- Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association
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 theTaiwanese 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.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.
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.
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.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.
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. [http://itasa.org/content/view/164/207/]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 ishtml #33A02B,Red 51 / Green 160 / Blue 43,Hue 77 / Saturation 136 / Luminous 98.
The black used in the logo ishtml #000000,Red 0 / Green 0 / Blue 0,Hue 0 / Saturation 0 / Luminous 0.
The white used in the logo ishtml #ffffff,Red 255 / Green 255 / Blue 255,Hue 0 / Saturation 0 / Luminous 240.
Conference timeline
Spring, 1992University of Pennsylvania "ITSA"
Spring, 1992University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign"Tascon"
Fall, 1992Brown University"ITASA Cultural Conference
Fall, 1992University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "ITASA/TASC Cultural Conference"
Spring, 1993Yale University"ITASA East Coast Conference"
Spring, 1993Purdue University"ITASA Midwest Conference"
Spring, 1993University of Western Ontario "ITASA/CAN"
Fall, 1993University of Michigan "ITASA Midwest Conference"
Spring, 1994Princeton University"ITASA East Coast Conference"
Spring, 1994University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign"ITASA Midwest Conference"
Spring, 1995Harvard University"ITASA East Coast Conference"
Fall, 1995University of Michigan"ITASA Midwest Conference"
February 2-4, 1996Brown University"ITASA East Coast Conference"
October 18-19, 1996Northwestern University"ITASA Midwest Conference -Voice and VisionTalking About Today, Looking Towards Tomorrow"
Spring, 1997Cornell University"ITASA East Coast Conference"
Spring, 1998Princeton University "ITASA East Coast Conference: Taiwanese Eyes, American Visions"
April 10-12, 1998University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign "ITASA Midwest Conference -Express Yourself"
November 13-14, 1998Harvard University BITSA Conference - "Fortune's Way: Exploring the Taiwanese-American's Path to Success"
February 4-7, 1999Yale University "ITASA East Coast Conference - Made In Taiwan"
April 9-11, 1999University of Michigan "ITASA Midwest Conference - Links to the Past, Keys to the Future"
April 10-11, 1999University of California - Berkeley "ITASA West Coast Conference - A Journey Through Our Taiwanese-American Experience"
November 16, 1999Harvard University "BITSA Conference - Old-School-New School: Bridging the Taiwanese-American Past and Future"
February 18-20, 2000Brown University "ITASA East Coast Conference - Breaking Boundaries, Building Bridges"
March 31-April 2, 2000Northwestern University "ITASA Midwest Conference - The Next Generation"
April 7-9, 2000Stanford University"ITASA West Coast Conference"
November 11, 2000Massachusetts Institute of Technology "BITSA Conference - Inspiration and Expression: The Taiwanese-American in the New Millennium"
March 1-3, 2001University of Pennsylvania "ITASA East Coast Conference- ITASA: One Revolution"
March 15-18, 2001University of Michigan "ITASA Midwest Conference - Obey Your Core: Yam I Am"
Spring, 2001University of California - Los Angeles "ITASA West Coast Conference - Cause An Effect: Empowering a New Generation"
October 27, 2001Wellesley College"BITSA Conference - Movement: Raising a New Voice"
February 14-17, 2002Harvard University "ITASA East Coast Conference - Transition and Translation: Looking Within to Reach Beyond"
April 5-7, 2002University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign "ITASA Midwest Conference - Flash Forward: Taiwan Beyond the Boundaries"
April 5-7, 2002University of Southern California "ITASA West Coast Conference - Entering New Dimensions"
November 16, 2002Massachusetts Institute of Technology "BITSA Conference - Impressions"
February 27-March 2, 2003Columbia University "ITASA East Coast Conference - Biting Into the Yam"
April 4-6, 2003University of Washington "ITASA West Coast Conference - Building Parallel Generations"
November 15, 2003Tufts University "BITSA Conference - Made In Taiwan: Defining a Culture"
February 5-8, 2004Yale University "ITASA East Coast Conference - Choose Your Flavor"
March 5-7, 2004University of Michigan "ITASA Midwest Conference - Reunion"
April 2-4, 2004Stanford University "ITASA West Coast Conference - Seeking the New Taiwan Spirit"
February 24-26, 2005Rutgers University"ITASA East Coast Conference - Perpetual Motion"
April 7-9, 2005University of Southern California "ITASA West Coast Conference -One Step Ahead"
2005Northwestern University"ITASA Midwest Conference -Beyond the Spectrum"
February 9-11, 2006New York University "ITASA East Coast Conference - Unity"
March 31-April 2, 2006University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana"ITASA Midwest Conference -Remix"
April 6-April 8, 2006University of California, Los Angeles"ITASA West Coast Conference -Discovering the Taiwanese American Consciousness"
February 2-February 4, 2007Harvard University"ITASA East Coast Conference -The World Is Not Enough"
March 30-April 2, 2007University of Michigan"ITASA Midwest Conference -Team Taiwan"
April 12-April 15, 2007Stanford University"ITASA West Coast Conference -Rekindling the Flame"
February 21-February 23, 2008University of Pennsylvania"ITASA East Coast Conference - Kaleidoscope"
April 4-April 6, 2008Northwestern University"ITASA Midwest Conference - Hand in Hand"
External links
ITASA National Organization Page
*http://www.itasa.org/ITASA 2008 East Coast Conference Page (University of Pennsylvania)
*http://itasa.org/2008/eastITASA 2007 West Coast Conference Page (Stanford University)
*http://itasa.org/2007/westITASA 2007 Midwest Conference Page (University of Michigan)
*http://itasa.org/2007/midwestITASA 2007 East Coast Conference Page (Harvard University)
*http://itasa.org/2007/eastITASA 2006 West Coast Conference Page (University of California, Los Angeles)
*http://www.itasa.org/2006/west/ITASA 2006 Midwest Conference Page (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)
*http://www.itasa.org/2006/midwest/ITASA 2006 East Coast Conference Page (New York University)
*http://www.itasa.org/2006/east/ITASA 2005 East Coast Conference Page (Rutgers University)
*http://itasa.knsaber.com/ITASA 2004 East Coast Conference Newsletter (Yale University)
*http://www.xanga.com/YaleITASA2004 Stanford Daily Article on ITASA West Coast Conference
*http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=13566&repository=0001_article
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