To the Editors:

As a recent Oberlin alumna (Class of 2005) and a liaison for the Oberlin Asian Pacific American Alumni Association, it is my great pleasure to inform you of OAPAAA’s upcoming reunion, scheduled for October 10-12, 2008. As we plan ahead for the fall, we hope that you will consider joining us to connect across generations, share laughs about our times at Oberlin and to express our appreciation for those who have impacted our lives in positive and enduring ways. 

Established in the spring of 1992, OAPAAA is one of the largest alumni affiliate groups at Oberlin. Over the years, we have aimed to foster communication and community on issues of interest among Asian and Pacific Island alumni and students; and have actively supported efforts to increase and retain the number of Asian- and Pacific-Island Americans in the Oberlin College community as students, faculty, and staff.

OAPAAA guarantees you a fun-filled weekend, packed with artistic, educational and athletic activities. We are especially excited about bringing back to campus a number of prolific filmmaker alumni whose work spans a gamut of issues from love and friendship, to violence and war, to issues of race, gender and sexuality. We hope that you will join us at these screenings to experience for yourself the vast potential that life after Oberlin holds.

The primary purpose of this reunion is for alumni to interact with students, and to determine effective creative ways in which we can support you. We hope to use the reunion to create stronger opportunities for career development and mentoring within the Asian and Pacific Island community. I therefore strongly urge you to keep aware of the professional networking event that OAPAAA will host during the reunion.

Most importantly, however, we would like to hear from you! We’d like to hear about your Oberlin experience — your struggles and anxieties, but also about the silly and fun parts of your time at Oberlin. So be sure to stop by! We’ll be swarming all over campus — in Wilder and the Science Center, at the gym and North Fields, downtown and at the Feve. We won’t mind if you point and stare, so long as you say hello!

Keep your eyes and ears open for more information. We’ll be sure to keep you posted and look forward to seeing you in the fall.

Have a wonderful semester. And to the Class of 2008, congratulations and good luck!!