Affinity Group Leadership of the Year: Yung AAJA
AAJA Young Professionals Network (Yung AAJA) is the place for early career and student journalists. The community centers around skill development, mentorship and helping others find work. We also encourage posting of jobs, internships, fellowships and scholarships. While it’s a place for young journalists, older and more experienced journalists are welcome: Mentorship starts here. Yung AAJA is the network to help point the next generation of journalists in the right direction.
ABOUT THE WINNER: AAJA's young professionals network, known as yung AAJA, was founded in 2017 as a way for early-career journalists to meet friendly faces at conventions. Since then, the Yung affinity group has steadily grown to a 700+ member Facebook group, and expanded to a 350+ member Slack channel, all while holding panels, webinars and social events to connect its members all around the country.
At the beginning of 2022, Yung entered an era of new leadership with three co-directors: Rachel Ramirez, Grace Moon and Gwendolyn Wu. Immediately after the official announcement, they called for three town hall sessions to get a sense of what members were looking for and how to best serve members. It led to a year of robust programming, including:
March: A virtual event about dealing with burnout with AAJA member Karen Ho and AAPI mental health expert Jeanie Chang.
April: Office hours on the #affinity-yung-aaja Slack channel with experts such as Alex Sujong Laughlin and Elaine Ramirez, who spoke about what it’s like to move between print and broadcast journalism.
May: For AAPI Heritage month, a virtual event with AAJA Pacific Islander Task Force entitled "The Art of Storytelling: A conversation with Pulitzer Prize finalist," moderated by The Atlantic's Lenika Cruz and author Julian Aguon.
July: During #AAJA22 in Los Angeles, a packed, first-timers orientation.
September: A virtual resume workshop with Michael Huang, managing editor of sports for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Benét Wilson, director of the Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship.