Asian Student Union

Asian Student Union Logo

Introduction

I was the secretary and later the president of Asian Student Union of Berea college for years 2009 and 2010-2011 respectively.  During that time I organized an array of cultural events to promote cross-cultural understanding and knowledge about Asia on the Berea College campus. Our campus organization was mentored by Dr. Jeff Richey.  Below are two examples of events I organized and implemented.

 

Save Japan Banquet Fundraiser

After the large earthquake that devastated the Tohoku region of Japan, as president of the Berea College Asian Student Union (ASU) I coordinated a banquet to raise aid with the help of my club officers. We chose to donate funds raised to be donated to help with the reconstruction of homes destroyed in the tsunamis that ravaged the coastline.

Salads prepared with Japanese peanut dressing.

Salads prepared with Japanese peanut dressing.

We collaborated with Food Services to utilize their facilities and cooking implements. I recruited Japanese students to help create a three course menu of genuine Japanese food to make. We added a vegan option for an alternative course.

The menu included miso soup, salad, karaage (Japanese friend chicken) vegan fried vegetables with rice, and fruit with mocchi (dough-like Japanese sweets) punch for dessert.

Once the menu was decided on,  we started marketing the event. We did this by designing a poster and distributing it around campus as well as businesses in the local community. Our target audiences were the students, faculty, staff, and community members in the town.  We also made a Facebook page and emailed the campus community.

 

Serving food.

Serving food.

We then decided on how many people we could handle, based on venue room, volunteers that would be available and the amount of food we would need to make. We set the maximum at 50 and had tickets printed. We decided to sell each ticket for $15 each. This included the meal and a seat reserved at the event.

We had a great turnout, having sold out our tickets and people were willing to make a donation despite the risk of no seats or food.  Despite the unexpected amount of people, we had enough chairs and food for everyone. we had 60 people attend the event which was very surprising. Berea College is a very small school. One of the key requirements for admittance be that their families make less than a certain amount of money.

Guest speaker presenting.

Guest speaker presenting.

For the event, I invited a professor from a near by University to speak about his experience of being in Tokyo during the earthquake and to present some information about the damage Japan sustained. The food was served after his presentation in a buffet style. Oragami donation boxes were placed in the center of every table to encourage loose change donations.

The International Center donated several boxes of souvenirs from Japan that had been donated to them years before. While everyone was eating, these things were placed on tables and on the stage. I asked everyone that they make some kind of donation, no matter the size, and that they could then take what they thought their donation was worth.

The total donations and my team!

The total donations and my team!

 

In the end we raised over a thousand dollars for donation! We knew it every little bit of aide helps and we felt very proud of the work we had accomplished, especially considering the social-economical background of the students on campus.

 

 

 

Lunar New Year

Posing with the international students that volunteered to present at the festival

Posing with the international students that volunteered to present at the festival

 

 

I took part in the 2010 Lunar New Year festival and organized the 2011 festival through ASU. We invited all international students from Asia to take part by having a booth presenting about their home culture. Students were encouraged to make their favorite dish from home to share with the campus community.  We also hired a dance troupe to perform Chinese traditional dance and song.