On Thursday, May 16 New York City Council Member Brad Lander visited SAYA!'s afterschool program at Primary School 230 Doris L. Cohen. SAYA!'s co-ed program for 5th grade students meets twice a week and focuses on academics as well as service-learning. This is SAYA!'s first year working in PS 230 thanks to funding from Council Member Lander. During the visit SAYA! youth presented the work they have been doing this year, including their anti-bullying campaign. At the end of the visit the youth presented Council Member Lander with a t-shirt they decorated with anti-bullying slogans.

On Saturday, May 4 SAYA! hosted it's first ever Private High School Admissions Panel. This workshop was geared toward middle school parents and families, and we were fortunate enough to have representatives from elite private schools in New York City: Jason Caldwell from Horace Mann School and Rekha Puri from The School at Columbia University.

On Saturday May 18 SAYA! will celebrate the end of a great school year with SAYA!'s Got Talent, an event that will feature 21 performances from our multiple program sites. The end of the year event is a great chance to bring together our youth as well as their families.

ARISE leadership at our Elmhurst Center has conducted a clothing drive for their end of the year project. The co-ed leadership program focuses on civic engagement and service learning and is funded Council Members Daniel Dromm, Julissa Ferreras, and Leroy Comrie. The youth are collecting, organizing and packaging items to be donated to a local shelter in Queens. The youth have put together this project by working together and are currently researching shelters to donate to. Here are some photos of the great work they did.

This past month SAYA! youth at Primary School 230 Doris L. Cohen worked together on a project to end to the bullying problem in their school. SAYA!'s co-ed program for 5th grade students meets twice a week and focuses on academics as well as service-learning. This is SAYA!'s first year working in PS 230 thanks to funding from Council Member Brad Lander. 

The youth created posters, informative t-shirts, and a skit to show their school that by working together, they can make a difference in the fight against bullying and hatred. On May 3 the students presented the skit and their work to the Principal Sharon Fiden and to the Assistant Principal Freya Grice.

On Thursday, May 2 ARISE at our Elmhurst Center co-ed leadership group met with senior citizens from India Home, a Queens-based organization that provides services for Indian seniors and people with special needs. This is just the beginning of a collaboration with India Home for inter-generational meetings and conversations between the ARISE youth and the seniors. The youth wanted to learn about immigration and life stories from the seniors. The youth also want to be able to introduce the seniors to new technology such as Twitter, Facebook, texting, Google, and YouTube so they can watch their favorite shows. ARISE youth believe this will help the seniors communicate with their families as well as keep up to date with the world around them. ARISE leadership at our Elmhurst Center  is funded Council Members Daniel Dromm, Julissa Ferreras, and Leroy Comrie.

Thanks to India Home for partnering with us to connect these two generations.

On Saturday, April 27 SAYA! hosted our 5^th Annual Career Fair. Our participants included 50 panelists from fields of arts & entertainment, business, technology, engineering/science, nonprofit/public service, government, communications, education, law, entrepreneurs, and healthcare. To kick off the day and energize our youth, filmmaker Angad Bhalla introduced a clip from his film Herman’s House and New York State Senator José Peralta spoke to the crowd about the importance of career guidance. Along with our great group of panelists, 120 youth from our multiple sites made fro a very successful event.

From April 19-22, 2013 four SAYA! staff and youth attended SAALT (South Asian Americans Leading Together)’s National South Asian Summit in Washington, D.C. Below is a blog post on the summit from SAYA! youth Minhazul Hoque and Shabab Waleed who had a unique and enriching experience:

“On April 19, 2013 we attended the 4th Annual SAALT (South Asian Americans Leading Together) South Asia Summit. This was our first SAALT Summit conference. South Asians all around the United States for three days to discuss some of the current problems that South Asian are facing. The first two days were held at American University of law and the last day was held at Capitol Hill. On the first day there were many panels that we could have chosen but we chose the workshop "Integrating the Male Voice into Domestic Violence". In this workshop there were speakers who dealt with male violence who showed us the correct way to handle those situations. For the second session we choose "Education Equity: Trends Affecting South Asian Students" where two adults as well two youth were at the panel. In that workshop the panelist spoke about South Asian immigrant youth and their access to educational opportunities which can often be hindered by bullying, hate violence, curriculum bias, and cultural barriers. After that everyone had lunch while a couple of panelist talked about the topic "South Asian Momentum: Beyond the 2012 Elections". They spoke about South Asians becoming future leaders and representing the South Asian community. For the 4th session we went to a workshop "In the Face of Xenophobia: Addressing the Bullying of South Asian and Muslim Youth in U.S. Schools and Communities" where panelists spoke about bullying because of race and ethnicity. During the session participates told stories about how they were affected by 9/11 as Muslims and as people of different skin colors. We really enjoyed my time at the 2013 SAALT South Asia Summit."

On Friday, April 19 SAYA! youth attended Shaheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto at Culture Project. The youth were treated to dinner in the East Village and the play thanks to SAYA! board member Ali Naqvi. Following the play the youth had the opportunity to meet with writer and performer Anna Khaja, who answered in-depth questions regarding the content and craft of the one-woman show.

On Sunday, April 21 U.S. Representative Grace Meng celebrated her first 100 days in office with a community celebration at Francis Lewis High School. SAYA! dance group Habibi Express performed a Bollywood dance. Other performances included were the Latin American Cultural Center of Queens, the Korean Traditional Music and Dance Institute of New York, and Francis Lewis High School ROTC and Choir.