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| Issue:
804 Date: 01/19/2006 |
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The Organization of Chinese Americans St. Louis Chapter
2006 Annual Banquet, Saturday, January 21, 2006
Doubletree Hotel, Chesterfield, MO
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The Organization of Chinese Americans St. Louis Chapter
2006 Annual Banquet, Saturday, January 21, 2006
Doubletree Hotel, Chesterfield, MO
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| Consistency Is The Key To Success
Jason Tang,
President, The Organization of Chinese Americans St. Louis Chapter
Happy New Year! We are proud to
report that we have had another exciting year in promoting the
hopes and aspirations of Chinese and Asian Americans in the St.
Louis area. In
2005, OCA, St. Louis made
significant impact in the following three areas that we had
planned for: |
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1. Expanded Community Outreach - The
third annual joint picnic with the Family with Children from China
(FCC) was a success. Seeing so many adopted children from China
being loved by their families has inspired us to support the FCC
organization wholeheartedly.
2. Enhanced Cross Culture
Communication - OCA, with the generous support from Anheuser-Busch
Companies, hosted a cross culture communication seminar. The
speaker was the world renown cross cultural communication expert
Dr. Lilly Chen. We enjoyed a morning of networking and learning
communication skills. As in the past, OCA, St. Louis was again
invited to give seminars in Chinese culture and customs to
students at Rockwood South High School and Webster University.
3. Encouraged Entrepreneurship - OCA
organized this workshop with the help of the S.B.A., the U.S.
Department of Commerce, and the Regional Enterprise Center. More
than 50 professionals and businessmen learned how and when to
start a profitable new business and sustain the success with the
available resources from the S.B.A. and the Regional Enterprise
Center in St. Louis.
In addition, OCA will continue to
promote Mandarin Chinese as an optional foreign language in local
elementary schools in recognition of its importance in the growing
trend toward globalization.
I wish you the best of happiness and
success. Enjoy the banquet.
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| Kynote Speaker Robin
Carnahaen, Missouri Secretary of State
Robin Carnahan grew
up in Rolla, Missouri. After graduating from Rolla High School,
she attended William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, earning
a degree, with honors, in Economics. Her education continued at
the University of Virginia School of Law where she served as
Executive Editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law
before receiving her law degree in 1986. She returned to Missouri
and began practicing law with the St. Louis law firm of Thompson &
Mitchell, focusing on business and corporate law.
In 1990, as the people of central and
eastern Europe began throwing out their oppressive Soviet-backed
governments, Carnahan went to work to help rebuild their democracies
and their economies. As part of a team from the National Democratic
Institute, she helped draft voting laws, train new political leaders
and monitor elections in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
Secretary
Carnahan also served as an executive at the Export-Import Bank of
the United States. At the bank, Carnahan worked on innovative ways
to help American companies increase the sale of their goods and
services to buyers around the world.
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Today, Carnahan continues to manage
her family𠏋 800 acre farm and Angus cattle operation outside of
Rolla. As a small business person herself, she understands first
hand the challenges faced by small business owners everyday.
Carnahan is committed to streamlining the operations of the
Secretary of State𠏋 office to make it easier for Missouri business
to get started and continue to grow.
As Secretary of State, Carnahan is
committed to using innovative, common sense methods to better serve
Missourian𠏋 who use the office. Specifically, she is working to cut
red-tape by creating an online, one-stop-shop for the Missouri
businesses; crack down on firms that attempt to defraud Missouri
investors; protect Missouri𠏋 precious State Libraries and Archives;
and restore confidence in the state𠏋 elections system. To Carnahan,
public service is about providing good customer service and getting
the job done for Missourians./td>
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Community Service
Award Mr. & Mrs. George & Sandy Tsai
Mr. George Tsai is a long time
champion and participant of St. Louis Chinese American community
service projects. Not only is he a successful entrepreneur, he
devotes his spare time and financial resources in serving various
noteworthy community projects.
His roles in serving a wide range of
community and charitable organizations include serving as the
chairman of the Taiwan ROC National Day celebration committee,
vice-president of the St. Louis Taiwanese American Citizen
Association, Chairman of the St. Louis Chinese Culture Center, a
member of the University City Economic Development Committee. George
is also an elder at the St. Louis Taiwanese Presbyterian Church.
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Mrs. Sandy Tsai is a successful
entrepreneur with a clear vision to share her good fortune with the
community. Together with her husband, George Tsai, they compete with
each other to branch out their food manufacturing endeavors
throughout the nation with new factories opening one after another.
In less then ten years, they have established footholds not only in
the United States, but in many cities in China.
"Profits gained from the community
will be shared with the community" is Sandy Tsai's motto. She
started the one and only St. Louis Chinese American News in
September 1990. This free weekly publication serves the Chinese St.
Louisans who depend on it for information as well as a bridge to
connect the Chinese Americans with the larger society. Within the
past eleven years, the St. Louis Chinese American News expanded from
its humble beginning of 8 pages to the present 24-26 pages, from
manual typesetting to computer layouts. The newspaper has joined the
international website in 1997 dispatching its information and
service without boundary all over the world at
www.scanews.com.
Sandy Tsai has a strong belief to
serve the community, to promote the Chinese tradition and heritage,
and to help the less fortunate ones. She is well respected for her
generosity and efforts in making a difference for our community.
George and Sandy Tsai are major sponsors of the nascent China Hope
Project, which provides financial support to economically stricken
school children in Hunan Providence, China. |
Youth Leadership
Recipient Mr. James Lee
James Lee is 17 years old and is
currently a senior at Parkway Central High School. He has attended
there for his entire high school career. James is distinguished at
school as the current class valedictorian and co-founder of the
unofficial Meat Club. James is also the Co-Concertmaster of
Central's Symphonic Orchestra, the captain of the school's renowned
Varsity State-champion Academic Team, and the Vice President of the
Beta Chi Pi Honors society. Other activities in which he
participates include the Mu Alpha Theta and National Honors Society,
math club, and Science Olympiad team.
James takes part in
many extracurricular activities which reflect his interests in
school. Having played the violin since he was five, James is now a
first violin member of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra and
has worked with the SLSYO since 2003. He has also been a part of
the Missouri All-State Orchestra since 2004. James has worked with
the Tzu Chi foundation to help out |
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with community service. He tutors
outside of school as well. James is the Principal Consultant and
Technician for PC Max, a locally owned computer consultation
company. He works on-site to fix computer issues and help create
networks. In his spare time, James enjoys listening to music
(classical and rock), watching science fiction shows, and playing
the violin as well as playing Dance Revolution.
James has won many recent awards,
including 1st place at the local American Chemical Society Honors
contest. He has also been nominated for the National Council of
Teachers of English Excellence in Writing award, and is also a
National Merit Semifinalist. He has received awards in contests for
his work in the violin. James has also participated in contests such
as the US National Chemistry Olympiad and the American Invitational
Mathematics Exam.
His particular interests lie in
engineering, the sciences, and music. James has been accepted to
both the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Other college interests include
Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the
University of California at Berkeley. He plans to major in
Engineering Physics in college with either a minor in philosophy or
music. He also plans to work in small classical music ensembles
and/or orchestras. As a career he hopes to be involved with research
and development of new technologies such as quantum computing and
nanotechnology. He hopes to help expand the Organization of Chinese
Americans in the future, with financial or leadership contributions.
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Youth Leadership
Recipient Mr. James Louis Pan
James Pan, the son of Zhigao Pan and
Shun Lian Lao, has an older brother, Jack at Purdue University and a
younger sister, Lisa at West High. Jimmy stands in the top 6% in his
class with a career GPA of 4.2.
Besides the academic achievements,
Jimmy is committed to the community, school and sports. Through his
four years in high school, Jimmy has been a leader in school,
community and sports clubs. For his senior year, Jimmy led the
Parkway West cross country team as a captain; became president of
YOCA (Youth Organization of Chinese Americas; became president of
SAMENA (South Asian, Middle East, North Africa Society); became a
Co-captain for the St. Louis Chinese School Lion Dance team; became
a chairman for Nuevo Amigos. With all the leadership positions,
Jimmy is very busy. Nevertheless, he devotes himself wholeheartedly
to sports. He plays baseball in spring and summer for West High team
and runs cross-country in fall and winter. Jimmy also stays active
with other clubs such as NHS (National Honors Society, Mu Alpha
Theta (Math Honors Society), Beta Chi Pi (Science Honors Society),
SWAT (Students with a Target) and Peer Mediation. |
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As Jimmy leaves for college, He
will continue to stay active with the community and school.
Eventually, Jimmy's career goal is to become a lawyer or physician
so that he can help others who may not be as fortunate as he is. |
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