Dear VIA alumni, friends, and supporters,

Greetings from VIA. We hope this message finds you safe and well at an unprecedented time as we deal with the spread of COVID-19. As you have seen in the news, here in California, a shelter-in-place was ordered in March and we are having to make adjustments to our daily lives .

At VIA, earlier last month, we had to make the hard decision to cancel our spring programs we were planning to run in Silicon Valley for students and professionals from Asia. We also cancelled our Global Community Fellowship program and have asked our Fellows to depart their posts in Southeast Asia and return home as soon as possible. With no immediate end to the situation in sight, sadly we also decided to cancel the programs we were planning to run in Silicon Valley and in Asia over the summer.

While it is a great disappointment to have to cancel our core activities that bring future leaders together, we are keeping things in perspective and taking this time to direct our focus and energy to the new strategic plan we have been developing over the last year. The new plan addresses the evolving needs in Asia and the US and aims at training future social impact leaders who are cross-culturally competent and empathetic.

We look forward to resuming our programs under the new strategic vision in the near future.

Wishing you health and safety,

Kazutoh Ishida, PhD
VIA Executive Director

Steve Hope
VIA Board Chair