During the spring of 1994, in the backroom of restaurant in New York called Lancers, four South Asian journalists brought together 18 other journalists of South Asian origin in the hopes of finding and building a community for themselves. Fast forward 25 years, and SAJA now connects more than 1,000 journalists all over North America. "It serves as a network for education, inspiration and training South-Asian journalists in America and those covering South Asia and South Asian diaspora."

SAADA was honored to partner with the South Asian Journalists Association for their 25th anniversary annual conference. We collected stories from first time attendees all the way to those who were at the very first SAJA meeting. Leading journalists, promising writers, influential editors, and more shared their reflections about SAJA's impact on the journalism profession and the media landscape for South Asian Americans as a whole. Listen to their interviews below.