U-M AAAPI Alumni Club

05/22/2026

The Department of American Culture, Asian/Pacific Islander American (APIA) Studies, represented by its new Director, Associate Professor Dr. Melissa Borja, and Assistant Professor Dr. Retika Adhikari, honored the first recipients of the AAUM Asian/Asian American Pacific Islander (A/AAPI) group’s endowed fund to support APIA Studies at Michigan: graduate students Henry Chen (research on socio-cultural aspects of the Chinese Exclusion Act), Wren Palmer (research on mainstream media depictions of Pacific Islander warrior culture), Gina Hsu (research on responses to invasive aquaculture from Asia), and undergraduate student Paolo Poquiz (research on activism in rural communities). President Ed Sim, Secretary Tak Takahashi, VP of Scholarships Ram Ramanujam, and Lecturer Roland Hwang represented the AAUM A/AAPI group. We look forward to hearing more from these scholars in the future!

The APIA Studies endowed fund will annually award students conducting APIA studies research. The A/AAPI group has three scholarship funds supporting the Maize and Blue Cupboard, School of Engineering and APIA Studies. Please consider donating at the below links:

Support of the Maize and Blue Cupboard https://lnkd.in/eqRwQgVV

Support of the Engineering School Student Success and Wellness Fund
https://lnkd.in/dqxp6GMY

Support of the Asian/Pacific Islander Studies program https://lnkd.in/efS_A6NK

05/09/2026

Last Saturday, Michigan alum Alice Chow, a Human Relations Commissioner with the Village of Wilmette, a northern suburb of Chicago, organized their fourth AAPI Festival to celebrate diverse Asian cultures. It included family-friendly crafts, good food from local restaurants, and cultural performances, all from a diversity of Asian and Pacific Islander American cultures. The event was fun for all and we are already looking forward to Wilmette's fifth AAPI festival next year!

University of Michigan Club of Greater Chicago - UMCGC Wilmette Park District Wilmette Chamber of Commerce Wilmette Public Library

05/01/2026

Join fellow Michigan Alums and their families at the Village of Wilmette’s AAPI Heritage Month Festival, a family friendly event organized by UM A/AAPI Michigan alum and Wilmette Human Relations Commissioner Alice Chow, to celebrate Asian and Pacific Islander culture and heritage.

The festival will have food, crafts, and interactive booths and performances. The event is free for the public.

Please contact Jacob Molewyk at [email protected] to coordinate a meet up time and place to enjoy the festival together as a group of UM Alumni.

May 2, 2026 (Sat)
1 – 4:00 PM CT
Wilmette Community Recreation Center
3000 Glenview Road, Wilmette, IL 60091

University of Michigan Club of Greater Chicago - UMCGC

The Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month Festival is next weekend on Saturday, May 2! Come join us at the Community Recreation Center from 1pm to 4pm, as we celebrate AAPI culture from across the world with various demonstrations, performances, and food! Check wilmette.gov/AAPI for updates.

04/23/2026

04/23/2026

The University of Michigan A/AAPI Alumni Club was deeply honored to co-host the National Asian Pacific American Museum Commission’s Ann Arbor Convening and Listening Session.

We welcomed Commission Co-Vice Chair Tina Wei Smith and Commissioner Dennis Cheng to campus.

This event allowed our community of alumni, students, and advocates to discuss foundational questions about the potential National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture.

Thank you to our co-hosts for this partnership: the Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies at the University of Michigan, Division of Student Life, Office of Access & Opportunity, and the Museum Studies Program University of Michigan. We were proud to provide a space where local and regional Michigan voices could help shape this national legacy.

Learn more about this historic project and share your own input with the Commission by visiting National Asian Pacific American Museum Commission

04/16/2026

TAAF joins our South Asian and Southeast Asian friends in celebrating the new beginnings and joy that come with the new year.

03/18/2026

It's that time again! Giving Blueday is March 18th! Please consider supporting student-focused initiatives from the A/AAPI Alumni Club. Matching funds opportunities are available throughout the day!

A/AAPI Studies Fund:
https://myumi.ch/n1nP8

Maize and Blue Cupboard Fund:
https://giving.umich.edu/um/w/aaum-a/aapi-maize-and-blue-cupboard-fund-703460

Michigan Engineering Student Success and Wellness Fund:
https://giving.umich.edu/um/w/aaum-a/aapi-michigan-engineering-student-success-and-wellness-fund-703413

02/23/2026

We celebrated the Year of the Horse at our annual Lunar New Year celebration at the UMMA! Hamilton Chang gave a tour of the Asian art donated by his family to UMMA. Student music groups Sinaboro and Qingyun Ensemble performed, and we all enjoyed great food from Evergreen Ann Arbor!

We are focused on improving the quality of life in the Michigan community, whether on campus or beyond. Please consider contributing to our three educational funds established to support this mission:

Support of the Maize and Blue Cupboard https://lnkd.in/eqRwQgVV

Support of the Engineering School Student Success and Wellness Fund https://lnkd.in/eBPhkCKK

Support of the Asian/Pacific Islander Studies program https://lnkd.in/e2PAWK7F

Please consider giving now!

02/23/2026

President Edmund Sim and Board Members Shinji Takahashi, Ram Ramanujam, Gunjan Sud, and Jingran Wang donated spices to the Maize and Blue Cupboard. Besides providing a taste of home to Michigan students, our group also sponsors an endowed fund to support the Cupboard:

https://giving.umich.edu/um/w/aaum-a/aapi-maize-and-blue-cupboard-fund-703460?keyword=maize+and+blue+cupboard

Please consider donating now!

02/12/2026

Congratulations to U-M A/AAPI alum Winnie Liao on her new role with the City of Detroit Government! Go Blue!

01/25/2026

There's an event on UM Central Campus on Feb. 4th and 5th that's worth checking out.

Songs of the Dragon, Images of Fantasy: Music and Visual Arts Re-Imagined
Thursday, February 5 (7-8:30 PM)
Keene Theater, Residential College
701 E University Ave, Ann Arbor
A musical and visual arts evening that celebrates how a mythical creature--the Asian-inspired dragon--is muse to art and melody. A visual storytelling of artist-in-residence Zhen Guo's career trajectory interspersed with music selections from the Chinese Music Ensemble and performances on the Korean p'iri with Sunhong Kim together with Clay Conley, and Xiaodong Wei on Chinese erhu and zither. Just in time to help usher in the Asian Lunar New Year!
Free and open to the public.
University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, UMMA: University of Michigan Museum of Art
Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning