Greetings,

I am excited to have the opportunity to welcome and join you on this journey in discovering IMAGES and all the ALANA Center has to offer! IMAGES is a student-coordinated publication that provides an outlet for students of color to share their creativity, inspirations, fears, love, culture, experiences, and stories with the larger community through a myriad of artwork, short stories, poetry, and many other forms of writing.

The ALANA Center offers programs, resources and student advising to enhance the academic, campus life, and residential experiences of African-American/Black, Latino/a, Asian/Asian-American and Native American students. The center also supports and engages all students interested in exploring issues of cultural and racial identity.

This year I had the pleasure to work with extraordinary ALANA Center organizations and students campus wide. In this time, I have learned that the experiences shared in this place, which many students call HOME, include creating meals together, late night organization meetings, laughter, napping on the couch, and honest dialogue about their experiences as persons of color on Vassar’s campus and in the world. Some of this year’s programming events included: The 2009 Presidential Debate Viewing; the Annual Meet and Greet with Faculty, Students & Administrators; cultural events and celebrations such as the Lunar New Year, Black History Month, Vamos a Comer, and Dawali dinners; and workshops including Late Night Salsa Dance, Women of Color and Heart Disease; and Silence Out Loud: Spoken Word and Poetry. The Center is an environment where dreams can be crafted, support is present, and learning takes many forms.

It has been a delight to see the growth, dedication and love of the students, faculty, administrators and staff who are invested in our work of fostering leadership, identity affirmation, and intra-cultural and cross-cultural dialogues on culture, society and higher education. I hope you enjoy our publication and feel inspired to discover who we are, what we are about, and all we have to offer.

With warmest regards,
Jocelyn Tejeda

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