The APLP made me a better person. Everyday I am using the skills and knowledge I learned from the APLP. Before the APLP, all I knew was my country, Burma. The APLP opened my eyes and now I feel I belong to the whole world.

The APLP has touched my life and continues to touch my life. The APLP experience was a life lesson encompassing so many different opportunities for growth and learning for me. I learned about the challenges of respecting each other’s differences when working together as a group. I learned about leadership: its role, function, and its relationship to culture. Living and learning in the company of Asians, Pacific Islanders, Americans and other participants was an opportunity for me to self-reflect upon my own cultural identity and role as an Asian-American born in Hawai‘i. I experienced the mighty clash of perspectives as we challenged each other’s assumptions and viewpoints as we struggled to find common ground without letting go of our individuality. We opened our hearts to share some of the personal struggles we faced in our lives and these stories of the heart transcended our cultural and political differences. Many nights we shared stories, food and laughter. The APLP was all of this and more - much, much more. I cannot thank you enough for providing us with this opportunity to laugh, cry, vent, argue, reflect, act, think, learn, love, and grow.

One truly remarkable fact of life at the East-West Center is the amazing diversity of participants and the respect for diversity that this institution nurtures. Another is the spirit of critical inquiry that permeates all academic life here. It is the strength of the argument and not the rank of the person making the argument that evokes respect. A third is its deep engagement with the Asia Pacific region. A fourth is exposure to different aspects of U.S. policies.My time in APLP has exposed me to the very best in American academic and community life.

One of the American APLP fellows asked me: what do you think about America? I answered: great country, great people, and great achievement. China should learn from America. The APLP is such an amazing experience. In it we learned how to learn and what to learn. I am convinced that the APLP is a treasure, not only now but also for the future.

Some of my fondest memories in the APLP — debating population trends in Asia over an authentic Bhutanese dinner, taking my Thai friends to surf Waikiki, and performing traditional Chinese songs at the annual East-West Fest — will remain etched in my mind forever, serving as a warm reminder that international relations has a very human side, and that cooperation and friendship between people can transcend geographic and political boundaries.

Before coming to the East-West Center I had a different view of America, one that represented a somewhat negative image of the country. My participation in the Asia Pacific Leadership Program has changed this view. It has provided me a forum to meet and interact with people from different walks of life including academia, business, media, and politics, who have different views and perspectives on national and international issues than that of the US government. I came to know that the US government may have a particular perspective or action on certain issues, but that does not necessarily mean that all Americans have the same view as that of the government. I will take back a positive image of United States, whose government and citizens have reaffirmed values of transparency, democracy and participation.

The world is smaller now because of the APLP. When I read in the newspaper about the events that occur around the world, I think of people I know and care about – true friends from the APLP – and I worry how current events will affect them.

One of the important lessons that the APLP has taught me is that leadership is an active word. Many times in the past, leadership was simply given to me. But after the APLP, and given the nature of my job right now, I actively seek out new leadership opportunities. I’ve started to reconcile humility and leadership, quietness and assertiveness, deep awareness and innocence, the power of the majority and ultimate powerlessness before the universe. I’ve realized that it is okay to voluntarily step forward as long as I acknowledge that I don’t know everything and that I don’t need to do all things.

The APLP was a new kind of challenge for me. It opened my eyes. To express the program in one word: AWESOME — It will be decorated as one of the great things that I did in my life.

It was through the APLP that I first started seriously thinking globally, internationally, inter-culturally, not in the abstract but in the very concrete confrontation of faces and ideas.

To me, the benefits of the APLP are beyond expression. The seminars exposed me to new knowledge, regional patters and trends, and professors and local leaders in Hawai‘i and beyond; the field trips made me ground theory in relevant real-world experiences; casual conversations and group projects gave me the chance to interact with and learn from keen minds; and off-campus life brought together a talented and diverse group of friends and mentors. Looking back on my APLP time, I found the experience has left a remarkable mark on me.

The APLP prepared me for life and leadership in ways that I never could have learned through a typical text-book education. Take for example, the importance of "Vision" and how it creates focus and direction in life. This is the main factor which differentiates a leader from a manager. Uncertainties and obstacles may throw us off course in our journey through life, but a strong, clear vision propels us back on track and gives us confidence to proceed. On top of that, no other program, except the APLP, has allowed me to "customize" my education to incorporate what I needed to experience. What I learnt during my time with the APLP has and will continue to resonate throughout my life.

For me, the APLP has meant many things. It was a time for reflection — of understanding ourselves, our values and how our experiences have shaped who we are and what drives us. It was a time to dream, to envision, and to chart the many roads and paths we could create in service to the larger community. The time I spent writing in my journals and envisioning a better world that I could actively shape has had an immeasurable impact in the course of my direction and I have found greater enthusiasm to pursue my passions.APLP was also an opportunity to challenge ourselves—to learn and to share life experiences by allowing for differences, confrontation, and conflicting ideas, ideals, and belief systems, to keep in check our reality and to shake up our comfort level. I have found myself able to adapt better now, to change and to recognize opportunity in every experience.I have found that the lessons I carried from the APLP have led to dramatic changes in how I work as an active change agent and in my everyday life. Salamat po!

I felt really excited that night as I recaptured the feeling of APLP. I tried to imagine what direction my life would have taken had I not attended APLP…had I not met these wonderful people with unique personalities from all over the world, with dreams larger than life who, as I look back, taught me so much of the world without my realizing it. I tried to imagine what life would be like without the APLP? Would I have found the courage to face my fears? Would I still be studying something I wasn’t passionate and excited about? Would I have just “gone with the flow” rather than taking the initiative to try new things, to serve others and strive to create new futures?