On Sunday, April 8, seven Groton students attended the annual Asian-American Footsteps Conference, or AAFC, at Deerfield Academy. The conference invites Asian, Asian-American, and mixed-heritage Asian students attending independent secondary schools in New England for a day filled with workshops, activities, and networking opportunities. It provides Asian-American students with an opportunity to explore issues specific to their experiences at boarding school and interact with others with similar backgrounds. While the conference has been running for eight years, this is the first time that Groton has attended, as Groton only found out about it this year. The main reason why Groton attended the conference for this year is that many teachers thought that the Asian community at Groton was not represented very much or outspoken compared to other schools, so going to the conference gave an idea of how we could improve or how we could tweak something small in our community that would eventually lead to bigger changes.

The conference started with a keynote speech, followed by a question and answer session. The keynote speakers were the two co-founders of Wong Fu productions, Phillip Wang and Wesley Chan. Wong Fu productions is an American filmmaking company known for its short skit videos about real life situations featuring Asian-Americans. The two speakers shared their own experiences growing up in the United States as Asian-Americans and offered insightful comments and advice in response to questions. Both talked about how their version of success was very different from the stereotypical Asian version, but they managed to overcome the barrier between the two and succeed in their own way. To quote Phillip Wang’s advice, “Your parents will want you to do something to make a living, but I encourage you to live to make something out of it.” After the keynote speech, the students had the opportunity to attend three workshops of the twelve hour-long workshops offered, all presented by Asian-American students who have or are currently attending a boarding school in New England. The workshops all focused on different aspects of being an Asian-American in the United States, and dealt with topics such as racial identity, differences in education, cultural appropriation, LGBTQ+, body image, affirmative action, etc.

Alexandra Kogler ’19, a conference attendee, attended a workshop about Asian beauty standards, which focused on cosmetic surgery and Eurocentrism; one about affirmative action and how it affects Asian college applicants; and a final one which discussed cultural appropriation with Asians being both victims and perpetrators. Her favorite workshop, she said, was “Cracking the Porcelain Mold: Reconciling Western Beauty Standards with Asian American Feminism.” In the workshop, they discussed how parents with good intentions unintentionally centralize European beauty standards by giving their children cosmetic surgeries to fit into Western society.  Alex said that this phenomenon has “shaped Asian girls’ mindsets to view this as the ideal look they should aspire to look like.”

AAFC seems to have been a success. Chinese teacher Shannon Jin, who chaperoned the students, said, “It’s great to see all the students taking initiative and getting involved in getting to know their cultures better and appreciating their heritage more.” Helynna Lin, a senior at St. Mark’s School who attended the conference, remarked, “It is a great experience to meet new people and hear different perspectives, and I love how it allows the Asian-American community to get together and discuss the various issues that are specific to the community.”