USC’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month kickoff celebrates ‘Strength Through Community’

USC Kung Fu club member Jessica Sheng was nervous and excited to perform a series of sharply choreographed moves on a stage in Founders Park on the University Park Campus.

The Chinese martial arts performance, a highlight of USC’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month kickoff event on Wednesday, went off with great precision — to the delight of the crowd.

“This was my first performance, and for me, it was a pretty big deal,” the breathless sophomore of the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy said after the performance that also featured five other club members in various routines. “I liked being a facilitator of the celebration of my culture.”

The noontime event also featured performances by the K-pop cover band Band Kori, the USC Traditional Chinese Dance club and hula dancers from USC’s Hawaiʻi Club.

Speaking to the event’s theme of “Strength Through Community,” USC Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Andrew T. Guzman said that whether defined by family, heritage, history or choice of university, communities are “so essential to who we are, how we move through the world, how we thrive, how we succeed.”

“All of that just seems so worthy of celebration,” Guzman said.

At USC, 24% of the university’s undergraduate students and more than 16% of its graduate and professional students identify as AAPI.

“We come from different cultures and backgrounds, so celebrations like this allow us to recognize each other, learn about each other and learn about very different cultures in our diverse communities,” the event’s keynote speaker, USC Board of Trustees member John Iino, told the more than 400 attendees.

AAPI Heritage Month became a federally designated observance in 1992 to recognize the contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans to the history, culture and achievements of the United States.

Nationwide, it’s observed in May. At USC, the celebration takes place throughout April while students are still on campus.

Celebrating distinguished Trojans

Iino paid tribute to distinguished Trojans of AAPI descent, including award-winning filmmaker Jon M. Chu, who most recently directed the films Wicked and Crazy Rich Asians. Chu will serve as USC’s commencement keynote speaker in May.

He also named Trojans William Wang, CEO of Vizeo; President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands Hilda Heine; U.S. Congresswoman Young Kim; USC Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation Ishwar K. Puri; and Beong-Soo Kim, the university’s senior vice president and general counsel, who becomes USC’s interim president on July 1.

Iino lauded USC President Carol Folt for championing the awarding of posthumous degrees in 2022 to Nisei Trojans, the Japanese American students who were forced into detention centers after the United States entered World War II. That same year, Folt also approved a rock garden on campus to honor the Nisei students.

“These are all perfect examples of what we look to celebrate during AAPI Heritage Month,” Iino said.

The event’s other featured speaker, Professor Megan Chao of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, spoke about the resilience and strength of the AAPI community.

She said their AAPI journey is one of countless narratives woven together by a shared spirit. From that, Chao said, “strength through tradition, through allyship and through community” has emerged.

Chao said AAPI students, staff and faculty at USC have been successful in building networks of support and creating a sense of belonging.

“These networks are not just important, they are vital,” she said. “They provide a foundation of strength that allows our community to persevere through the rigors of academics, personal challenges and sometimes the harsh realities of the world outside these campus gates.”

Trojans savor celebration — and great food

Attendees were treated to such foods as spam musubi, spicy tuna and spicy kelp onigiri, butter paneer biryani, Thai iced tea, and the Filipino desserts buko pandan and turon.

“The Thai tea was so good on a hot day like this,” said freshman Ashlyn Yamano of the USC Marshall School of Business. “It’s just an amazing thing to see all of these people getting together to celebrate and to see all of the communities we have within this one really big USC community.”

Freshman Julien Charupakorn of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences said he came to the event feeling the weight of domestic and international affairs.

“In the day and age where there’s a lot of political uncertainty … knowing that we have organizations like these on campus really is reassuring,” he said. “People from my background are being represented, and we’re uplifting each other.”