APASO hosts APIDA/A Winter Celebratory to bring together Greater Lansing community

December 12, 2022 - Ashley Zhou

On Dec. 3, MSU Asian Pacific American Student Organization, or APASO, hosted the first Asian Pacific Islander Desi American and Asian, or APIDA/A, Winter Celebratory.

This event was created to show what the MSU APIDA/A community’s advocacy work looks like and to bring surrounding APIDA/A high school students together. Three high schools were invited: Haslett High School and East Lansing High School’s Asian Student Union and Okemos High School Asian Culture Club.

“We wanted to give APIDA/A high school students the opportunity to be involved in this cultural diaspora … as potential incoming students,” APASO Event Coordinator Hanaa Yoo said.

The event partnered with APIDA/Asian Faculty and Staff Association (APIDA/AFSA), the Asian Pacific American Studies program, the Asian Studies Center, the Residence Halls Association, Associated Students of MSU and was sponsored by MSU Federal Credit Union.

Local restaurants also catered a wide spread of food, an important community-building aspect during the celebratory.

“Another aspect about food within APIDA/A culture is that it’s very important: it’s a way of bonding and getting together within our cultures,” Yoo said. “A lot of these high school students haven’t gotten the opportunity to eat a lot of these foods or even know about these restaurants.”

Various APASO groups held activities for the students as well. Pilipino American Student Society led tinikling, a traditional dance with bamboo poles, APIDA/AFSA held lei making and more.

The event also previewed APASO’S Cultural Vogue, an annual show to celebrate APIDA/A culture through creative forms, with performances from CTRL+A, Spartan Zaariya and Claudia Chen.

MSU Thai Club Co-Presidents Pear Limpanich and Soranut Ratanavaraha came to the event to represent their organization to the high school students.

“It’s really cool that we can have a place, like an event, that we can come and tell people about who we are,” Limpanich said. “We don’t get a lot of opportunities to reach people outside of MSU.”

With the large turnout and number of activities, APASO hopes for a bigger space and longer time for activities next year.

“[The event] brings our community together, creates a sense of belonging and support too; we were all once high school students,” Yoo said. “Just being able to do that, really brings solidarity within our APIDA/A community.”

Photography by Dane Robison