Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association
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Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association (ITASA) (traditional Chinese: 美國台裔學生協會) was established by a group of students in the East Coast and Midwest in the United States who wanted to see the Taiwanese American college community grow. ITASA is a national organization staffed by students and recent graduates to serve their peers and their respective campuses. ITASA provides the spaces for networking, community-building, leadership training and identity-forging that are critical to the future of Taiwanese American generation.
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[edit] History
ITASA was founded by a small but very active community, including individuals such as Tim Ch'ng, Morris Tsai, Rolla Ch’ng, Ula Hwang, Peilan Chiu, Cindy Yeh, Felicia Lin, Winston Yang and others. In 1992, the first "ITSA Conference" was held at the University of Pennsylvania. Somewhere along the line the founders of ITSA, recognizing the unique Taiwanese American identity, renamed the conference to ITASA. Over the next year, similar conferences were held with various names, including the ITASA/TASC Cultural Conference at the University of Illinois, the ITASA Taiwanese Cultural Celebration at Brown University, and TASCon at the University of Illinois again. Though varying in name and location, these conferences involved the same group of college students - a group of Taiwanese American students who wanted to grow and reach a community of like-minded individuals.
Having hit upon a very real community, annual ITASA conferences took root and built upon the successes of the previous years. The first East Coast ITASA conference took place at Yale in 1993, the first Midwest ITASA conference took place the same year at Purdue. From then on, ITASA held two conferences annually on the East Coast and the Midwest, until 1999, when the first annual West Coast Conference at the University of California, Berkeley, thus completing the three-region conference series that continues today.
Back in the day, ITASA conferences were financed out of students' own pockets and catered by the students’ own moms, and attendance was at the range of 35 - 300 people. Only about 10 years later, we still sometimes ask our moms for help =), but that number estimates our speakers per conference, and we see students coming in the hundreds from coast to coast. Sure, students are getting better and better at throwing large events. But what underlies the continuity of the ITASA trademark across both time and the nation is the Organization.
On February 17, 1998, ITASA was formally incorporated as a 501(c)(3) religious/cultural tax-exempt nonprofit corporation in Delaware, by Incorporator Kok-ui Lim (with the help of many many other people, including Jimmy Ho, Audrey Jean, George Cheng, Cathy Hsu, Tim Chng, Rolla Chng, all the founders really. Here the real history – The founders of ITASA having presided for several years had tried several ways of trying to pass the torch to a new generation. The created a steering committee of positions (including the quaintly termed “Computer Operator”, and recruited interested students from schools all over the nation to help run the organization. Although they put in a good effort, many of the members of the steering committee lacked the experience and drive that it took to run such a geographically dispersed student organization. That all changed when Jimmy, George, Audrey, and Cathy took over. This new generation of ITASA leaders, all recent conference directors on the East Coast, helped to secure ITASA’s financial and organizational future by facilitating the incorporation of ITASA into a 501(c)(3) corporation and investing ITASA’s involvement on the regional level. They also developed ITASA's nascent web presence, centralized fundraising strategies, and brought greater structure to the national calendar of events and board responsibilities. From then on, the Board of Directors emerged from a group of veteran officers, and new officers emerged from the conference leaders. In 2003, Governor-led Regional Boards were established, replacing the single Regional Representative in each region, and District Chairs took charge over the Districts, which were subdivided from the Regions.
The first Annual Leadership Retreat was the 1999 East Coast Leadership Retreat at the University of Pennsylvania. The next year, the Leadership Retreat Program was expanded to include the Midwest and West Coast Leadership Retreats, at Northwestern University and Pomona College, respectively.
In 1998, Taiwanese American students at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University established the Boston Intercollegiate Taiwanese Students Association (BITSA) to serve the many campuses in the Boston area. BITSA works closely with ITASA at targeting its thriving community of local students. The University of California at Berkeley students undertook the first West Coast conference during the spring of 1999, bringing ITASA to three major regions across the United States. During the fall of the same year, Leadership Retreats also broke ground at the University of Pennsylvania; Leadership Retreats are now an immense resource to Taiwanese American student leaders in all three ITASA regions.
[edit] Mission
The Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Student Association is a non-profit organization providing events and resources that explore and celebrate Taiwanese American identity in order to inspire, empower, and activate its community.
[edit] Objectives
As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, ITASA aims to:
- Explore the perspectives that exist within the Taiwanese American Identity;
- Empower our participants with the resources to further develop their personal identities wherever they may go;
- Activate our community, create a voice that represents us in larger arenas, making Taiwanese Americans an influential force in society;
- Build unity and relationships amongst the Taiwanese American Student Associations;
- Guide participants towards becoming better leaders by redefining their TASA's and themselves.
[edit] Approach
While setting goals, the National Board identified 3 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 chooses to employ a Three-Pronged Approach to directly address these 3 levels of the general 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.
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. Premier Website provides students everywhere with an interactive community, leaders' guidelines, campus profiles, contacts, vital links, and scholarship information.
[edit] Logo
ITASA's current logo was adopted in 2001, designed by Robbie Tseng to reflect the academic nature of the Taiwanese American student community. The design is to appear like pages in a book. 3 stacks of books on the left form a stairway, in front of a page itself. Taiwan is white to reflect political ambiguity while the green background is used to represent the lush green tropical island of Taiwan, a common depiction throughout the island. The stairway of books and upward-curving top right corner symbolize the high aspirations of Taiwanese American students.[1]
New variants of the logo are being experimented with which are not a change of the old logo, but rather different representations. For example, 3D logos, chrome versions, and so forth. They are designed for use on various ITASA materials such as booklets, presspackets, and websites.
An updated version was created in 2006 by William Tang featuring slightly rounded edges, and a glossy look and is the current one being used. Taiwan island was made extremely accurate so if the logo was made to adorn the wall of the building, for instance, those would see relatively accurate features.
The green used in the logo is html #33A02B, Red 51 / Green 160 / Blue 43, Hue 77 / Saturation 136 / Luminous 98.
The black used in the logo is html #000000, Red 0 / Green 0 / Blue 0, Hue 0 / Saturation 0 / Luminous 0.
The white used in the logo is html #ffffff, Red 255 / Green 255 / Blue 255, Hue 0 / Saturation 0 / Luminous 240.
[edit] Conference timeline
Spring, 1992 University of Pennsylvania ITSA
Spring, 1992 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Tascon
Fall, 1992 Brown University ITASA Cultural Conference
Fall, 1992 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ITASA/TASC Cultural Conference
Spring, 1993 Yale University ITASA East Coast Conference
Spring, 1993 Purdue University ITASA Midwest Conference
Spring, 1993 University of Western Ontario ITASA/CAN
Fall, 1993 University of Michigan ITASA Midwest Conference
Spring, 1994 Princeton University ITASA East Coast Conference
Spring, 1994 University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign ITASA Midwest Conference
Spring, 1995 Harvard University ITASA East Coast Conference
Fall, 1995 University of Michigan ITASA Midwest Conference
February 2-4, 1996 Brown University ITASA East Coast Conference
October 18-19, 1996 Northwestern University ITASA Midwest Conference - Voice and Vision Talking About Today, Looking Towards Tomorrow
Spring, 1997 Cornell University ITASA East Coast Conference
Spring, 1998 Princeton University ITASA East Coast Conference: Taiwanese Eyes, American Visions
April 10-12, 1998 University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign ITASA Midwest Conference - Express Yourself
November 13-14, 1998 Harvard University BITSA Conference - Fortune's Way: Exploring the Taiwanese-American's Path to Success
February 4-7, 1999 Yale University ITASA East Coast Conference - Made In Taiwan
April 9-11, 1999 University of Michigan ITASA Midwest Conference - Links to the Past, Keys to the Future
April 10-11, 1999 University of California - Berkeley ITASA West Coast Conference - A Journey Through Our Taiwanese-American Experience
November 16, 1999 Harvard University BITSA Conference - Old-School-New School: Bridging the Taiwanese-American Past and Future
February 18-20, 2000 Brown University ITASA East Coast Conference - Breaking Boundaries, Building Bridges
March 31-April 2, 2000 Northwestern University ITASA Midwest Conference - The Next Generation
April 7-9, 2000 Stanford University ITASA West Coast Conference
November 11, 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology BITSA Conference - Inspiration and Expression: The Taiwanese-American in the New Millennium
March 1-3, 2001 University of Pennsylvania ITASA East Coast Conference - ITASA: One Revolution
March 15-18, 2001 University of Michigan ITASA Midwest Conference - Obey Your Core: Yam I Am
Spring, 2001 University of California - Los Angeles ITASA West Coast Conference - Cause An Effect: Empowering a New Generation
October 27, 2001 Wellesley College BITSA Conference - Movement: Raising a New Voice
February 14-17, 2002 Harvard University ITASA East Coast Conference - Transition and Translation: Looking Within to Reach Beyond
April 5-7, 2002 University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign ITASA Midwest Conference - Flash Forward: Taiwan Beyond the Boundaries
April 5-7, 2002 University of Southern California ITASA West Coast Conference - Entering New Dimensions
November 16, 2002 Massachusetts Institute of Technology BITSA Conference - Impressions
February 27-March 2, 2003 Columbia University ITASA East Coast Conference - Biting Into the Yam
April 4-6, 2003 University of Washington ITASA West Coast Conference - Building Parallel Generations
November 15, 2003 Tufts University BITSA Conference - Made In Taiwan: Defining a Culture
February 5-8, 2004 Yale University ITASA East Coast Conference - Choose Your Flavor
March 5-7, 2004 University of Michigan ITASA Midwest Conference - Reunion
April 2-4, 2004 Stanford University ITASA West Coast Conference - Seeking the New Taiwan Spirit
February 24-26, 2005 Rutgers University ITASA East Coast Conference - Perpetual Motion
April 7-9, 2005 University of Southern California ITASA West Coast Conference - One Step Ahead
2005 Northwestern University ITASA Midwest Conference - Beyond the Spectrum
February 9-11, 2006 New York University ITASA East Coast Conference - Unity
March 31-April 2, 2006 University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana ITASA Midwest Conference - Remix
April 6-April 8, 2006 University of California, Los Angeles ITASA West Coast Conference - Discovering the Taiwanese American Consciousness
February 2-February 4, 2007 Harvard University ITASA East Coast Conference - The World Is Not Enough
March 30-April 2, 2007 University of Michigan ITASA Midwest Conference - Team Taiwan
April 12-April 15, 2007 Stanford University ITASA West Coast Conference - Rekindling the Flame
February 21-February 23, 2008 University of Pennsylvania ITASA East Coast Conference - Kaleidoscope
April 4-April 6, 2008 Northwestern University ITASA Midwest Conference - Hand in Hand
[edit] External links
ITASA National Organization Page
ITASA 2008 East Coast Conference Page (University of Pennsylvania)
ITASA 2007 West Coast Conference Page (Stanford University)
ITASA 2007 Midwest Conference Page (University of Michigan)
ITASA 2007 East Coast Conference Page (Harvard University)
ITASA 2006 West Coast Conference Page (University of California, Los Angeles)
ITASA 2006 Midwest Conference Page (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)
ITASA 2006 East Coast Conference Page (New York University)
ITASA 2005 East Coast Conference Page (Rutgers University)
ITASA 2004 East Coast Conference Newsletter (Yale University)
2004 Stanford Daily Article on ITASA West Coast Conference
