After enjoying a brunch hosted by Tsue and Jerry Ostermann, Richard Vuylsteke described his first 16 months at the East-West Center. Tsue said, “We feel very encouraged to learn that Richard’s vision for the Center puts more emphasis on the student programs” and made an appeal for everyone to think of ways that the chapter can become more active.
Following a dinner meeting on May 9, 2018, with President Richard Vuylsteke and Development Officer Gary Yoshida, past New York Chapter Leader Bill Armbruster (Open Grants, MA 1971-1973) writes:
…It was a great evening. According to my count, we had 23 people representing alumni from every decade of the East-West Center’s history – from the 1960s to the 2010s. We also had people whose engagement with the Center represented every level of involvement – grantees who received graduate degrees from UH thanks to the EWC; staff members, including Doug Murray, who served as vice president back in the 1980s; a former chair of the EWC Board of Governors (Ko-Yung Tung); journalists who participated in the Jefferson Fellows and other journalism programs; post-doc fellows; and, of course, Richard, a former grantee, staffer and now president! We were also pleased to welcome friends of the Center, including Charles Wu, who has been to almost all of our dinners over the past 20 years, and Oma Lee, who was Richard’s mentee when they were both in Hong Kong.
The Southern California Chapter celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a visit from EWC President Richard Vuylsteke and Development Officer Gary Yoshida. The Chapter correspondent reports that “It was an opportunity for chapter members to get acquainted with our friendly, visionary, professionally diverse and relevantly qualified new EWC president and his opportunity to get to know Southern California alumni and hear their ideas.” Those in attendance heard about progress and plans for improving the EWC programs, funding, and outreach.
Thirty alumni ranging from their 40s to their 80s gathered in Jakarta for dinner with President Vuylsteke on March 30. Alumni representing recent EWC generations gave speeches of welcome: Encop Sofia (a member of Parliament) and Amin Abdullah (the Director in the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry).
With scheduling assistance from members of the Brisbane, Australia Chapter, EWC President Vuylsteke packed a lot of action into a one-day visit: meetings at Queensland University of Technology International Division and The University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute and Global Engagement office, a pleasure trip on the Brisbane River on board a Citycat ferry, and dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant with nine chapter members.
A chapter board member reports that “Dr. Vuylsteke’s visit has revitalized our Chapter energies and encouraged members to pursue new projects to contribute to the EWCA. We thank Dr. Vuylsteke for making time in his busy schedule to visit Brisbane and meet with us. We hope that the contacts he has made will prove to be fruitful and we would welcome the opportunity to host him again some time in the future.”
A group of Washington, DC-area friends, including a number of EWC alumni, enjoyed a multi-course Chinese dinner marking the Lunar Year of the Dog. The venue was Mark’s Duck House, a famous Hong Kong-style restaurant in suburban Falls Church, VA.
In the photograph are some of the alumni at the dinner (left to right): Jerome Weingart, Jaswinder Brara, Mike Anderson, Alan Miller, Zenny Logue, Tim Logue, and Anny Wong (who organized the annual gathering). Others at the dinner included former grantee Steve Olive, Sara Banaszak, Michele Kayal, and former EWC Alumni Officer Gale Awaya McCallum
Karachi, Pakistan Chapter
The Sights of South Asia photo exhibition sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Journalism honored two esteemed members of the Karachi Press Club, Athar Kahn and Naeem Sahoutara, whose photographs document their journeys through India and Sri Lanka as part of a collaborative project with the East-West Center Journalist Exchange between India and Pakistan funded by the US Embassy Islamabad.
