Annual Conference: Road to College and Beyond

The Pathway Foundation successfully held its first annual conference, “Road to College and Beyond,” at the Bellevue City Hall on August 17th, 2018. The conference’s main purpose was to discuss the path to success in college and careers as well as to promote civic engagement among Chinese-American youths. The interns had started planning the conference at the end of June by forming three committees: logistics and planning, marketing, and programming. The chairs of these committees and the head chair of conference endeavored to meet with Mr. Lee, Mr. Chen and Mr. Lai every week in summer to discuss the event details. On the day of the conference, over a hundred attendees were present including many high schoolers. The conference started with a speech from the City of Bellevue Councilmember Conrad Lee about the American Dream and personal pursuits towards a better future. Additionally, Mr. Lee introduced the Pathway Foundation and American Immigration Forums. His speech was inspirational, captivating, motivational, and ended with thunderous applause from the audience. Road to College and Beyond also featured multiple notable and accomplished guest speakers. John Spady, co-founder of American Immigration Forums, was present to talk about the importance of civic engagement. Karen Roper, college counselor and IB coordinator at Interlake High School was also present to give advice on the college application process; informing and preparing the audience for success in college admissions. Distinguished Pathway Foundation alumni, like Yale graduate Mason Ji, also shared their own personal stories about how civic engagement influenced them in college and affected their lives.

You can view footage of the conference here!