Allie Sorlie may have been in the United States for more than a decade now, but a piece of her heart will always remain across the Pacific Ocean.
As the daughter of soldier, Sorlie lived for five years on a military base in Okinawa and another four on the mainland of Japan.
"I really miss being there," she said. "The food, the people; everything was so amazing, and I haven't really been able to find a lot of that culture in this area."
Sorlie was pleasantly surprised when she learned that Asian American students were planning many cultural events in April as part of UCF's first Asian American Heritage Month.
After learning from a 2001 Office of Diversity initiative report that Asian Americans were the least content of any minority at UCF, a task force committee formed to address and evaluate students' concerns. Some complaints were similar to Sorlie's; people were unhappy because of a lack of cultural programming and understanding on campus.
Being the third largest minority on campus, many Asian American students felt it was time for a change.
With the support of the taskforce committee and other organizations around campus, the Vietnamese American Student Association, the Filipino Student Association, the Asian Student Association and Delta Phi Lambda are co-sponsoring Asian American Heritage Month.
"We want to show UCF who we are as a people and to increase cultural understanding at UCF," the chair of the Asian Pacific American Coalition Ricky Ly said. "Hopefully, people will open both their hearts and minds to each other on campus and learn and grow together,"
April 1 kicked off the events as the Vietnamese American Student Association presented "Black April Commemoration: 31 Years since the Fall of Saigon" in the Student Union. This program was especially important because the Vietnam War marked the beginning of Vietnamese refugees traveling to America.
"The event was for speakers that experienced the war and students that are here now to talk about the future and what we would like to see happen," said VASA president Charity Thach.
Current social problems in Vietnam, including human trafficking, were some of the topics discussed at the commemoration. Combating human trafficking is the official philanthropy for April and a donation box will be out at each event.
The Filipino Student Association will be holding a Filipino Cultural Night on April 8 titled "Sayaw." In Tagalog, the native language in the Philippines, "sayaw" means "dance." A wide variety of traditional Filipino dances will be performed, as well as a fashion show.
Also, every Wednesday in April the Marketplace will be serving Asian food for lunch and on-campus housing will have Asian movies playing on channel 80.
The UCF counseling center is also sponsoring a movie night. The film being shown, Saving Face, is a romantic comedy about the relationships of an Asian American girl living in New York.
The Asian American Heritage Month events are not just for the Asian Americans on campus. They are for everyone.
"One of the struggles that we have is getting a wider representation of the students at UCF to come and participate in the activities," Ly said.
To help alleviate this problem, a joint presentation, titled "Stereotypes, the Media, and what can we do about it," will be held April 11.
This presentation will not only be about stereotypes affecting the Asian American community, but how other groups are also being stereotyped. Leaders will be speaking from many organizations including the NAACP, the National Association of Black Journalists, fraternities, sororities, the Department of African American Studies and others.
From cultural presentations to martial arts demonstrations to sushi workshops, there is at least one event that each person on campus can enjoy.
"I think it's great that people have finally realized that the Asian American population is a big part of our UCF community, and I'm really looking forward to all of the events," Sorlie said.
For more information on these or other Asian American Heritage Month events, contact Ricky Ly at apac_ucf@yahoo.com or visit www.GetInvolvedUCF.com.
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