Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023 on a Student-Centric Episode of the ‘’Cuse Conversations’ Podcast

April is a time for the Syracuse University community to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.

Celebrated nationally in May, the University hosts its annual AAPI Heritage Month in April so all campus members can join in honoring the histories, cultural diversity, identities and contributions of AAPI communities.

This year’s theme is “Community Coming Together: Strength in Unity,” representing the University’s diverse AAPI community uniting across differences to demonstrate a strong voice that can face challenges together. It’s an important and timely theme, especially following the challenges of the last three years, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a troubling rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and bias incidents.

MaryKate Keevins ’24 and Lia Margolis ’23, two of the AAPI Planning Committee members, share why they were passionate about planning this year’s events and what they hope the campus community takes away from the celebrations.

“Being a part of the AAPI community on campus has given me so much opportunity to reflect on how much I appreciate my heritage in all the different ways it manifests. I really find that cultural celebrations like what we do with AAPI Heritage Month is important, because it not only allows for us, on the committee, to create events that reflect us, it also allows for other people to get in touch with either their own heritage or heritages of people that they don’t know too much about and they can learn,” says Keevins, who is studying television, radio and film in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and political science in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

“I’m very passionate about the activist social justice side of AAPI Heritage Month. And so from that perspective, there’s been, I think, denial of a lot of the struggles that the AAPI community has been through in the U.S. and of course people are paying more attention to it with the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes,” says Margolis, a student in the School of Architecture. “But I hope people want to learn more about the AAPI stories and experiences and enjoy all of the fun activities we have planned.”

AAPI Heritage Month began with a celebration kickoff on March 31 and includes speakers, exhibitions, performances and student organization events. Some of the highlights include Paving the Way Alumni Speaker – Sharon Lee ’14, G’15 (April 13), AAPI Mental Health Awareness Workshop (April 18), AAPI Heritage Month Commemorative Lecture with Hua Hsu (April 20), and ASIA Night (April 21).

On this student-centric “’Cuse Conversation,” we hear from Keevins and Margolis to discuss this year’s celebrations, what their cultural heritage means to them and how their time at Syracuse University helped them discover more about their identities.

Check out episode 136 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring MaryKate Keevins ’24 and Lia Margolis ’23. A transcript [PDF] is also available.