October 03, 2016
Ellie Colpitts
The Asian Pacific Islander Student Union will hold their second annual Count the Candy fundraiser for future events at Sanatorium Grounds from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the University Center on Oct. 5.
Students can pay $1 to guess how many pieces of candy are in the container. The student with the closest guess will win all the candy, and there will be a random drawing of those that participated to win a gift card.
APISU, which started 10 years ago at UCCS, is dedicated to spreading culture and creating diversity here on campus and is open to all students, regardless of background.
The club’s members come from diverse backgrounds, including African American, Caucasian and Hispanic cultures, along with Asian descent. Being more inclusive is something that the club is working on, according Derek Tao, APISU treasurer.
We’ve worked on changing the dynamic of the club to become more inclusive to not just Asian people,” said Tao.
“Anyone who wants to join can and we’ve been a lot better over the past few years being inclusive to everyone.”
APISU has 60 registered members and 30 actively participating in club events, compared to the 10 original members that started the group. Alumni of APISU also stay involved in club activities after graduation.
The union is one of the most active clubs on campus, and holds traditional events yearly, according to Krystal Schiffelbein, coordinator of Students Clubs, Organizations and Leadership Programming.
“They’ve been a very strong presence on campus and just an active club with an active membership,” said Schiffelbein.
APISU has teamed up with other multicultural clubs on campus in their Culture Chalk event, on the Spine, which was chalked with images from cultural stories or myths.
“The idea was we would put these chalk drawings on the Spine to expose the UCCS community to different cultural images and cause those passing by to stop to look at them and become interested in reading about them,” said Tao.
“It’s just a small way for students to educate themselves about origins of beliefs.”
The club has more events coming up aside from their upcoming fundraising event.
The APISU will hold their annual Raging Asian Cultural Event in Berger Hall in November. This event is allows the club to share their traditions and engage the campus through cultural activities.
“During RACE we choose different cities in Asia that we showcase and give different information about them,” Tao said.
Club meetings are held Fridays at 5 p.m. in the Student Life and Leadership office. For more information about the APISU, students can visit their page on Mountain Lion Connect.