Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Student Center

APIDA Heritage Month Planning Committee

Serving on the Heritage Month Planning Committee, members will be able to:

Event Plan & Execute

• Critically think to strategically develop and enhance skills in order to plan, execute, and facilitate small- and large-scale programming

Collaborate & Network

• Work collaboratively with campus partners, student organizations, and the greater Madison community to put on heritage month programming and initiative.

Self-Reflect & Team Build

• Assess one’s own strengths and areas for growth while building community amongst peers on the planning committee

Problem Solve

• Find solutions to difficult or complex situations

Develop Leadership

• Expand one’s own capacity to be effective in leadership roles and processes via communication, decision making, critical/strategic thinking
• Strengthen leadership, event planning, and organizational skills

Identify intersectionalities

• Within your racial identity and other identity markers (e.g. class, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, nationality, disability, etc.)

In 2017, Riley Tsang and Shannon Thao began actively lobbying for an APIDA Student Center. A committee created and led by Tsang and Thao, researched centers at other Big Ten schools and developed a proposal to present in collaboration and in solidarity with the student activists working to establish the Latinx Cultural Center. They used the momentum of each other’s projects to build on their own individual efforts forming a student coalition. When thinking about these two spaces, the students active in launching the centers thought it important to note that these new centers be thought of as startup spaces, not finished products, as there are still many ideas for growth. The student activists who worked to establish the APIDA Student Center also served as the first student interns of the center and were titled community organizers. We now have a full-time staff program coordinator and an undergraduate programming intern.

Take a virtual tour of our current space and please consider financially supporting the APIDA Student Center.

Explore the APIDA Heritage Month archives