The Asian Student Union, also known as ASU, has been a successfully running club since it was founded in 2020. Juniors Ryan Guanzon and Mae Marks are the current co-presidents and collaborate with roughly 30-40 members during weekly meetings.

What this club hopes to bring to campus is an opportunity to educate the student body about various topics in different Asian cultures. 

“Our main goal is to just educate Oakmont about Asian cultures or heritage, along with collaborating with other school staff on social events,” Guanzon said. 

The union advocates a safe space for students to feel like they can join and have a sense of belonging. 

“I would say it’s [a] very open and welcoming community where you come together to embrace and learn about different Asian cultures,” Marks said. “And also have fun.” 

ASU had their first meeting on Sept. 9, and since then come together every other Thursday. The meeting’s location is typically in room 505.

If the location changes, members are able to get updates on their @oakmontasu Instagram account. The union also has a Remind and even a Discord for students to have access to. 

ASU is an extremely inclusive community and accepts anyone interested in joining. 

“Even if you aren’t Asian it’s kind of like a welcoming place,” Marks said. “We all have common interests.”

Members are encouraged to participate in fun activities that are held during their meetings. ASU has multifarious educational and entertaining activities. 

One of the more recent activities the club partook in was the celebration of Halloween in Asian culture. The group came together to learn about the different celebrations in locations such as Japan and Korea.

“We have Diwali, Halloween in Japan and Korea,” Guanzon said. “Our slides [are] made by other club members who wanted to [present] and we actually have gift baskets for them.” 

ASU enjoys bringing ideas to members associated with holidays as a way to be festive and educational. 

“We’re going to plan an event with Westpark, their board reached out to us and we’re probably going to have a Thanksgiving event soon,” Guanzon said. 

The Union engages with other schools to expand their knowledge and to have the opportunity to meet new people. 

“We do have an event that we plan to have in February around Chinese New Year, like a night market where we have other schools’ ASU or APIC (Asian Pacific Islander Club) communities coming together,” Marks said. “[It’s] also kind of a potluck and [we] also fundraise money for some charities.”

While the Union does a lot of school-based activities, they also want to expand and get involved with things outside of the school district. 

“On top of those social events, we also want to do community-type things, like helping out local Asian businesses,” Guanzon said. 

ASU especially looks forward to making future plans regarding service opportunities, mainly because they don’t have to keep running into the obstacles they had to face in their previous years.  

“We definitely want to expand those opportunities because both of us were part of the club last year and it was kind of on and off because [previous presidents] were also presidents of other clubs, so they didn’t really get the opportunity to lead us into those service opportunities,” Guanzon said. 

Advisor of the club, Albert Lee, has the opportunity to learn not only about cultures, but more about the students on campus as well.

“There’s a really strong population of Asian students on our campus, and they’re really eager to share their cultures with other students and I enjoy seeing that,” Lee said. 

Having a close-knit connection with club members is especially important to the club. ASU club member Mansi Garg explained why she has such passion for the club.

“The presidents [are] really engaging and they ask good questions,” Garg said. “They take a lot of feedback from us.”

It’s important to have communicative presidents; that way, members feel heard and are involved in the decisions of the club. 

Overall, the club is perfect for anyone wanting to discuss either things that are important to them personally, or get a better understanding of all the different cultures that are on campus. 

“There’s always something fun, but it’s definitely about uniting people because after all we are a union,” Guanzon said