Students build leadership skills, promote belonging at WMU-hosted MAASU Spring Conference
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Chants of celebration echoed through the ballroom of the Western Michigan University Student Center on a Friday evening in late March. As students hoisted banners representing their newfound families, it was hard to tell many had just met.
Thien Lohavichan, a first-year aviation flight science major from Boston, Massachusetts, helped make it happen as part of the planning team for the Midwest Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Students Union (MAASU) Spring Conference, which WMU hosted March 20-22. As chair of the Family Leaders Committee, he was charged with recruiting and organizing leaders, coordinating activities, and sorting the more than 200 attendees from colleges across the Midwest into families to experience the conference together.
“My favorite part of the conference was seeing all the family leaders meet their family members for the first time,” he says, “as well as seeing the bonding and growth within all the families throughout the conference!”
“It was great to see everyone working together and having fun, especially as people who had just met started to open up and really connect with each other,” adds Gabbi Salud, an aviation technical operations student from Chicago, Illinois, and conference co-director.
The MAASU Spring Conference is the organization’s largest annual gathering, and this year it drew students from more than 20 partner colleges to Western’s campus for a weekend of learning, connection and celebration. This year’s theme was “Threads of Identity,” which encouraged students to examine the diversity that exists within the Asian American community and promoted opportunities to embrace and unite varying identities.
The conference schedule was chock-full. Film, television and voice actress Kausar Mohammed delivered the keynote address on Saturday, March 21. Over the course of the weekend, participants engaged in workshops and community-building sessions. They also attended cultural and social events, including a night market and a dance party featuring performances by attendees of MAASU’s K-pop 101 dance workshop, facilitated by Michelle Lee, MAASU director of assessment and evaluation, and the Kalamazoo Chinese Academy’s Lion Dancers.
Opportunity for growth
Planning and executing a large conference is a tall order, but Western’s contingent of students was up to the task. All members of WMU’s Asian Pacific American Student Association, they were proud to create a space to uplift their culture and heritage.
“I feel great that I could contribute to a place that allows lesser-known topics to be brought to light and foster a space for more conversations,” says Phuong Le, an aviation management and operations major from Lansing, Michigan, and conference co-director. “For most of my life, I was one of few Vietnamese Americans in [my] school. ... Because I could draw from my own experiences of longing to belong, I could easily help attendees and volunteers connect with each other, too.”
In addition to fostering belonging, being part of the conference’s executive team provided several opportunities for professional development. The students coordinated conference logistics; led outreach and marketing efforts; communicated with schools, presenters and sponsors to build engagement; and conducted interviews and trainings for participants, among many other tasks.
“During the conference, I supported on-site operations by troubleshooting tech issues, guiding attendees and ensuring that programming ran on schedule,” says Salud, who earned the Branding, Marketing and Storytelling Award at the conference. She also was named to the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Student Leadership Institute’s inaugural presidential cohort. “I worked closely with both MAASU and WMU teams to make real-time decisions, maintain a welcoming environment for attendees, and uphold the overall vision and goals of the conference.
An aspiring pilot, Lohavichan says he’s come away with skills that will make him more confident in the captain’s chair, such as “being able to work in a team environment, able to work under stress, and able to prepare and plan.”
“Since I want to lean toward the management side of the aviation industry, the conference gave me good experience on how to coordinate events on a larger scale with effective communication,” Le adds. “I definitely learned how to be a leader and how to delegate tasks properly among my teammates.”
The experience will lead to even more resume-bolstering opportunities for three of the Western students who were nominated during the conference for new leadership positions on the MAASU Executive Coordinating Committee. Bhawana Khatiwada will serve as programming co-chair, Lohavichan will work on the membership outreach team and Salud will act as the committee vice chair.
“The leadership skills this experience has given me will be used in all aspects of my life,” says Khatiwada, an aviation flight science major born in Nepal who grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“Coming from a smaller APIDA population on campus, these organizations helped me find a strong sense of community and belonging,” says Salud. “Through my involvement, I have grown as a leader, built connections with people from diverse backgrounds and contributed to something larger in the community. These experiences have made my time at WMU more fulfilling, giving me lasting relationships and memories that I will continue to carry with me.”
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