August 10, 2020
Dear #AAJAFam

#AAJA20 is underway -- and what a jawdropping day one. Attendees showed up in their finest AAJA tees, suited up, or in their most comfy pjs. But most of all, everyone showed up with a tremendous spirit of community that made this year's virtual endeavor so worthwhile.

Sunday saw the online reunion of JCamp and Voices alum, trainings from IMWF and IRE, and sessions for early career journalists.
Image of Sunday's Voices/JCamp Alum hangout session by Doris Truong (@DorisTruong)

And our opening night featuring Dr. Sanjay Gupta in conversation with Niala Boodhoo has already amassed 1k+ views on Facebook. Watch it here.
Anjali Huynh (@anjalihuynh) Words from @drsanjaygupta that resonated with me in the #AAJA20 opening: “I love being a journalist. It has such purpose … If you do good work, you do important work, it lives on not for what it is now but for what it represents later as well.”
Today, we're starting off with The 50% Initiative: JOCs in the Newsroom, presented by NBC Universal that discusses increasing the number of newsroom leaders of color,
followed by a full slate of exhibitor info sessions (our sponsored Speed Showcase) ft. The Dow Jones News Fund, Law360, CoinDesk, USC Annenberg, Think Public Media, The Knight Foundation, and The New York Times, and a dozen panels ranging from Yes, You Can Look Good on Video Calls to The Social Isolation of Coronavirus (presented by AARP), It's Personal: Covering Social Justice (presented by Verizon Media), and Assess, Adapt, and Accelerate: Navigating your financial journal in the new normal (presented by Wells Fargo).

The rest of the week is just as jam-packed with star-studded programs and tons of social events -- from tonight's karaoke competition (the 30th!) to game night, an all-week Wiki Edit-a-Thon, dumpling and mapo tofu cook-alongs, an AAPI film showcase, A Thousand Cuts movie screening, fitness classes, and more.
#AAJA20 Programs Available to the Public
Select plenaries and sessions will be livestreamed or made available to all AAJA members and to the public on our Facebook page (@AAJAHQ), including our Reporting While Asian American series, and our A Thousand Cuts Talkback, featuring Maria Ressa and filmmaker Ramona Diaz in conversation with Benjamin Pimentel.

More will be announced throughout the week on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow Along on Social Media

Even if you're not in attendance this year, we welcome you to join along the festival and participate in the conversations on social media by following and using the hashtags #AAJA20 and #AAJAFamily -- tag us on the following profiles:

Twitter: @aaja
Instagram: @aajaofficial
Facebook: @AAJAHQ
My babies joining me to watch @axios Today host @NialaBoodhoo interview @drsanjaygupta at #AAJA20
Gwendolyn Wu @ #AAJA20
(@gwendolynawu)
Hello hello, are you at #AAJA20 this year?

If you’re attending, don’t be shy! Let’s chat about college journalism, navigating internships/fellowships and how hard it is to keep your dog from popping into your Zoom
Pablo Iglesias (@pabloiglesias_tv) S/O to my mom for the #AAJA20 board! @aajaofficial
In Other News...

  • STATEMENT: AAJA-Asia Condemns Arrest of Apple Daily Founder, Media Executives & Apple Daily Raid The Asian American Journalists Association’s Asia Chapter (AAJA-Asia) strongly condemns the arrests of Apple Daily founder, Jimmy Lai, and other journalists and media executives, as well as the raid of Apple Daily’s news office, over alleged violations of Hong Kong’s National Security Law.
#AAJAKudos

  • Parth Upadhyaya's new gig covering Penn State football for the Center Daily Times
  • Roberta Kwok, Knight Science Journalism Program 2020-21 Project Fellow
  • Frank Bi, Joseph Hernandez, Diane Lee, Isabelle Niu, Ruth Tam, Stephanie Wu, Kumberly Yuen, members of the 2020-21 Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media by Poynter and The Washington Post.

On Our List
Members emboldened