What I Learned from FACES

January 31, 2022 / Ana Chen

It’s strange to think that my FACES Presidency is coming to an end in (at the time of writing) four weeks. It might be over by the time I release this blog post, since winter quarter is guaranteed to snap by as quickly as fall did.

FACES (the Forum for American-Chinese Exchanges at Stanford) was the first club I joined at Stanford that wasn’t an extension of something I’d pursued in high school. We met in Lathrop Library on Sundays at 7 PM—a short bike down from Flomo, my freshman dorm—until the pandemic took us online. It was during COVID that I stepped into one of the vice-presidencies, and, later, the presidency. Caroline, the president during my sophomore year, remarked that I was protective of my team, and I was. On-Campus Programming was a motley mix of my freshman friends and new initiates, one which soon grew into FACES’ largest team, and we quickly developed a sub-culture within the larger organization. Before Cardinal Ballet or Chinese Dance or any dorm community, FACES was the first space I could call my own: not just because I felt most comfortable there, but because the On-Campus team was something I had created.

FACES was never—and still quite isn’t—a social club. One of my friends remarked that it was largely administrative, and that most presidents and vice-presidents would be too burned out after one term to continue their position in the next. FACES therefore lacks a continuous culture outside our projects, and we’re very professional (we’re not a student organization, but a part of the Freeman Spogli Institute, which allows us to procure outside funding and partner with other universities). I tried my hardest to change that in my presidency. The core of that motivation was the community I found in my vice-presidency: we watched the 2020 Presidential debates together, were close enough to use insult as humor, and didn’t hesitate to lean on one another (my friend Daniel even took over for a few weeks when I moved to China). As I stepped into my presidency, I reorganized FACES to be more member-orientated: meetings now included casual chats, and I biked weekly to Trader Joes’ for dumplings and Asian snacks for the team. I sprinted to Encina Hall with a dozen bubble teas in my arms to get them to our students (we run a class, INTLREL33SI—take it next fall quarter!) before class ended. I moved our meetings to the Ng House lounge, where we microwaved ChocoPies and cooked Asian food as we talked and played piano. I made individual friendships with a considerable number of club members, whether they were based at Stanford or in China. It would be no understatement to call FACES the core of my social life. Even in fall quarter of junior year, where I went wild with partying and whatnot, FACES grounded me. I had responsibility, but more importantly, I had a group of friends towards which I was responsible.

And, whenever I traveled outside Shenzhen in 2021, FACES’ partner universities formed the backbone of my otherwise lonely social life. Some of my fondest sophomore-year memories from were of dancing guangchangwu by Hangzhou’s West Lake with the Zhejiang University leadership (we skipped from marketplace to marketplace), of being treated to northern food by the Renmin and Peking University boards after a long day of exploring Beijing, of walking down the Bund with the Fudan University VP’s. It was from these experiences that I realized how deeply I wanted to reshape FACES—I wanted to make it a space where we could discuss culture, economics, and Track II+ dialogue away from the hawkish institutions that dominated the U.S.-China discourse in Stanford and elsewhere. I wanted us to include more Chinese voices, no matter how hard it was to invite Chinese experts; I asked art museum curators and news anchors to give keynote speeches. Whether I succeeded in my mission is a judgement I’m not qualified to make, but I can say with relative confidence (and self-aggrandizement) that FACES is a markedly different club now from what it was when I first took the reins, even with all the COVID restrictions and Zoom fatigue.

Were there mistakes with my presidency? Of course—we hosted our online summit during finals week for many U.S. and Chinese colleges, resulting in lower attendance than usual. My leadership style remains stubbornly micro-manage-y. By making FACES more social and less administrative, I dissolved quite a few formal structures and procedures, in turn backloading the leadership board with more responsibilities. I can’t help but compare FACES to It’s Real, the magazine that I launched in high school, and which ended almost as soon as I left the leadership—there was no way for the organization to survive after my departure, since I hadn’t created an infrastructure for succession. Like It’s Real, FACES has brought me close to burn-out. Like It’s Real, FACES leaned more on my personal vision than on precedence, or any institutionalized structures. I’m lucky that people are enthusiastic about continuing on with FACES leadership, and that people have spoken to me about becoming VP’s or presidents, because I genuinely feared that I’d made an irreversible mess of the organization in my attempt to reform it.

But I think about all we accomplished in the last year alone—an alumni/speaker series (credits to Daniel and Thanawat), a hugely successful class with an impressive roster of U.S.-China professionals (Michael), first-ever casual dialogues with our partner universities (Alex), a one-on-one mentorship program between U.S.-China experts and FACES students, and of course our summit, which involved a year of planning for everything from screening applicants to inviting guest speakers to curating written challenges for our delegates—and I’m immensely proud. My departure is bittersweet, because I feel like I’ve just begun to understand the patterns in my leadership style, and I’ve just begun to define a solid vision for FACES (it didn’t help that I spent much of my Presidency across the ocean). But I understand that while I tried to launch FACES in a new direction, I’m not the only capable one on our team. I came in with ambition (practically everyone knows that I wanted so badly to create another summit in collaboration with fellow international organizations on campus, and maybe a philanthropy event, and a cultural showcase), but in the end, I’m still a nineteen year-old stumbling through COVID and college commitments and a bilateral relationship that experts spend lifetimes studying. I’ve left flaws for future FACES leadership to correct, but I know I’ve also left behind a good run and—if I might be allowed some more self-aggrandizement—a good legacy.

So: to everyone in FACES, past, present, and future—thank you so much. This past year hasn’t been easy, and I know I’ve asked a lot from you. I’m very proud of all of you, both as FACES team members and as individuals, and I will definitely be staying onboard to provide snacks and minimal effort in senior year. Believe me—if I could, I would blow our budget for custom Canada Goose, because (heavens knows) you all deserve it.

With much love,

Your President

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