A new series of career forums for Asian youth, sponsored by the Brooklyn Asian Voice Organization (BRAVO), began last week with a kickoff celebration at Brooklyn's Borough Hall. Borough President Marty Markowitz hosted the event.

Lily Wang, the organization's founder, said that BRAVO plans to invite professionals from various occupational spheres to speak at its career forum series. Through this series, BRAVO aims to help Asian youth cultivate the talents and leadership abilities that are in demand in New York's job market, and by doing so, to help Asian youth achieve their "American Dream."

In his opening remarks, Markowitz lauded BRAVO for offering valuable educational opportunities to Brooklyn's youth, helping them realize the heights they reach and expressed the hope that more Asian youth will participate in government work in the future. Markowitz also predicted that with the rapid growth of Brooklyn's Chinese community, Chinese Americans will soon make their influence felt in the political arena. John Liu's campaign for city-wide office is a good start, he said – and he hopes that many Chinese people in Brooklyn and New York City will turn out to vote.

Lu Bing, head of BRAVO's board of trustees, thanked Wang for her leadership in organizing the forum series. She hopes the forums will attract many accomplished speakers.

Various officials and heads of community groups were present at the kickoff ceremony, including Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Yvonne Graham, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association President Justin Yu, New York Flushing Chinese Business Association (FCBA) President Peter Koo, Fukien American Association President Qiu Shangju, First Health Care Asian-American marketing director Wang Huiyue, New York Life Insurance director Zhang Jiaqin, and others.

The career forums will be held monthly. The first meeting will take place on May 9th at 2:00 PM at the Brooklyn branch of the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), at 4101 8th Avenue.