If your school, college, or department has an Asian American/Pacific Islander (AA/PI) Heritage Month event in the works, submit your information through this form. These events will be compiled into one calendar and assist with cohesive outreach efforts across the entire U system.
Please keep in mind that programming should not be limited to these dates — we should honor, celebrate, and engage our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities every day, 12 months a year. We encourage everyone to use the IntersectX12 mark on your event promotion to honor individuals’ intersecting identities not only during nationally recognized months but serve as year-round recognition of the work being done to create an inclusive space where everyone feels they belong.
Tricia Sugiyama: Greetings, everyone. My name is Tricia Sugiyama, and I am the new director of equity, diversity, and inclusion projects. I am honored to be here today speaking with my colleagues about Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
With me, we have Tiffany Chan: Tiffany is a third-year student studying honors Political Science and Economics with a minor in Applied Ethics and Ethic Studies. She is a first-generation college student and is the oldest child of three in her family. This past year, she served as the vice president of university relations with the Associated Students of the University of Utah.
Additionally, we have Janzell Tutor who is the Asian-Pacific Islander (API) Alumni Community leader and director of advancement with the School of Dentistry. Tiffany and Janzell, thank you so much for joining me today. So with May being National Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Tiffany, I thought I’d start off by asking you a question. What is Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month and why is it important?
Tiffany Chan: Thank you so much for that question, Tricia. For me, the Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month is a time of celebration of our shared cultures and shared histories and shared heritages, because we all bring forward like stories of immigration, culture and resilience. The diversity in our Asian Pacific American community is so abundant, which is why the month that we’re celebrating is incredibly important as we recognize the past, present and future of our legacies. And it’s particularly important to me because I don’t see enough solidarity for my community here in Utah when we have a growing Asian American and Pacific Islander population. So I hope to see a lot more communities coming together so that we can share our time of celebration for this month.
Tricia Sugiyama: Thank you so very much. I love how you spoke about solidarity and the importance of celebrating and taking time to really appreciate those that came before us, those that are with us now and those that will be joining us as we move forward — so past, present and future. Thank you so very much.
Janzell, with that, my question for you is what AAPI heritage events are you looking forward to participating in this year?
Janzell Tutor: Thanks, Tricia. So I don’t know any specific events yet, except for one, which I’ll talk about in a minute. But just generally, I’m from Hawaii — my husband and I are both from Hawaii. And before, we were supposed to be for two years and then move home. And we never moved. And we’ve been here for 17 years. Before we had children, we said we wanted to move home so that our children could experience the, you know, the beautiful cultures that exist in Hawaii and have that same lifestyle of learning who they are, who their ancestors were and their culture.
But being that we’re here and that my children are being raised here in Utah, we need these opportunities to be able to share that with them, right? So I love being able to have an opportunity and a whole month of May dedicated to doing that and having so many events out on the community, events from the University of Utah, events all over that really target who we are, target what kind of food we eat, what kind of, you know, music and dance we share and why we share it that way. Right? And be able to share that with my children so that they at least get a little bit, you know, of history to represent who they are and to be proud of who they are. So I’m just looking forward to just having a whole month to celebrate and finding opportunities to share that with my children.
So the event that I am excited to share with you all today is that, as a part of the Alumni Community — like these groups that the Alumni Association at the University of Utah put together — specifically for Asian and Pacific Islanders, I am a community leader for that group and we have put together a mixer or a meet and greet of some sort on May 26th. So please mark your calendars for that evening of May 26. It’s a Thursday evening and we’ll have it at a restaurant or somewhere fun to get together with current students with alumni, faculty, staff and community members to come together from our Asian and Pacific Islander communities to get to know each other and network and to just celebrate each other in our rich cultures. And I’m super excited so mark your books for that, and there will definitely be more to come for this API Alumni Community. Thank you, Tricia.
Tricia Sugiyama: I’m so excited. This is going to be an amazing event and an amazing evening. So I hope to see you all there. Again, thank you both for joining me in this conversation. I am looking forward to the many things that will be happening in May. So for those that are interested to learn more about Asian American/Pacific Islander awareness events happening here on campus and within the community, please visit the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion events page. Thank you.
In addition to the campus events scheduled for Asian American/Pacific Islander (AA/PI) Heritage Month, the Union lobby display case will be highlighting AA/PI community, students and alumni with rotating displays for AA/PI Heritage Month. Revisit the Union throughout the month to catch each display!
