05/22/2026
Hi fellow WW-P parents,
How are you? Hope all is well with you and your loved ones.
The West Windsor Plainsboro school district is offering an Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies course this summer. Here is the info about the class. Our daughter attended this class last summer and said it was the best educational experience of her life. We looked forward to hearing about what she was learning and synthesizing in her class. I hope your kids get a chance to enjoy this class as well.
Take care, Kani
p.s. here are some testimonials from community members about the value of learning Asian American studies:
As a brown kid growing up in New Jersey, I rarely encountered anything in public school history class that reflected my own ancestry. Only much later did I realize that in omitting the history of Asians and Asian Americans in this country, my own education sent me the message that I, too, was not considered a part of America's story. As an adult, I have intentionally sought out spaces and voices that more closely reflected my own experiences with both accuracy and nuance. One of those spaces was an Asian American reading group that I participated in a few years ago, in which we spent several months reading and discussing works by Asian and Asian American authors. It had ultimately taken me over three decades to encounter a group that centered the voices of people who looked like me and had stories like mine -- and I wished it could've happened sooner. All students deserve to learn about the diversity of the stories that surround them. And all students deserve to be reflected in the histories that our schools teach.
-Annah Kuriakose, M.D.
STEM-focused research relies on an understanding of the humanities for direction, depth, and ethical guidance. Understanding our shared histories and the context of our experiences is important to determine how science and engineering can help address our current societal issues. While working towards my doctorate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, I joined the Central New Jersey Asian American Reading Group and learned so much that had not been a part of my K-12 curriculum. The often unknown stories highlighted in Asian American Studies filled gaps in my historical knowledge and added nuance to my perspective of social inequities. Learning Asian American Studies helped me consider how the needs of different communities are intertwined, and what role I could play in using STEM to pursue climate and environmental justice. Asian American Studies has been invaluable to my development as a STEM researcher and as a person.
-Emily Sun, Ph.D.
