More Than Just Awareness: The Origins Behind the Asian American Student Initiative

The Asian American Student Initiative (AASI) was founded by Maximillian “Max” Nikoolkan '14, Priscilla Lin '14, and Paul Atienza '15. The organization officially became a Registered Student Organization in 2015.

AASI’s purpose was to have an established space for progressive Asian American students to gather and advocate for their interests and concerns. The first directors of AASI were Jin Hyuk Ho '16 and Pallavi Rudraraju '17.

For Max, the Asian American multicultural organizations established at the time—such as the Chinese Student Organization, Korean American Student Association, Japanese Cultural Association, etc.—didn’t satisfy his interest in advocacy and exploring Asian American identity.

Max recalls, “I went through everything. I got to [the Korean American Student Association] the [Chinese Student Organization]...I went through…the [Japanese Cultural Association] because I studied abroad in Japan…and none of those really touched upon advocacy. Here's the thing…awareness at the surface level is what I saw. 

“...Awareness is great, especially for you know, people who are like adoptees who don't really know anything about the culture and want to participate in something for it. I mean, that's excellent. But at the same time, I feel like an adoptee would want to do advocacy, or volunteer work with other adoptees or mentor work or something that's just a little has a little more oomph to it. So that they felt like ‘wow, I made a connection, I had an impact that really affected my life, and that I can help others as well.’ Not just merely as a social group that I became friends with.

“...I need people on this campus to think and do a little more. I'm really tired of the superficiality behind all these different things. I want us to be better people, and not just be satisfied with absorbing the idea of a stereotype

“...I want people to open their eyes up to the different realities of being Asian American. And it could start here, and I could leave a legacy there.”

However, establishing a student organization was not Max’s primary goal. While he wanted to create a space for Asian American advocacy, the Asian American Student Initiative was primarily Max’s modus operandi for bringing Asian American studies to W&M and, in turn, part of the Movement for Asian American Studies (MAAS) that Max also led. 

The first large event that AASI organized was bringing American comedian Hari Kondabolu to W&M for a comedy show and Q&A about race and equity. This event was very successful and had over 200 people in attendance, which also helped AASI collect signatures for their petition to establish an APIA studies program.

AASI’s history is rooted in fighting for APIA studies at W&M, in which they held multiple meetings with the Dean and President Reveley to advocate for the creation of an APIA studies major (read more about the fight for Asian American studies here). Additionally, AASI worked to highlight the stories of Asian American folks at W&M and combat the model minority myth with the FACES campaign, started by Priscilla Lin and Paul Atienza.

The FACES campaign was initially Atienza and Lin's final project for Professor Tanglao Aguas’ THEA 340: Acting Asian American course. They draw inspiration from the Humans of New York and Humans of William & Mary projects. From their Facebook page, they state their purpose is “to get students to start thinking about their own identity through Asian Americans’ experiences with race and to also spread awareness of these issues to the larger William & Mary community.”

The campaign began as posts and video clips posted to Facebook at @AASIWM. FACES continues to be a part of the Asian American Student Initiative's work. Now located on Instagram at @aasiwm.