A quarter-century of supporting Asian Pacific Islander students

Twenty-five years ago, the Pan-Asian American Community House (PAACH) opened its doors as a space to support Penn’s Asian Pacific Islander student communities and anyone interested in their diverse cultures and experiences.

Since then, it has provided both a physical space and a support network for students from Asia and of Asian descent, offering comfort, advice, counseling, food, and just a place to relax.

PAACH is also a place for cultural events and community celebrations, including student mixers, local trips, and workshops covering food, festivals and art. The center also supports events such as Asian Pacific American Heritage Week and groups highlighting music, dance, theatre, and spirituality.

“I think all of the students would agree with me when I say that PAACH is almost like a second home,” says fourth-year Megan Chan, chair of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition. “It’s more than just a cultural center.”

Alumnus Franklin Shen, an early PAACH founder who graduated in 2003, says he welcomed the community atmosphere and support. “I could find food, community, advice, mentorship,” Shen says. “My parents never went to college, so there was information about financial aid, how to navigate university life, how to study. PAACH really helped fill the gaps.”

Leadership: Meeting a ‘major challenge’

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PAACH opened in November 2000, a year after students led a campus-wide campaign for the creation of a resource center. Programs soon followed to strengthen student leadership, support incoming first-years, collaborate with local schools, and provide mentorship to undergraduates.

Today, a significant focus of PAACH is to help cultivate the next generation of Asian Pacific Islander leaders, says PAACH Director Mei Long. “One of the major challenges facing the API community is that you rarely see us in senior leadership positions across all industries,” she says.

The center’s Asian Pacific American Leadership Initiative (APALI), which began in 2001, is one of the center’s longest-standing programs. Through a weekend retreat and facilitator-led sessions, APALI empowers students to explore their identities and strengthen leadership skills.

25th-anniversary event

At its anniversary celebration earlier this month, with the support of alumnus Chris Davies, PAACH announced a new API Leadership Series, to connect alumni and students through dialogue and mentorship. It features a fall fireside chat and a spring panel highlighting API leaders across industries, fostering inspiration and growth.

Nearly 200 guests came to the event, with remarks from Provost John L. Jackson Jr., Vice Provost for University Life Hikaru Kozuma, and Long. There was also an alumni panel and performances by the Penn Lions and Penn Atma.

In recent years, PAACH has also put significantly more resources and attention into supporting the graduate student population so that they see PAACH as a space for them as well, Long says. “We should support students at all degree levels,” she says.

Chan finds herself at PAACH almost daily. “It’s not just the support they’ve given through events and programming and just being there,” says the business analytics and marketing major in the Wharton School from Philadelphia. “I can feel the care for all of us as students.”

Growing diversity: ‘A fantastic job’

Shen remembers visiting PAACH for the first time, then located on the first floor of the ARCH building. “The thing that stood out to me was free food,” he says, laughing.

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Before PAACH was founded, Shen says, the Asian Pacific community didn’t have a unified network or even a place to gather. After it came about, for many individual students, including himself, it became a “living room away from home,” he remembers. “That’s where I spent time, entertained, met people, arranged meetings. Any free time I had, I spent at PAACH.” He went on to participate in APALI and lead the Chinese Student Association.

The Asian-Pacific Islander community is very diverse, both at Penn and in the broader world. Second-year Simon Thomas, a vice-chair of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition who grew up in Kigali, Rwanda, as a “third-culture kid,” says he “really enjoyed that diversity” when he came to Penn.

“We are such a broad range of cultures that it’s very impressive and honestly quite daunting,” he says. “When you think about how many cultures PAACH represents, they do a fantastic job with trying to encompass students from all regions of the API community,” says Thomas, a business economics and public policy and finance major from the Wharton School.

Several student groups affiliated with PAACH are engaged in service efforts, both close to campus and abroad, further spreading the community’s reach. These include Asian Students Promoting Identity, Reflection, and Education, or ASPIRE, a PAACH student-led outreach program for local high school students, and an undergraduate mentoring program, Promoting Enriching Experiences & Relationships, as well as APALI and others. “It’s great to welcome new people into the space and just get to show them what it’s all about,” Chan says.

Thomas praises the PAACH leadership and staff for their enthusiasm and warm welcomes. “Every single person who walks into that living room and goes to a PAACH event really feels at home, and really feel like they are home,” he says. “The love that the PAACH staff have for the API community, as well as the love that API students have for PAACH, really have allowed it to flourish.”