February 2025 at the AAPI Center

Courtside Recognitions at the second annual AAPI Night With Men's Basketball vs. San Diego!
From left: Andy Chan, Christine Yeh, Dean Otgo Erhemjamts, Wei Menkus, and Provost Eileen Fung

Join the AAPI Center this month to celebrate Lunar New Year! Sending our gratitude and best wishes for success and health for the Year of the Snake.

Our AAPI leadership fellows are excited to reconvene and continue their collective study and practice. This semester, students will continue exploring AAPI leadership and social movements. Each fellow will engage in a paid internship with an AAPI community partner.  

Last week, our FLC reconvened after a winter recess to continue conversations on the reimagining of Southwest Asian and North African communities within the greater Asian American diasporic community. We look forward to dialoging about Hua Hsu's Stay True in our book club meetings in the coming weeks!

Over the fall semester, facilitated by Kahanu Salavea, we explored strategies to enhance our institutional capacity to serve Pacific Islander students at USF and have begun work toward creating new opportunities to achieve these goals. Our community concludes next week with spaces for continued dialogue and brainstorming as we enter a new semester!

Last week, we kicked off our spring 2025 SLLC, Practices of Care for Multiracial AAPI Students. Facilitated by Matilda Tavares, we will explore the experience of AAPI and multiracial identities in higher education. Together, we will co-create practices that nurture strengths-centered identity development and center the voices and experiences of our students who identify as both AAPI and multiracial.

Tuesday, Feb. 4  |  11:45 a.m.–12:45 p.m.  |  McLaren Complex

Join the Center for Asia Pacific Studies and other Asia-focused programs and units on campus as we ring in the Year of the Snake! Meet us in the McLaren Complex for music, prizes, food, and a traditional lion dance performance by Leung’s White Crane Association. Free and open to all!

Friday, Feb. 7  |  6–9 p.m.  |  McLaren Complex

Celebrate Tết, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, with VSA! Enjoy lion dancing, traditional food, games, and a night market featuring 14+ student organization collaborations. Your ticket entry includes food, activities, and raffle prizes. Get your ticket now »

Saturday, Feb. 15  |  3–7 p.m.  |  Market Street

Join the API Collective and the Cultural Centers at the Chinese New Year Parade! We will meet on campus at 3 p.m. and head to Market Street together to watch the parade. Students, please RSVP »

Faculty and staff interested in attending—please contact the AAPI Center for details: AAPIcenter@usfca.edu

Saturday, March 29  |  10 a.m.–5 p.m.  |  Hilltop Campus

The USF Cultural Centers and Office for Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion warmly invite you to save the date for our sixth annual Women of Color Leadership Conference.

Receive a save the date reminder »
Submit proposals by Feb. 14 »

Installations by Cathy Lu

Ceramics by Paz G, Liz Hernández, Cathy Lu, Maria Porges, and Maryam Yousif

On exhibition from December 2024 – February 2025

Breaking from tradition, Imagined Vessels explores the work of five contemporary artists as they mold stories of personal and cultural identity into ceramic form. 

Learn more about the new exhibition »

Taking place in May 2025  |  Visit EYC website »

Each year, the Cultural Centers work with students, faculty and staff to plan our End of the Year Ceremonies for our historically underserved and underrepresented communities on campus.

The Interwoven Graduation Ceremony honors graduating Asian, Asian American, South Asian, and/or Multiracial undergraduate and graduate students. We are seeking nominations for our student speaker and award recipients to honor graduating students, faculty, and staff.

Submit nominations by March 1 »

In January, we welcomed the newest members of the USF community at Spring Orientation. The AAPI Center hosted a community celebration with over 200 AAPI faculty, staff, students, and alumni in attendance before the second annual AAPI Night With Men's Basketball (vs. San Diego). The month concluded with a spring welcome and community dinner for USF's Pacific Islander community!

Pacific Islander Spring Welcome and Community Gathering (January 2025)

Men's Basketball AAPI Night: Pregame Celebration (January 2025)

The Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good is recruiting for a new group of USF in D.C., McCarthy Fellows in SF and McCarthy Fellows in Sacramento! Opportunities are open to all undergraduate students and to all majors, with scholarships available. Applications are due Saturday, March 1.

Info sessions are held on Tuesdays, 11:45 a.m.–12:45 p.m.  |  Join Zoom meeting »

Questions? Contact Angeline Vuong at amvuong@usfca.edu.

Recruiting for Fall 2025  |  Learn more and apply »

McCarthy Fellows in San Francisco is a semester-long program that integrates a part-time internship with the City & County of San Francisco alongside a rigorous academic seminar course. In this semester program, a select group of fellows have the unique opportunity to study political economy and culture with a local government agency according to their interest area.

Recruiting for Fall 2025  |  Learn more and apply »

Experience public service in our nation's capital: USF in DC is a semester-long program in Washington, D.C., that integrates a full-time internship with coursework taught by USF faculty. Students experience first-hand the culture and politics of D.C. where they will live, learn, and explore all the city has to offer. Alongside students from across the country, this new generation of leaders study, research, work, and live within Washington’s rich cultural, political and international heritage.

Recruiting for Summer 2026  |  Learn more and apply »

In this summer program, McCarthy fellows spend 12 weeks in full-time internships at Sacramento institutions that contribute to the California policy-making process. Students live, work, and learn in the state capital, while taking advantage of powerful educational opportunities within the context of their internships and the co-curricular offerings that abound in their thriving host city.

We invite you to share about recent successes, campus events for promotion, and spotlights on students, faculty, and staff! Contact AAPIcenter@usfca.edu.

The Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Center at the University of San Francisco is funded by a grant from the Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) Program of the U.S. Department of Education.