By Ingrid Yeung’23
The Community and Equity department at St. Mark’s always works to provide an inclusive space for students of all backgrounds and identities. Through affinity group spaces, students can openly discuss issues in safe environments with other students who share the same identities as them. However, there are times when a group covers an overarching identity, and specific subgroups of students feel underrepresented. Asian Students Alliance (ASA), in this case, struggled with ensuring that all voices within the group were heard. Thus, to better serve student needs the ASA will restructure and experiment with a new model next year. Working together with Pathways, the new leaders and faculty advisors will strive to build a group that recognizes the internal diversity of the school’s Asian community and promise that all different voices and celebrations of our identities are valued.
Designed to encompass all Asian students, ASA has served the student body for many years. As the majority of the Asian student population in St. Mark’s is East Asian, many events, discussions, and celebrations tend to accommodate East Asian students, especially Chinese students more than any other. While it is typical for the outer world to generalize the Asian population, the ASA leaders realized the importance of upholding internal diversity. Thus, during the previous years, the ASA established a system to diversify the representation in leadership and to empower members to contribute to the overall programming. The group has had “Reps” of various identities, such as an LGBTQIA+ community Rep and a South Asian Rep. Despite the different perspectives that the representatives brought, many ASA members still felt that their voices were unheard, and therefore desired to break off to seek their own safe affinity space. This year, students called to start an Asian American and a South Asian affinity group, which will stand separate from ASA. However, seeing the potential confusion with having general and specific Asian Alliance groups, the faculty advisors and the current leaders of the ASA proposed the restructuring of ASA.
Although there are hardships and difficulties in satisfying the entire Asian student body, leaders tried their best to mold the ASA into a new model that celebrates diversity while valuing unity and inclusivity. After having a closed meeting discussing the potential restructuring and collecting student feedback, the ASA leaders resolved to establish two affinity groups: the Association of South East/East Asians (ASEA) and the South Asian Student Society (SASS). These two affinity groups will be independent of each other but share the same resources and characteristics as other affinity groups, while still under the overarching umbrella of the Asian Student Alliance. The leaders and advisors of both groups will serve on the Alliance and meet regularly to plan activities for the Pan-Asian community at St. Mark’s.
Amidst the change in the structure of the ASA and the worries and fear brought by it, students and adults of the Asian community reacted to this sudden, yet not entirely unanticipated change. Current ASA head Zimo Tang expressed his feeling about the dissolution of the original ASA, “It's sad to see that we will no longer have one big group that represents solidarity among the Asian student body, but I'm sure the two new groups hold great prospects ahead and will take care of the needs of our Asian students more specifically.” Ms. Starry Zhu, the ASA advisor and associate director of C&E, is hopeful for the potential of the new structure, “I'm very excited about the restructuring, or as a matter of fact, the expansion of the Asian Student Alliance (ASA) next year. I believe the two new groups, the Association of Southeast & East Asians (ASEA) and the South Asian Student Society (SASS), will become more intentional and meaningful affinity spaces for our diverse Pan-Asian student population. In addition, when these two groups work collaboratively under the structure of the ASA, they will also be able to leverage the collective power and increase the visibility of the Pan-Asian students and their unique experiences at St. Mark's.” Despite the many uncertainties regarding the change and new structure, all of us are hopeful about what the new model will bring to the Asian community here at St. Mark’s.
