The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Scholarships and Awards Committee is proud to announce its sponsorship of Frans Albarillo and Susan Hoang as participants in the 2013 class of the American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leaders program (ELP). APALA will provide funding to support their attendance and participation in the Program at the 2013 ALA Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference.
“APALA is delighted to continue supporting the Emerging Leaders program,” says APALA 2012-2013 President, Jade Alburo. “Three of APALA’s recent presidents, including me, plus a number of previous and current Executive Board members were participants in this program. Emerging Leaders Program helps prepare new librarians to become leaders in the profession, and APALA is more than happy to give them leadership opportunities.”
Frans has a history of working with and reaching out to multicultural students. He has taught basic English classes to incoming refugees and was an ESL teacher overseas and in the United States. As a graduate student and later as a librarian in Hawai‘i, he worked with individuals from a variety of backgrounds, including students from the Philippines, New Guinea, Indonesia, East Timor, Vietnam and Micronesia. Today, Frans works as bibliographer for Business and Sociology at Brooklyn College. Frans writes, “I believe that as an emerging leader I have the potential vision and background to lead new ways of thinking about multiculturalism and multilingualism in our libraries. This is relevant to libraries because there is more non-English scholarship and online content being developed every day. Furthermore, I believe that my experience shows my desire to continue to work in multicultural contexts and with a variety of communities in order to explore new ways of helping these students succeed.”
Susan began her career with Public Allies, an AmeriCorps community leadership program. She also became involved in creating community gardens, becoming a volunteer Master Gardener and teaching low-income Latino and Asian populations how to grow their own food. Currently Susan serves as a reference and instruction librarian at Carleton College where she supports Arts and Literature, Social Science and Humanities courses. Susan writes, “Emerging Leaders will be an amazing opportunity to work with others who are beginning to recognize our impact on the librarian community. The Emerging Leaders program will challenge me to think of myself as a potential leader in the profession, someone who has ideas to contribute on a national scale. I want to become an effective participant and advocate for libraries and connect the sometimes siloed parts of our profession so that we can more holistically support common national goals. I want to particularly find my place within ALA and contribute to committee work and the broader goals of the organization.”
Congratulations to the following APALA members for being selected for the Emerging Leader Program this year: Tarida Anantachai by the Association of College & Research Libraries-University Libraries Section (ACRL ULS), Emily Chan by Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) and Jennifer Himmelreich by American Indian Library Association (AILA).
The Emerging Leader Program enables newer librarians from across the country to participate in workgroups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA’s structure and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity. Emerging Leaders receive up to $1,000 each to participate in the Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference, and each participant is expected to provide years of service to ALA or one of its units. For the complete list of the 2013 class of Emerging Leaders, please visit:
http://www.ala.org/educationcareers/class-emerging-leader-participants
The APALA Scholarships and Awards Committee includes Gayatri Singh (chair), Tassanee Chitcharoen (co-chair), Emily Chan, Paul Lai, Valeria Molteni and Melanee Vicedo.
The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, an affiliate of the American Library Association, was organized and founded by librarians of diverse Asian and Pacific ancestries committed to working together toward a common goal: to create an organization that would address the needs of Asian Pacific American librarians and those who serve Asian Pacific American communities. For more information about APALA and to become a member, visit www.apalaweb.org/.