Boba and friends, on April 8, Wichita State’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion hosted a boba social for students and faculty of Asian, Pacific-Islander and Desi descent.

Asian American and Pacific-Islander Heritage month is usually celebrated in the month of May, but because students are usually out of classes for the Summer break or have finals during that time, the ODI chose to celebrate it in the month of April. 

“It’s just a nice way to get everyone together,” said ODI Retention Coordinator, Trang Bui. “Celebrate and kick off the month.” 

Bui mentioned that the ODI has a full month of events planned for InspirASIAN month, including the ODI listening session for APIDA students. 

“We want to make sure their identities are recognized, they are celebrated at Wichita State University,” said ODI Marketing Specialist, Quang Nguyen. “We do a whole month of events to make sure that their identities are known.”

The ODI’s purpose for this boba social is to not only kick off the month, but to celebrate this year’s theme for InspirASIAN month –rebuilding connections.

 “We have gone through two years of the pandemic, students have been very disconnected,” said Nguyen. “We want to make sure students are more connected and branch those connections with our faculty and staff on-campus as well as getting them connected to the community of Wichita.” 

This year was the first year that the ODI hosted the Boba Social for InspirASIAN month. This event was free and open to everyone. 

Amanda Phanivong and David Liu both serve as Ambassadors for the ODI and were at the event to support the organization.

“We support the mission and activities at the Office of Diversity and Inclusion,” Phanivong said. “We want to meet more people from the Asian-American community and we also just want to encourage Asian youth to come out and support ODI.”