Our Initiatives
While The Asian American Advocacy Project grew out of the Vanderbilt Asian American Studies Initiative, we have come to embrace a wide range of goals. Each of these goals is designed to help make Vanderbilt a more inclusive environment for all Asian American students.
Activism Education
What We Hope To Do: Provide opportunities for the Vanderbilt community to learn more about Asian American trailblazers and activism.
What We Have Accomplished: In March 2022, we co-hosted a roundtable discussion and panel with Asian American activist Helen Zia in collaboration with several university offices and organizations. In October 2022, we designed an Instagram series entitled “The 31 Days of APIDAM,” where we highlighted notable Asian American people that have made great strides in their respective fields. The series received immense attention, with a total of 20,414 impressions over the month. In April 2023, we organized a screening of "Who Killed Vincent Chin?", later inviting author and policy specialist Curtis Chin (no familial affiliation) to lead a book reading and Q&A.
Asian American Studies
What We Hope To Do: Create an Asian American Studies major and minor program, as well as an Asian American Studies Department.
What We Have Accomplished: As of January 2023, Vanderbilt has officially incorporated an Asian American & Asian Diaspora Studies major and minor. Vanderbilt has hired 3 professors to teach Asian American Studies (Dr. Vivian Shaw, Dr. Mark Sanchez, and Dr. Huan He), 2 of whom are on a tenure track (Dr. Sanchez and Dr. He). Vanderbilt also offered 4 Asian American specific courses in Fall 2022, all of which were officially coded as ASAM in the undergraduate catalog; in August 2022, there are a total of 8 ASAM courses. We are currently working towards more tailored Asian Studies minors (Korean American, South Asian American, etc.) to leverage current course offerings and create the opportunity to better understand these unique identities and histories.
Alumni
Mentorship Database
What We Hope To Do: Build meaningful and lasting connections between current Vanderbilt students and Asian alumni. Foster student-alumni connections in fields current undergrads are interested in pursuing.
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What We Have Accomplished: We have talked with Vanderbilt Career Center, Vanderbilt AAPI Employee Affinity Group, and AAPI Association of Vanderbilt Alumni (AAVA) to discuss collaboration and a concrete database. We have disseminated a survey to gauge AANHPI undergraduate interest and needs.
AAPI Fund, Cultural Center
What We Hope To Do: Our goal is to raise $250K to set up an endowed fund projects to benefit the AAPI community at Vanderbilt, potentially including but not limited to a centralized Asian American cultural hub, speaker series, and student excursions.
What We Have Accomplished: We began outreach to gain alumni, community, and organizational traction and donations towards this end in October 2022.
Data
Disaggregation
What We Hope To Do: Design a long-term assessment of Asian American student needs for universities, starting at Vanderbilt University, that i) assesses the campus climate and cultural competency, ii) disaggregates data for AANHPI populations, iii) leverages disaggregated data for more tailored programming towards member ethnicities of the AANHPI umbrella.
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What We Have Accomplished: We have secured support from the Clinton Foundation through their Clinton Global Initiative University program, gaining access to mentorship opportunities and partner funding for this project. We have been discussing strategies and priorities with various Vanderbilt administrative offices to build strategy and action plans.
Inter-School Collaboration
What We Hope To Do: Connect Asian American student leaders from all ten of Vanderbilt’s schools to foster cross-organization collaboration.
What We Have Accomplished: We have created a GroupMe to serve as a centralized communication platform for the leaders of Asian American serving organizations at Vanderbilt. We held a meet and greet for these student leaders on September 17, 2022 to foster community among leaders on campus. The meet and greet garnered interest from over 40 student and faculty/staff leaders. There were presentations from the Chair of the Asian Studies Department, Student Center for Social Justice & Identity, Peabody's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Office, Development and Alumni Relations, K.C. Potter Center, and Vanderbilt's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Office. We are planning an event for Fall 2023.
Research Guide
What We Hope To Do: Develop an Asian American library guide through Vanderbilt libraries.
What We Have Accomplished: In collaboration with Research Guide Yuh-Fen Benda, we successfully created the Asian American & Diaspora Studies library research guide, available online here.
Taste of Nashville
What We Hope To Do: Include more Asian American restaurants in the Taste of Nashville portion of the undergraduate meal plan by collecting student choices, reaching out to restaurants about the program, and talking to Campus Dining to advocate for these restaurants..
What We Have Accomplished: We successfully helped 3 Asian/Asian American restaurants (Koi Sushi & Thai, Sarabha's Creamery, and Sweet Dots) become a part of the Taste of Nashville program. A full list of restaurants can be found here.
University Counseling Center
What We Hope To Do: Hire more counselors in the University Counseling Center that can understand the cultural nuances that influence the mental health of Asian American students.
What We Have Accomplished: We assisted the University Counseling Center in hiring two Social Justice Counselors who demonstrate great competency and initiative in caring for the mental health needs of Asian American communities.