I accompanied the American Boys’ Choir School and Princeton Boys’ Choir to various nursing homes to show condolences. In November 2019, took part in the condolences to veterans organized by AYLUS and played piano. In September 2020, take part in the garbage collection activity organized by AYLUS. In October 2020, take part in the tree planting activity organized by AYLUS. In November 2020, take part in the “We Serve Those Who Serve” tribute to veterans concert organized by AYLUS “Consolation” singing “Steak”. In November 2020, take part in the tree planting activity organized by AYLUS. In December 2020, take part in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s Volunteer Activity organized by AYLUS.
My 2021 work plan:
1: Organize the production of New Year messages and Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) TV programs to introduce people to the knowledge of Chinese New Year.
2: Organize inspirational speech activities to inspire people in 2021.
3: It is reported that music is helpful to patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and the organization uses music in the form of chorus, performance, etc.
4: Organize to provide free art courses for children from poor families in Xinzhou, such as singing, piano, violin, and painting.
GPA Leadership Application 2021 for Education Committee Chair
Donna Nagorny, 11th Grade, West Windsor, NJ
I’m honored to be a part of AYLUS and would like to contribute more in to this organization in the near future. To do that I was thinking that it would be nice to have a new committee dedicated to education and helping people in the community. It will open up new possibilities for our organization and members to participate in, such as helping children/schools as well as those in need.
Depending on the pandemic, some events can be online but hopefully we will be able to switch to in-person soon. Through this committee, AYLUS can do book collections for elementary to high school kids, go schools/daycares with presentations (we can relate them to upcoming events, kids safety, holidays, etc).
We can have an educational toy drive for organizations who need it, and we can extend our tutoring program under this committee. During the summer we can host activities such as summer camps for kids. These activities will be a good way for people and organizations around to get to know who we are at AYLUS! It may be a good way to gain more members to our branch.
Greater Princeton AYLUS Leadership Application 2021 for Secretary
Lana Cheng (2020: Secretary), 9th Grade, Plainsboro, NJ
I would like to apply for the secretary position at Greater Princeton AYLUS this year. I am a freshman at the Hun School of Princeton and a current member of AYLUS.
I joined AYLUS in 2019, and since then I have been actively involved in different activities. I took part in several performances and a variety of activities including donations, tree-planting, trash cleaning, video productions, and recently Walk to End Alzheimer’s. I gained much experience by participating in these activities and I am confident that these experiences will help me succeed as a secretary.
In addition, I work well with other members because I am a great communicator and collaborator. I contribute my ideas to a group, listen to others, and coordinate with people to achieve a goal. If given this opportunity, I believe that I will become an excellent secretary, and by bringing my skills and experiences to this position, I hope to make valuable contributions to Greater Princeton AYLUS.
Greater Princeton AYLUS Leadership Application 2021 for Secretary
Amy Shuyan Lin (2020: Secretary), 8th Grade, Princeton, NJ
During my time in this organization, I have taken part and contributed to several activities, such as the Lemonade Stand and Bake Sale to raise fund for Ms. SuWei and Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad, music and merriment performances for seniors at Merwick Care, Stonebridge at Montgomery, VA Memorial Home at Menlo Park and Wishing Well Adult Day Health Care, recycling efforts, stream cleanups.
In the future, I plan to do the following projects:
Education for Underprivileged Students. I plan to find opportunities to improve education for underprivileged children who need academic help or support. Continue Humanitarian Care Project for Ms. SuWei. Gina Shen and I started this project so we could check in on Ms. SuWei and support her through the hardships of battling cancer. On WeChat we created a group to follow Ms. SuWei’s progress and treatment. Members who are interested in helping are welcome to join.
Virtual Concerts for Seniors. Even if we cannot perform in-person, face to face with the audience, we can still use the technology we have today and perform in online concerts to bring joy to people during the pandemic. Continue Recycling Efforts of the Greater Princeton Branch. I will collect recyclable films and plastics to deposit them in the recycling bin.
