By Madison Hoang ‘23
“I do think that [being selected to host the AAFC this year] is a great milestone for us [St. Mark’s], because it is a recognition of the level of engagement and activism on behalf of our Asian student population,” says Ms. Zhu - who, along with Ms. Yang and Mr. Chen - are the three faculty members leading the charge for the Asian-American Footsteps Conference (AAFC), which will be hosted by St. Mark’s this 2021-2022 school year. This officially makes St. Mark’s the 10th school to ever host the conference, another exciting milestone for Ms. Zhu herself and for the rest of the AAFC planning committee.
The AAFC was first established in 2011 by Aya Murata, an advisor to students at Phillips Academy Andover, who saw the lack of opportunities that were available for Asian and Asian-American students to discuss and explore their racial and ethnic identities. Out of this need to create a safe and empowering space for all Asian and Asian-American students, the AAFC was born, combining collaborative and educational experiences to help students explore, affirm, and embrace their racial and ethnic identities. Annually, the conference draws in hundreds of Asian and Asian-American students and faculty from preparatory schools across New England; since then, the participation rate has only grown, demonstrating the increasing importance of the AAFC in helping Asian and Asian-American young adults better understand and navigate their identities, not only in the immediate backdrop of their diverse prep-school environments, but also in the greater context of the increasingly-diverse United States environment that encapsulates them.
This year, the AAFC will be held virtually on April 24th. Following the previous years’ structures, the conference will be held over the course of one day; It will first feature a keynote presentation by a guest speaker, followed by 2-3 rounds of student and faculty-led workshops, as well as a small-group collaborative and discussion-based period in between. Each year, keynote speakers are picked based on outstanding commitment to Asian and Asian-American representation in their fields, as well as outstanding achievements through their work. While the Keynote speaker is yet to be announced, the hope is that his or her presentation will set a strong and empowering tone for the rest of the conference. Plans for the workshops are also in progress; early February, the AAFC committee has invited students and faculty members from all participating schools to propose and run workshops following the Keynote presentation. The Keynote speech and workshops will fall under the overarching theme of “Unmuting and Uniting,” which the committee hopes will resonate throughout the course of the entire conference, encouraging students to finally make their voices heard and empower them to strongly affirm their racial and ethnic identities.
When asked about the challenges facing the planning process so far, Ms. Zhu shares, “I would have to say that our biggest challenge has been shifting from hosting the conference in-person to hosting it virtually.” While the conference was initially intended to be hosted in-person at St. Mark’s, it will now be moved to a virtual platform due to updated COVID-19 restrictions. For such a significant change to take place so late in the planning process, the AAFC committee has been forced to adapt by reworking the entire theme of the conference itself, and by shifting their focus towards more technical matters. In addition, worrying concerns linger: Will the shift to a virtual-based conference dampen students’ engagement? How will this affect student turnout? How do we prevent participants from feeling “Zoomed-out” during the conference? However, despite these challenges, Ms. Zhu is immensely proud of the work that the AAFC committee has done so far; She praises the committee’s members’ flexibility and strong work ethic during a time of such monumental alteration to the planning process.
Therefore, Ms. Zhu is confident that St. Mark’s will be able to host a fantastic AAFC this year, and that the school will be able to deliver a meaningful and empowering experience for all Asian and Asian-American students across the participating New England prep-school community. She encourages any and all St. Markers, who identify as either Asian or Asian-American, to attend the AAFC this year. Despite falling short of initial expectations (that it will be in-person at St. Mark’s), the virtual-based AAFC will still provide students a “great opportunity” for self-education and self-empowerment, about what it means to be Asian. Especially following a pandemic-era wave of increased discrimination and violence against Asians and Asian-Americans in the US, the need for Asians to “unmute” their voices and “unite” at the AAFC is undoubtedly more important than ever before.
