Throughout every school year, the Student Engagement Office and SGA receive and approve applications for new student organizations. This year, the Asian Student Organization was one of those new organizations.
The Asian Student Organization (ASO) was started by students Eh Lar, Vshin Yang and Nick Bui in an attempt to create a space on campus for Asian students to come together and have a place where they can share their cultures.
Yang is the vice president of the organization.
“All of the people on the executive board come from cities where there are more people of Asian culture, and we were feeling homesick here, so Lar and I wanted to create a space to bring our home here. That was Lar’s idea to bring together Asians and people who are interested in Asian culture,” he said.
The founding members created ASO to allow Asian students and students interested in learning more about Asian cultures to be able to come together and appreciate those cultures. The organization looks to introduce and engage students on-campus to Asian culture.
“ I was a part of the initial planning for the group. We came up with the idea that we wanted a place that represents Asian culture,” Nick Bui said.
ASO looks to expand the group and share Asian cultures with other students. Members of the group discussed expansion through recruiting members and creating a connection with the campus.
“One thing that Lar and I were talking about was that it would be a resource as well as a support system people can reach out to. We wanted to create this entity that would support Asian students on campus,” Yang said.
Current members of ASO want to get more students involved in the organization long-term. Public relations specialist for ASO, Yuele Sium, hopes that fostering relationships between members will help the group achieve this goal.
“I want the organization to expand by having more people involved in the group, hosting events that relate to Asian culture, and connecting with other groups on campus,” Sium said.
Students can become involved with ASO by attending the group’s events. ASO recently hosted a movie night on-campus, and are planning to have more events of a similar nature in the future. Students can also become involved by attending ASO meetings and talking with current members.
“Students can get involved by coming to meetings and pitching ideas to leadership. Leadership is trying to come up with ideas to connect with campus,” Bui said.
Another way to connect with ASO members is to reach out to the members of the group outside meetings.
“One way is to reach out to me and Lars. Our emails are always open for events and foods people would like to try. We are looking for some taste testers,” Yang said.
Bui, Yang and Sium emphasized that Asian Student Organization is not just for Asian students. All students can and are encouraged to join. The members of the organization are also open to students’ ideas for making connections and ideas for events.
Asian Student Organization holds meetings every Thursday in Fjeldstad Lounge at 7 p.m.
Annie is a senior double-majoring in Environmental Studies and Heritage and Museum Studies, as well as minoring in German. She loves adventures, coffee, and dogs. This is her third year with the Concordian.
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