Volume 1, Issue 6 January, 2009

• Enhancing the Alumni Association at SIAS
• If It's Good Enough for Obama,It's Good Enough for Chen!
• Corporate Council Introducedto SIAS
• SIAS Foundation Welcomes New Board Members
• Skylark Winners to Create Work on SIAS Campus
• SIAS University Foundation Elects New Slate of Officers for2009
• Institute for the Environment and Social Responsibility
• Mentorship Project ... Making Connections, Making Friends
• Training Programs and Internships Offered to SIAS
• SIAS Students Engage in Worldwide Networking
• Prospective Partnership with Ben Gurion University
• Friends of SIAS
• Message from the Founder

Enhancing the Alumni Association at SIAS

Over the past three years, many people have worked to build an international Alumni Association at SIAS. Diana Snider, Shawn Chen and Judith Luther-Wilder from the Foundation and Vice President Zhang, Mrs. Xiao, and Rocky Zhang from Sias, together with early Alumni leaders Connie Chen, Judy Zhu, Ginny Chu, Andy Chen (Guo Hui), James Moo, CeCe Ji and Robert Hao, provided the initial leadership for a truly representative alumni association. This year, Dr. Alan Brown, Carol Blanchard, Steven Chen and new chapter leaders such as Bruce Peng and James Liu are committed to moving the organization forward. Currently the Association has members located in 14 cities in the United States and China.

Everyone feels that a strong and active alumni association can provide many benefits to the alumni and to SIAS. Exciting plans are now being made to continue to build and strengthen the international association.

The goal of the Association is to unite, inform and involve alumni, family and friends for the purpose of promoting, protecting and preserving SIAS International University. Therefore, the developers of the association have created a set of five pillars that define the role of the SIAS International University Alumni Association.

The Alumni Association will:

• Keep all alumni connected to SIAS through communication and involvement
• Promote advocacy on behalf of the university
• Enhance the student experience through scholarships and involvement
• Preserve and enrich the history and traditions of the university, and
• Provide a welcoming environment for all alumni and their families

As the association grows, it will increase its activities and benefits to members and the university. The creators envision such activities as a career service, group travel activities, access to SIAS library services, group discounts for insurance, a scholarship program for needy students and students of merit, awards for outstanding teachers, an on-campus alumni service, continuing education programs for all alumni and an alumni records center that can be accessed online.

Five alumni chapters from Zhengzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Rowan University, Fort Hays University, and Los Angeles have already donated more than $4000 US in scholarship support for needy students at SIAS.

If It's Good Enough for Obama, It's Good Enough for Chen!

American Presidents have long been able to call on the talents and experience of informal "Kitchen Cabinets". In a line stretching from Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama, informal advisors have provided sitting Presidents with everything from expertise, financial support, summer homes, advice and arguably, moral support. In recent years, Presidential Kitchen Cabinets have included such luminaries as Walter Annenberg, Clark Clifford, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Warren Christopher. And if Chef Alice Waters has her way, President Obama will have experts from real kitchens advising him on issues such as nutrition and healthy food.

Not to be outdone, SIAS Founder Shawn Chen has invited his own Kitchen Cabinet to informally advise him on issues such as education, the environment, and sustainable construction. Given the number of invitations he has to speak at conferences and meetings around the country, he hopes some of his "Cabinet" members will be able to represent him and pinch hit on the speakers' circuit during his long trips in China.

Experts he has invited to be part of his informal support system include Les Hamasaki, Managing Director of the Tom Bradley Green Technology Institute; Dr. Titus Levi, an economist and consultant to the Discovery Channel's Global Education Partnership and to Social Science Academic Press in Beijing; Engineer / Management Consultant and Award Winning Author Ed Lai; Bharat Patel, the President of the U.S. Green Building Council in Los Angeles, and Robert Gin, Vice-President of the School Board for the Alhambra Unified School District.

Although his Kitchen Cabinet may not be able to provide him with a summer home in Cape Cod or make multimillion dollar donations to a Chen Presidential Library, his distinguished Cabinet is well-equipped to provide him with sage advice and counsel on numerous critical issues.

Corporate Council Introduced to Sias

In September 2008, Consultant Allison Sampson organized a meeting of the first members of the SIAS Corporate Council on the SIAS International University campus. The group adopted a Mission Statement that included the following commitments:

To support SIAS's mission and goals by:

• Supporting the new Institute for the Environment and Social Responsibility initative
• Bringing businesses and organizations as partners for and with SIAS
• Marketing SIAS to a broader group – no longer the best kept secret!
• Providing training to business partners in the USA and China to help optimize business for both, using SIAS as the training ground or its faculty as trainers
• Supporting SIAS students and alumni through internships and mentorships
• Advising the SIAS Chairman when needed or when issues are observed.

Delegates attending the first Corporate Council meeting included SIAS Founder Shawn Chen, the Foundation’s Incoming and Outgoing Presidents, Carol Fitzgerald and Jerrie Ueberle, Foundation Board Member Paul Elsner, long time SIAS supporter Dr. Robert George, a full delegation of the Shanghai Women’s Federation, business executives John Martin, Kevin Krause, JMichael Walker, Douglas Tucker and Kevin Li.

Subsequent to the meeting in China, Attorney Douglas Tucker agreed to work with the Shanghai Women’s Federation to explore ways to build business opportunities between the USA and China. Federation members are also involved in the SIAS Mentoring Program, Kevin Krause joined the Board of the Institute for the Environment and Social Responsibility and Kansas businessman John Martin made a financial commitment towards revamping the English language portion of the SIAS University website. Continued efforts are being taken to move the Advisory Council forward. Members will be invited to the 10th Anniversary in May.

Sias Foundation Welcomes New Board Members

During 2008, the SIAS Foundation Board of Directors welcomed Board Members from Florida and Vermont to its roster.

Dr. Jin Wang, Associate Provost and Dean of Academic Services from the University of Tampa, brings a wealth of experience to the Foundation. He has served as a Professor and Associate Dean at Rowan University and as the Interim Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. He has also been a Fulbright Scholar in Brazil, and has been listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, and Who’s Who Among Asian Americans.

Another Floridian, Suzanne M. Martin, Ph.D., is a professor of Exceptional Education in the Child, Family and Community Sciences Department, College of Education at the University of Central Florida.

Dr. Martin has a long history of leadership activities in higher education as well as educational organizations. She has served as a President of the International Council of Exceptional Children and as a Program Specialist/ Branch Chief at the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

New Board Member Jon Alexiou, Ph.D., has a distinguished career in both the public and the private sectors of education in the United States. During a significant career at Miami-Dade College in Miami, Florida, Dr. Alexiou served in progressively more demanding academic and administrative roles. Among other positions, he has served as President of Miami-Dade’s Kendall Campus (with approximately 50,000 annual student head-count) and President of MDC’s Wolfson Campus (the multi-cultural, comprehensive campus in the heart of the political, cultural, and economic heart of downtown Miami).

Upon retirement from MDC, Dr. Alexiou served for seven years as the Director of Community College Initiatives at the Princeton-based, non-profit organization, creating linkages between ETS and the community college movement. Dr. Alexiou holds a Ph.D. from the University of Miami in Modern Chinese Studies.

J. Alvin Wakefield (Al) brings impressive business experience to the Foundation Board. He has over thirty years total experience in the evaluation and recruitment of senior level management.

Before forming Wakefield Talabisco International, Al held senior-level human resources positions at Mobil Oil Corporation, The Celanese Corporation, The Singer Company, and Avon Products, Inc., where he served as Vice President, Personnel Worldwide. He was previously a partner in the executive search firms of Korn/Ferry International and Gilbert Tweed Associates, Inc.