Rewards and Challenges in Asian American Community Building

An introduction to the Community Building Initiative (CBI) at Brooklyn College with particular focus on the observations, experiences, and insights gained through our Asian Outreach efforts. A panel of Asian American/Asian faculty, staff, and students will join us in a dialogue discussion following this presentation.

Author Bio

Loretta Chin has worked for over 10 years at Brooklyn College and is currently employed as a Special Projects Coordinator for the Community Building Initiative in the Office of the Dean for Student Life.

Working closely with students and faculty, she has been an avid supporter of the Asian/Asian American community at BC and in CUNY. She has been co-advisor for the Asian Student Union, The Asian Outreach Committee, and the Chinese Language Culture Club . She has worked diligently to support Asian student leadership development and increase understanding of their challenges and achievements. Functioning in this way has helped to facilitate her role as liaison between the newly formed BC Asian/Asian American Faculty & Staff and AAARI.

In addition, Ms. Chin has coordinates the BC Circles Dialogue series, involving many in discussions about peace, justice, democracy and world events to foster greater inter-group understanding on campus.


Melanie E. L. Bush, Ph.D., author of Breaking the Code of Good Intentions: Everyday Forms of Whiteness , (Rowman and Littlefield, Inc. 2004) is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Adelphi University (Garden City, NY). She has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and presented nationally on issues of racial and social justice, U.S. nationalism, academic freedom and education and the common good. She can be reached at melanie.e.l.bush@gmail.com