Talk To Your Elders: Asian American Community Building at W&M, 1984-2021

Asian American student organizations are an integral part of William & Mary’s campus culture. While Asian American students only make up 7% of the school’s population, there are currently six registered Asian American Multicultural Organizations—the Vietnamese Student Association, Chinese Student Organization, Filipino American Student Association, Korean American Student Association, South Asian Student Association, Japanese Cultural Association—and one activism based organization, the Asian American Student Initiative. This project further historicizes the stories and people behind the creation of these organizations by uncovering the activities and motivations of their founders. Through examining student organization records and primary sources, I create an interactive website detailing major milestones for Asian American student organizations, juxtaposing a diverse range of stories from student leaders, and synthesize what my findings uncover about the Asian American community at William & Mary in this paper