When Jacob Lu Peterson arrived on campus last year, he saw organizations for Japanese and Korean students, but did not see any representation for Chinese Americans.
He decided to change that.
Now, the Chinese American Student Association works to provide a space where Chinese American students can build a community and “learn more about their own individual identities.”
According to Peterson, the organization lets the UW-Madison community know that there are Chinese Americans on campus and allows students in the organization to learn more about their culture.
“Balancing our Chinese identity with our American identity is really important,” Peterson said. “We saw that organizations like the Korean American Student Association had a strong community presence on campus and we wanted to provide that same opportunity for ChineseAmerican students.”
Although CHASA was founded in September, the organization already has around 50 members, according to Peterson. Peterson said that the group is focused on creating a community for Chinese Americans, but students of any background can join the organization to learn more about Chinese culture.
The group has partnered with other organizations like the Asian American Student Union to put on social events like the bubble tea social they hosted in late September. The group plans to hold future events like a New Year’s celebration and a dumpling baking event.
Peterson said the while the group is working to make Asian American students on the UW-Madison campus feel included, he hopes to eventually expand to get members of the Madison community involved.
“As we are a new org, we want to get our foundation set before we expand,” Peterson said. “But we certainly want to eventually hold community events in the future.”
