Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association - History

History

ITASA was founded by a small but very active community, including individuals such as Tim Ch'ng, Morris Tsai, Rolla Ch'ng, Ula Hwang, Peilan Chiu, Cindy Yeh, Felicia Lin, Winston Yang, and others. In 1992, the first "ITSA Conference" was held at the University of Pennsylvania. Several years later, the founders of ITSA, recognizing the unique Taiwanese American identity, renamed the conference to ITASA. Over the next year, similar conferences were held with various names, including the ITASA/TASC Cultural Conference at the University of Illinois, the ITASA Taiwanese Cultural Celebration at Brown University, and TASCon at the University of Illinois again. Though varying in name and location, these conferences involved the same group of college students - a group of Taiwanese American students who wanted to grow and reach a community of like-minded individuals.

Having hit upon a very real community, annual ITASA conferences took root and built upon the successes of the previous years. The first ITASA East Coast Conference took place at Yale University in 1993, the first Midwest ITASA conference took place the same year at Purdue University. From then on, ITASA held two conferences annually on the East Coast and the Midwest, until 1999, when the first annual West Coast Conference was held at the University of California, Berkeley, thus completing the three-region conference series which continues today.

In the beginning, ITASA conferences were self-financed and catered by students' own families. Attendance ranged from 35 to 300 people.

On February 17, 1998, ITASA was formally incorporated as a 501(c)(3) religious/cultural tax-exempt nonprofit corporation in Delaware by Incorporator Kok-ui Lim with the help of many other people, including Jimmy Ho, Audrey Jean, Cathy Hsu, Tim Chng, Rolla Chng, et al.

The founders of ITASA presided for several years and had tried several ways to generate successors. They created a steering committee of positions including the quaintly termed "Computer Operator" and recruited interested students from schools all over the nation to help run the organization. Many members of the steering committee have noted that they lacked the experience and motivation to run a geographically dispersed student organization. Staff experience increased with the command of Jimmy, Audrey, Cathy, and others. This new generation of ITASA leaders, all recent conference directors on the East Coast, helped to secure ITASA's financial and organizational future by facilitating the incorporation of ITASA into a 501(c)(3) corporation and investing ITASA's involvement on the regional level. They also developed ITASA's nascent web presence, centralized fundraising strategies and brought greater structure to the national calendar of events and board responsibilities. From then on, the Board of Directors emerged from a group of veteran officers and new officers emerged from the conference leaders. Today, the ITASA National Board is selected every June from a pool of applicants from across the United States.

In 1998, Taiwanese American students at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Tufts University established the Boston Intercollegiate Taiwanese Students Association (BITSA) to serve the many campuses in the Boston area. BITSA works closely with ITASA at targeting its thriving community of local students.

In 1999, the first Annual Leadership Retreat was held at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1999, ITASA "Regional Representatives" were added to the leadership structure. In 2003, Regional Representatives would become Regional Governors with more defined responsibilities.

In the spring of 1999, students at the University of California at Berkeley undertook the first West Coast Conference, bringing ITASA to three major regions across the United States.

In 2000, the Leadership Retreat Program was expanded to include the Midwest and West Coast Leadership Retreats. The first Midwest Leadership Retreat was held at Northwestern University with the West Coast Leadership Retreat hosted by Pomona College.

In 2001, ITASA's leadership structure was changed to its current form of a National Board overseen by a Board of Directors.

In 2003, Governor-led Regional Boards were established, replacing the single Regional Representative in each region and District Chairs took charge over the Districts, which were subdivided from the Regions.

In 2006, the first annual ITASA Winter Mixer in New York, NY was held.

In 2010, the Philanthropy Department was created. The Philanthropy Department plans and implements projects designed to further ITASA's mission statement.