Rice Paper Fall 08

8/8/2019 Rice Paper Fall 08

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Note From the DirectorMelanie Castillo-Cullather

When we announced the 10th anniversary

celebration early this year, we received many emails andphone calls from alumni, who during their time at IU made

the center their home. It was a bit nostalgic to hear from

the alumni with whom I worked so closely and who have

become a part of our lives, in essence our family. They

talked about their careers, their partners, their children and

their fond memories of IU. They are scattered all over the

country and the world. Thanks to email, keeping in touch

with many of them has been much easier.

There are many reasons to celebrate the 10 years of

the Asian Culture Center on the IU Bloomington campus;

the formation of the IU Asian Alumni Association, the

establishment of the Asian American Studies Program,

the unwavering support and activism of student groups

to help build and promote an inclusive and diverse IU,

and the creation of the many cultural and educational

programs that make the center a great resource for both

IU and the community beyond Sample Gates. All these,

of course would not have been possible without the

passion and tireless dedication of former and current staff

members of the ACC, the student leaders who worked

hard juggling their school work and their commitmentsto their organizations and to the causes that benet the

entire campus. We are indebted to so many individuals

and organizations on campus and in the Bloomington

community that have supported what we do. Their notes

of advice, suggestions, emails, and phone calls telling us

how much they enjoyed a program have been a source of

inspiration. We will always be grateful for the nancial

support from alumni, community members, and IU

departments, whose support has allowed us to explore,

create, and continue to organize events that celebrate and

honor the Asian heritage and events that challenge ideas

and morals.

It is our dream that in the next ten years, the center

will grow and expand in size and in its capacity to address

and meet the needs of the 26 Asian and Asian American

student groups, the 36,000 IU students, faculty, staff, and

the community beyond Sample Gates. We are hopeful that

with your enthusiasm and commitment for great learning

and changing peoples lives for the better, we can meet

these goals.

the College of Arts & Sciences, Bennett Bertentha

ofcially announced the program along with D

Joan Linton, who will serve as its interim directo

Mai-Lin Poon said of the new program, I am ver

thrilled that this has become a reality and encouragstudents to start signing up for classes. I wish I ha

this possibility when I was an undergraduate!

Jessica Kim, President of the IU Asian Alum

Association, presented the 2008 Distinguished Asia

Alumni Award to the Honorable Judge Michael Witt

the rst Asian-American trial judge in Indiana. I

addition, the ceremony included prominent membe

of the Administration including IU Chancello

Kenneth Gros Louis, Dean of Students Dick McKai

Vice President and Provost Karen Hanson, Dean othe School of Journalism Brad Hamm, IU Truste

Pat Shoulders, and Vice President for the IU Alum

Association, John Hobson. There was also a vide

slideshow narrating the ACCs decade of servic

to the IU community. The program ended with th

guests dancing and celebrating the event.

Melanie Castillo-Cullather, director of th

ACC, said of the occasion, the ACC has demonstrate

to IU the importance of a cultural center and its role i

recruiting students, and in achieving IUs education

mission. The Center hopes to expand in the future sthat it may provide even more dedicated service as a

integral part of the lives of Asian American studen

and the IU community.

Acc 10th (Continued from Cover)

Chancellor Kenneth Gros

Louis giving a speech about the

history of the ACC.

Dean Bennett Bertanthal

announces the establishme

of the Asian American Studi

program at IU.


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Student Group Updates

Asian Student UnionThe Asian Student Union (ASU) has continued to work to get the

Asian Culture Center expansion project underway. Started a few yearsago by ASU board members Tony Truong, Evita Luminto, U Ta Looi,

and Alfred Ma, the project is ready to submit its ofcial proposal for

a bigger center. Current ASU advocacy chairs, Kimberly Sarabia and

Andrew Jin, along with chairman Brandon Tran, have been working

diligently on completing the proposal. The ASU hopes that the proposa

will be accepted and the dream of bigger Asian Culture Center will -

nally be realized.

This semester the ASU worked on a multi-group Moon Festival and

Halloween party, in addition to helping the ACC on its annual leadership

retreat and Electring Kulintang concert. Next semester, the ASU will

be working with other organizations to co-host collaborative events such as the semi-formal, sports tournament

Asian Alumni Association Scholarship fundraiser, the 9th annual Mr. & Ms. Asia, and the APIA U Leadership

Workshop. For more information about the ASU please visit their website at www.indiana.edu/~asu.

Asian American AssociationThis semester, the Asian American Association (AAA) held its

own mini welcome week to attract returning and new students at IU. It

included a call-out meeting, ice cream social, Make-It-Yourself Bubble

Tea, Game Day, and Executive Board Elections. It also co-sponsored

the Hutton Honors Colleges Origami Workshop. In the spirit of autumn

and Halloween, it held its annual pumpkin carving event. This monththe AAA will be having its annual fall Fashion Show, which consists of

cultural performances, a variety of talents by students on the IU campus,

and a display of cultural clothing. This year, it is also helping to build the

registry for bone marrow donations. The AAA will also join in the Sigma

Excursion week hosted by Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. with a panel

discussion on Western Standards of Beauty on November 13th.

Indian Student Association

The Indian Student Association recently held its annual Gar-ba Night to celebrate Navaratri. Garba is a traditional form of spiritua

Indian dance in which participants dance in a circular movement. Dur-

ing part of the event, a type of dance, called Raas or Dandiya Raas, is

performed. In Raas, participants hold sticks in their hands and hit them

rhythmically against other dancers sticks while they dance to create a vi-

brant sound. The next event held by the Indian Student Association wil

be a Diwali banquet dinner for the festival of lights, which represents the

victory of good over evil.


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The ACC Graduate Assistants- The EngineBehind the ACC Powerhouse

by Ayesha Awan

Shawn Chen worked as the the deputy managing editor of Nationaljournal.com before

taking on a position as the online news editor for the Associated Press Bureau in Washington, D.C. in 2007. He

has been volunteering at the Washington Literacy Council for 6 years, where he teaches adults how to read and

write. He also promotes Asian American Culture through lm at the Washington Asian Pacic American Film

Festival. His favorite memories of the ACC come from a time when the center was a new entity on campus. Lit-

erally, he says, we were looking at a blank slate on which to build our center. He is proud of all the programs

the ACC established that year, including the Over a Cup of Tea series and the Rice Paper Newsletter, but describes

his favorite moments at the center as the mundane ones. He appreciated the fact that Asian American students

had a place where they could stop by and call their own. As for the future, Shawn hopes that the students on cam-

pus will take full advantage of the center to further their own interest in Asian and Asian American culture or

to help foster their own activism for the improvement of IU as a whole. He also wants to see programs that willhelp prepare students for future roles as leaders, organizers, and activists.

Maysee Yang Herr served as the ACC GA from 2001 to 2003. After graduating, she

taught elementary school classes at the Center for Inquiry, School #2 in Indianapolis for

three years. She is currently in her rst year of teaching at the School of Education at the

University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. Maysee fondly recalls her rst meeting with

Melanie Castillo-Cullather, director of the ACC and with Meeyoung Kim, they were

extremely welcoming and caring during a time when I needed it the most, Maysee

says. She proudly remembers two major accomplishments of the ACC and Asian Amer-ican Community at IU during her time as the GA the founding of the Asian Alumni

Association and the starting of the Asian American Graduate Association. For Maysee

the ACCs 10th Anniversary, marks a milestone of tremendous accomplishments and

hardwork that are worth celebrating. So much has been established and many lives have

been positively impacted as a result of ACCs existence. Its time to step back, reect,

and take pride in all that the ACC has been able to make possible, both as individuals as well as a community. I

see the ACC continuing to serve as a model for other university campuses to learn from and emulate over the next

several years.

Theresa Chen served as the ACC GA from 2003 to 2004. After receivingher Masters of Public Affairs in Policy Analysis from Indiana Universitys School of Public and Environmental

Affairs in 2004, Theresa was hired by the United States Government Accountability Ofce. After working there

for three years, she relocated to the city of Hyderabad in south central India, where she currently works directing

large-scale evaluation of bundling health insurance with micronance loans. Theresas favorite part of working

at the ACC was her interaction with the many students who were involved with the center, many of whom she is

still in touch with today. She views the ACCs 10th Anniversary as a marking of the success of the center My

hopes for the Center are for it to continue to grow and support innovative programming for the students, the cam-

pus, and the community.

Shawn Chen

Maysee Yang Herr

Theresa Chen

Graduate Assistants (Continued on Page 5)


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Following his graduation from IUs law school in 2006, Cheng Liu moved to Wash-

ington, D.C. where he now works as a telecommunications lawyer. He humorously

describes his job as a piece of cake compared to being the ACC GA. Cheng fondly

remembers how the ACC events often managed to include food in some way. Yes,I love food, he says. I even demonstrated how to make some at one of the ACCs

cooking demonstration events. I think I made quite a mess. After I made the food

I demonstrated how to eat it. Thats the part Im better at. Cheng views the ACC

10th Anniversary as a perfect example of what students can accomplish when they

really dedicate themselves to something. He recalls many students not wanting to be

involved with the center because they felt they would leave in a few years anyway. In

the future, he would like to see even more students involved with the ACC. He hopes

that students will see the ACC not just as a service provided by IU but really as a vehicle or mechanism that they

can utilize to accomplish great and lasting things on campus.

Cheng-yi Liu

Wendy Ho was the ACC GA from 2006 to 2007. Following her graduation from the

School of Public and Environmental Affairs in 2007, Wendy was selected for a legisla

tive fellowship with the Asian and Pacic American Institute for Congressional Studies

(APAICS). As part of her job she was placed in the ofce of Congressman Mike Honda

of California, where she worked managing Congressman Hondas language access

Homeland Security, and Asian American & Pacic Islander issue portfolios. Wendy

currently works as a State Policy Analyst for the Asian & Pacic Islander American

Health Forum (APIAHF). One of Wendys favorite memories of working with the ACC

was when she was the co-emcee of the Filipino Student Associations rst ever Filipino

Night in 2007. She also remembers cheering on the rst Asian male and female teams

in the Little 500 Race, that was a very proud moment for us at the ACC, she says. ForWendy the ACC 10th Anniversary is the culmination of years of hard work and deter

mination to build a visible Asian American/Pacic Islander (AAPIs) presence at IU. The anniversary celebrates

the vision of the ACCs founders who wanted to create a space for AAPIs on campus to not only celebrate their

rich cultural heritage but learn more about it. Her hope for the future is that the center can expand; she believes

that with a bigger space the ACC can provide more programs and serve even more people in the community than

it already does.

Wendy Ho

Graduate Assistants (Continued from Page 4)

Graduate Assistants (Continued on Page 6)

After graduating from IU, Lori Kido Lopez enrolled in a PhD program at the University o

Southern California, where she is currently studying race and gender in the media. She waalso married recently. Loris favorite part of working at the ACC was working on establish

ing an Asian American studies program. It was such an important accomplishment for th

University, and I think that having an educational foundation for the study of Asian Americ

will really strengthen the mission and goals of the ACC, she says. Lori fondly remember

working with the Asian American Association and all the students she met at the ACC. Sh

hopes that the center will continue its tradition of advocacy in the Asian American commu

nity, and that future students will bear in mind the history of the center and continue to tak

on even bigger issues in the community.

Lori Kido Lopez


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Mai-Lin Poon is our current Graduate Assistant at the ACC. After she nishes her

studies in the Counseling and Counselor Education Masters Program, she plans to get

her Education Specialist Degree in the same program. She then plans to nd work in amental healthcare facility and may return to school later to obtain a doctorate degree.

One of Mai-Lins invaluable contributions to the ACC has been her work with the

ACCs 10th Anniversary Celebration. She was co-chair for the 10th Anniversary Ban-

quet along with undergraduate student, Thien Nguyen. Mai-Lin says the banquet was

quite a memorable event, especially because a lot of alumni were there who were

integral in getting the ACC to become a reality. My undergraduate university didn

have an ACC to call home, so to listen to the speakers relating the history of the ACC

was really touching. She says the thing she will miss most about the ACC are the

people, because the ACC is just a house, but the people make it feel like a home. When you work with the ACC

you become a part of this close knit family where people care about you and want to see you succeed. Mai-Lin

hopes to see the ACC expand in the next few years because the popularity of the programs requires more andmore space, and she looks forward to see the ACCs progress in the next 10 years!

Mai-Lin Poon

Graduate Assistants (Continued from Page 5)

APIA U is Coming to IU February 7!!by Mai-Lin Poon

The Organization of Chi-

nese Americans (OCA) has chosen

the IU Asian Culture Center to be a

host school for Asian/Pacic Island-er American College Leadership

Training this coming February 7!

This will be the rst time that APIA

U will be hosted in Indiana; former

host sites include Cornell Univer-

sity, Boston College, U Penn, and

Yale University. APIA student lead-

ers from colleges and universities

all over Indiana and nearby States

will be invited to take part in this

intensive training. APIA U: Leader-

ship 101 is a hands on program that

concentrates on the development of

leadership and organization skills

that are pertinent to all campuses

and communities. Student lead-

ers will participate in workshops

focused on self-awareness, team

building, and taking action. The

training hopes to give students tools

to become catalysts for change by

empowering them to develop their

identities as strong APIA leaders

and advocates. This training also

hopes to build bridges between stu-

dent groups, foster a sense of unity

and camaraderie while striving to

impact others.


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Details to follow on our website www.indiana.edu~acc

Date: Saturday, January 31, 2009

Asian Cultures Around Campus presents Lunar New Year Celebration

Time: 2 to 4 p.m.

Venue: Monroe County Public Library Auditorium and Meeting Rooms

February 7-8, 2009

APIA U 101 Leadership Conference hosted by Organization of

Chinese Americans in cooperation with IU Asian Culture Center

February, 2009

ACCs Over A Cup of Tea presents: The Year of Michi Weglyn

March 5, 2009

Lecture and Performance by Magdalen Hsu Li

April 2, 2009

ACCs Over A Cup of Tea presents A Conversation with Jenny8 Lee, New York Times Reporter and Author of Fortune Cookie

More events in April to celebrate Asian Pacic American Heritage Month

Check out ACCs Regular Events on www.indiana.edu/~acc

Over A Cup of Tea Monthly Discussion Forum is a monthly forum

on issues affecting Asian Pacic Americans. Guest speakers are

often invited to present their expertise on particular subjects and to

facilitate discussions.

Who Are Asian Pacifc Americans? A bi-monthly roundtable lunch

discussion that allows students and community members to talk

about specic topics such as: APA identity, misconceptions, model

minority myth, APA and media representation, bi-racial culture, and

others. Light lunch provided to participants.

Asian Language Learning Program offering free informal

languageclasses every week.

Weekly Asian Games featuring GO and Mahjong Every Friday.

Greatway to end the week and learn something new.

Asian Cultures Around Campus is an on-going series of performance

and/or instructional demonstrations featuring student talents as wel

as homegrown and renowned artists outside of Bloomington.

Spring 2009 Events

Erin Wilson gracefully performs Pendet, a

traditional Balinese Hindo welcoming dance.

Judge Michael Witte shares a poignant story about

his mother while accepting the Distinguished Asian

Alumni Award.

Filipino Student Association and Vietnamese

Student Association celebrating the ACCs 10th

Anniversary in style.

Our happy ACC family Members of the IU Asian Alumni posing with Distinguished

Alumni Award Recipient, Judge Michael Witte


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Rice PaperIndiana University

Asian Culture Center

807 E. 10th StreetBloomington, IN 47408

ACC Contact Information:(812)856-5361 [email protected]

http://www.indiana.edu/~acc/

Director: Melanie Castillo-CullatherProgram and Admin Assistant: HaeSook Park

Graduate Assistant: Mai-Lin PoonLayout and Design: Elise Magno

2008-2009 Asian Culture Center Student Assistants:

(L-R) Ayesha, Mai-Lin, Kavita, Vincent, Thien, Elise,and Adrianne

APA Heritage Month Fund

Asian Pacic American Heritage Month is cele-brated at Indiana University in April of each year.

The Asian Culture Center sponsors and co-sponsors

several programs during the month-long celebra-

tion, including lm screenings, keynote speakers,

discussion forums, and many more. These programs

are provided free to the public. With your help we

can continue providing quality programs year after

year. Your nancial assistance will go a long way in

supporting this signicant celebration.

If you would like to contribute to the APA Heritage

Month Fund please make your checks payable to IU

Foundation and indicate APA Heritage Month in

the memo. Please send to:

Asian Culture Center

807 E. 10th Street

Bloomington, IN 47408

Printed by Indiana University Printing Services

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