UIC AARCC | Welcome to the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center
THE UIC AANAPISI INITIATIVE
Supporting the recruitment, retention, and graduation of Asian American and Pacific Islander students at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Fully funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s
Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions* (AANAPISI) Program.
Click on following links below for more information on each initiative. You are also welcome to follow up with contacts listed if you have questions.
Enhancing the Academic Experiences of Asian American/Pacific Islander Students
• Curriculum Development •
- New Asian American Studies Courses: AANAPISI supports new ASAM courses: New Asian American Studies Courses
Contact Anna Guevarra, ASAM Director, guevarra@uic.edu
- Faculty-led Summer ASAM Study Abroad: AANAPISI supports new ASAM courses each summer
Contacts Anna Guevarra, Asian American Studies, guevarra@uic.edu
Or Chris Deegan, Study Abroad Director, deegan@uic.edu
• Co-Curricular Enrichment •
- ASAM Expo Mini-Grants for Undergraduate Research & Arts- (up to $1000) for Undergraduate Research & Arts: designed to facilitate and encourage students to pursue independent research and/or creative-arts projects about and with Asian American and Pacific Islander
Contact Mary Anne Mohanraj, mohanraj@uic.edu
- Public lectures and Interactive Workshops - AANAPISI provides funds to bring in prominent professors, artists, leaders, and activists to present at UIC.
ASAM Events - Contact Mary Anne Mohanraj, mohanraj@uic.edu
• Academic Skills Development •
- Expanded Advising, Assessments, and Workshops for English-Language Learners
Contact Charitianne Williams, cwilli31@uic.edu
• Writing Skills Development •
- Expanded ESL Tutoring and tutor training
Contact Vainis Aleksa, Director of Writing Center, 312-413-2205
Connecting Asian American/Pacific Islander Students to the Community
• Community Engagement •
- Community-Based Learning and Engagement- Promotes community engagement to connect students, staff and faculty with local Asian American and Pacific Islander communities throughout Greater Chicago.
Contact Rooshey Hasnain, Visiting Reseach Professor ASAM, roosheyh@uic.edu
• College Exposure •
- College Day for Prospective Students- Event to encourage high school students to attend college by having them visit UIC and learn about application process, financial aid information, interact with current college students and take a tour of UIC .
Contact Jeffrey Alton, Visiting Associate Director of AARCC, jalton@uic.edu
Or Rhoda Gutierrez, Research Assistant for College Day, rrgutier@uic.edu
• College and Career Pathways •
- Tutoring for K-12 Students- Tutoring for K-12 Students- To place UIC students in CPS programs to tutor students and also foster Asian Americans to enter the education field.
Contact: Marlynne Nishimura, Clinical Lecturer in Curriculum and Instruction and Dept. of Chemistry, marlynne@uic.edu.
• Field Projects for Prospective Teachers •
Contact: Marlynne Nishimura, Clinical Lecturer in Curriculum and Instruction and Dept. of Chemistry, marlynne@uic.edu.
Building and Strengthening Asian American/Pacific Islander Student Support
• Capacity Building •
- Expanded Asian American Mentor Program for new first-year and transfer students, with a new summer AAMP component
Contact Jeffrey Alton, Visiting Associate Director of AARCC, jalton@uic.edu
Or Lydia Ye, AARCC Graduate Assistant, qye2@uic.edu
- Student Leadership Development- Enhanced our annual summer student leadership retreat, student travel support for conferences, and supported workgroup to develop leadership lesson components for future programs.
Contact Elvin Chan, Assistant Director AARCC, eychan@uic.edu
- AARCC Space Expansion completed in August 2011. Come Visit!
Contact Elvin Chan, Assistant Director AARCC, eychan@uic.edu
• Institutional Data •
- Research on UIC Students- A quantitative and qualitative research on UIC Asian American and Pacific Islander non-international undergraduate students. Current Studies: Fall 2011 demographic survey, Spring 2012 Focus Groups.
Contact Kevin Kumashiro, Principal Investigator, kevink@uic.edu
Or Heather Risser, Evaluator, hjrisser@yahoo.com
• AANAPISI Scholarships •
- The AANAPISI Educational Support Scholarships provide funding for tuition, fees, and other educational expenses. There are both spring and fall deadlines to flexibly respond to student needs.
Visit Office of Special Scholarship Programs.
- Study Abroad Scholarships- AANAPISI provides summer scholarships for UIC students to study abroad.
Contact Anna Guevarra, Asian American Studies, guevarra@uic.edu
Or Chris Deegan, Study Abroad Director, deegan@uic.edu
For more information on any of the above programs, please contact:
Kevin Kumashiro, Principal Investigator, kevink@uic.edu
Anna Guevarra, Director of the Asian American Studies Program, guevarra@uic.edu
Karen Su, Director of the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center, karensu@uic.edu
For a list of STAFF, go to UIC AANAPISI Staff Page
A collaboration of: Asian American Resource and Cultural Center (AARCC) • Asian American Studies Program (ASAM) • College of Education • First Year Writing Program • Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP) • Office of Social Science Research (OSSR) • Office of Special Scholarship Programs (OSSP) • Study Abroad Office • Writing Center •
UIC AANAPISI NEWS
The AANAPISI Online Demographic Survey of 2011 reached the goal of 1200 responses!
If you did not complete a survey last year, please participate this year! Stay tuned for upcoming presentations of the research results. IRB protocol #2011-0520
October 2011: UIC Receives $2 Million for Asian American Students Initiative
The University of Illinois at Chicago has received a five-year, $2 million grant to support recruitment, retention and graduation of Asian American and Pacific Islander students.
The grant, from the U.S. Department of Education's Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution program, will fund academic and writing skills development, college preparation, career advancement and financial aid.
It is UIC's second federal grant to serve this minority in the past year, said Kevin Kumashiro, UIC professor of Asian American studies and education, and the grant's principal investigator.
Federal support "recognizes the diversity among our Asian American students, but also the many significant challenges they face, especially English-language learners and students with limited financial resources," Kumashiro said. "This grant will be instrumental in expanding the capacity of UIC to support our students in achieving their educational goals."
The Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution Initiative at UIC is led by the Asian American studies program and the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center. It was established last year with a five-year, $1.86 million grant.
The latest grant will expand advising, assessment and workshops by the UIC Academic Center for Excellence and tutoring by the UIC Writing Center, Kumashiro said. It will allow the centers to better serve English-language learners, including but not limited to, Asian Americans.
Among other recipients of assistance is the UIC Office of Special Scholarship Programs, which will award $200,000 in scholarships per year to Asian American and Pacific Islander students. The UIC College of Education will partner with the initiative to lead tutoring for K-12 students and field-projects for prospective teachers.
Approximately 20 percent of UIC students identify themselves as Asian American and Pacific Islander. National census figures indicate the category embraces more than 50 ethnic groups and 100 languages. The UIC initiative's goals include recruitment of underrepresented sub-groups within the Asian American community.
UIC ranks among the nation's leading research universities and is Chicago's largest university with 27,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world.
For more information about UIC, please visit www.uic.edu.
October 2010: UIC Awarded $1.86M for Asian American Student Initiative
We are thrilled to announce that UIC is one of the recipients of the AANAPISI (Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions)* grant. The grant funding will be an unprecedented opportunity for UIC to support Asian American students on campus through the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center (AARCC) and the Asian American Studies (ASAM) Program:
- AARCC will be able to expand our center’s space, enhance the Asian American Mentor Program, and hire a new Associate Director for student support initiatives.
- ASAM will be able to strengthen the curriculum through increased course offerings, an innovative Study Abroad program, and community engagement initiatives for the newly established Minor.
- The grant will also support an institutional data research effort to gather disaggregated data so we can understand the ethnic-specific needs of students within this diverse campus population.
*The U.S. Department of Education’s term “Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander” refers to Asian American students (with origins from East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia including the Phillipines) and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander students (with origins from Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, and other Pacific Islands.)