There have been plenty of new clubs at APK, but nothing like this new club that just started this year, ASIA. ASIA stands for Asian Students In Apopka, and the club’s officers include Colin Poon, Kaetlyn Singh, Irene, Saaya, Cecil, Matthew Nyguen, and Creative Director Thuy Vo who we were unfortunately unable to interview. The Blue and White was unable to interview the sponsor, Mr. Sensiper, but we definitely thank him for being able to provide a safe space for Asian Americans here at Apopka.

The main goal of the club is to have “a safe space for Asians. It’s a place for our cultural identity, to connect with other people in our community because as you know we don’t have a very high Asian population at our school,” says Junior Irene, secretary of the club. The Asian population at our school is “around 2.1%” says Irene. The ASIA club hopes to “celebrate [their] cultural identity as a minority of the community” finishes Irene. ASIA also plans to participate in many inclusive activities that represent Asian culture, such as “Reach, which is a central Florida organization that connects all the ASA’s[Asian Student Association]. It’ll help us collaborate and get our ideas out,” mentions Kaetlyn Singh, a Sophomore and Vice President of ASIA. The club plans to provide plenty of volunteer opportunities for American-Asian students that want to know more about the wonders of different cultures.

ASIA was first formed by Colin Poon, Sophomore and President of this wonderful organization, who spoke about the making of the club: “I participate in regional Asian organizations, so I heard about ASA’s from other high schools, like a university that had ASA’s and I thought that would be an amazing thing to have at Apopka High School.” There seems to be a bright future for this association in expansion and in opportunity, “because a lot of students from California and New York due to the high taxes, a lot of their families have moved to Florida. A lot of those families are of Asian decent, so I feel like our club will slowly and slowly expand.” Colin also looks to “help expand minority representation on campus. I feel like we can start possibly thinking about having school-wide events, maybe a multicultural festival in the future.” With the hopes of expansion in the future, there are also hopes for celebrations and representing Asian culture, as well.

Many may wonder if you have to be Asian or not to be a part of the club. Matthew Nyguen, Junior and Historian of the club mentioned, “This club isn’t exclusively Asian-American, but the main purpose of the club is, as we’ve said, to be a safe space for Asian-American students to really own their experiences and learn the culture.” Although including non-Asians is “not exactly restricted, that’s not the main point of the club.” Irene added to this comment, “It’s not a cultural appreciation club, it’s a cultural identity club.” The ASIA club wants to celebrate each other as Asian-Americans, while also providing a safe space to represent themselves. If anyone is interested in checking out this amazing group, they try to meet “every second Tuesday of each month. So, it’s really only once a month. At each meeting, it’s a festival of the different ethnicity or different culture that we will be celebrating,” says Sophomore Saaya, Treasurer of ASIA. The Blue and White is looking forward to what this club will accomplish as an organization and as a safe space.