Conference

Bridging the Gap between Asian American and International Asian Students at Iowa State

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Abstract

The Asian community at Iowa State University can be divided into two distinct groups—an Asian American group and an international Asian group. As members of the Asian community, we feel value in creating a united community on campus to expand the potential of the knowledge and social networks. The difficulties in unifying these two groups are that they tend to be exclusive and reluctant to recruit members outside of race and ethnicity, as well as language differences. As leaders of the Asian Pacific American Awareness Coalition, our priority is to create an umbrella of the 14 Asian student organizations on campus. This plan includes implementing a council in which all Asian clubs are represented. Join in this discussion of overcoming differences so that we may serve as a model for other minority groups wishing to unify their campus community.