Monday, March 17, 2025 | 11am to 12:30pm
25 West 43rd Street, 10th Floor, Room 1000
between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan
RSVP by Thurs, March 13, 2025
In-Person: RSVP | Zoom: RSVP
Join the Asian American / Asian Research Institute for a presentation and discussion with Mike Hoa Nguyen (New York University), Caroline Hong (Queens College AANAPISI Project), Linh An (Hunter College AANAPISI Project), and Sau-fong Au (Brooklyn College AANAPISI Project) on the historical foundation of the AANAPISI program and its impact on the students and campuses at The City University of New York (CUNY). This workshop offers a national landscape of AANAPISIs, focusing on their history and influence in higher education, as well as current dilemmas in today’s political climate.
Overview
In 2007, the United States Congress established the Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) designation, one of the federal government’s most recent Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI), to enhance the capacity of institutions to serve Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) students. Today, colleges and universities that become AANAPISIs are critical sites of innovation, working to expand educational access and opportunities for AANHPIs.
Queens College AANAPISI Project (QCAP)
QCAP aims to support the academic success, mental health, and community engagement of Queens College’s diverse and underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students. QCAP addresses the specific needs of our AAPI students via a range of programs, including multilingual peer tutoring in the Writing Center, faculty development workshops, mental health and art-making workshops, an internship program, and a community space.
Hunter College AANAPISI Project (HCAP)
HCAP aims to enhance academic and student support services for Asian American and Pacific Islander students and other under-served students at Hunter College, including first-generation college goers, multilingual learners, and students from immigrant families. We support students through our research skills programs, writing and speaking seminars, financial literacy programs, mental wellness workshops, and our transfer peer mentor programs. We also build institutional capacity to serve our students with faculty development workshops that focus on culturally sustaining pedagogies.
Brooklyn College AANAPISI Project (BCAP)
BCAP supports our 25% Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students—including Central Asian & Nomadic, East Asian, South Asian & “Desi,” Southeast Asian & Pacific Islander, West Asian & “MENA,” and mixed heritage & intersecting communities. Our program aims to mitigate AAPI students’ barriers to educational achievement by enhancing institutional programs and services. BCAP addresses three main goals: 1) providing academic support for AAPI students by enhancing existing services and curriculum, particularly Asian American Studies; 2) developing sustainable student leadership opportunities, including the BCAP internship program; 3) engaging the campus community on AAPI students’ needs to provide culturally responsive services.
This event is supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Education through the Hunter College AANAPISI Project
Author Bio
Mike Hoa Nguyen, PhD (he/him) is an assistant professor of education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, with additional affiliations at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute and the Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy. His research focuses on the impact of racialized public policy on education, particularly examining how these policies affect access, opportunity, and success for students of color. As principal investigator of the Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) Data Project, Dr. Nguyen explores the contributions of MSIs, including Asian American & Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), in supporting underrepresented students. His work has been funded by organizations like the National Science Foundation and published in journals such as Educational Researcher and The Journal of Higher Education.
Dr. Caroline Kyungah Hong is an Associate Professor of English at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY). She is also the Director and Lead PI of the Queens College AANAPISI Project (QCAP). Her primary teaching and research interests include Asian American literatures and cultures, ethnic studies, and comics studies. She has published articles on Asian American fiction, graphic narratives, and pop culture and is finishing a book on Asian American comedy. She also currently serves on the boards of CUNY’s Asian American/Asian Research Institute (AAARI), the Circle for Asian American Literary Studies (CAALS), and the Asian American Literary Review (AALR).
Linh An, Ph.D., is the Multilingual Learner Specialist (MLL) for the Hunter College AANAPISI Project. As the MLL, she helps develop academic and research skills seminars and is currently leading HCAP and the BMCC-Hunter AANAPISI Bridge Initiative’s (ABI’s) financial literacy program and co-directs the undergraduate research program. Linh is a first-generation college graduate with a long history of working with underserved AAPI students in NYC. Outside of Hunter, Linh is leading the development of a psychoeducation program in partnership with NYU School of Medicine- Dept of Population Health for limited English proficient (LEP) Chinese caregivers. Additionally, she is building a holistic wellness intervention for Asian American college students that integrates psychoeducation, professional development, and racial identity exploration with NYU’s Dept of Applied Psychology. She is currently on the Board of Charles B. Wang Community Health Center. Linh received her bachelor’s degree from Queens College and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from UCLA.
Sau-fong Au has been the Brooklyn College Women’s Center Director since 2000. Under her leadership, the Center has become one of CUNY’s most dynamic and influential spaces, welcoming over 5,000 student visits and hosting over 50 events each semester that empower and engage women students. As the current chair of the CUNY Women’s Center Council, Dr. Au champions initiatives that elevate women's voices across the university system.
In 2017, with support from the AAUW, she launched the groundbreaking Muslim Women’s Leadership Development Project, a pioneering initiative designed to support Muslim college women. She is also the co-president of the Asian American Faculty and Staff Association at Brooklyn College, advocating for the needs and rights of Asian American communities.
Dr. Au's dedication to student development continued in 2023 when she obtained a $2 million federal AANAPISI grant to start the Brooklyn College AANAPISI Project (BCAP), a dedicated program to support AAPI students on campus.
Dr. Au earned a B.A. in History from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, an M.Ed. in Education from Rutgers University, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Manhattanville College. Using an interdisciplinary approach, her research and professional interests include the contemporary Asian American experience, feminist movement and theories, spirituality and faith, student development, and student engagement for women and religious minorities.
