What Donor Support Made Possible in 2025-26
Many of the donors and alumni who support AASP attended Northwestern before students could major in the field—or before the program itself existed, all thanks to student activism. In fact, this year, we celebrated the ten-year anniversary of Northwestern’s approval of an Asian American Studies major.
During the 2025–26 academic year, support from alumni and friends carried that legacy forward by expanding opportunities for students to conduct original research, work with community organizations, and participate in the intellectual and public life of Asian American Studies.
Make a GiftCommunity-Engaged Learning
With support from the Asian American Alumni Association, AASP’s $4,000 Community Summer Fellowship enables a student to pursue an internship with a nonprofit or public organization serving Asian American communities.
This year’s fellow, Grace Herzog, studies Journalism, Political Science, and Asian American Studies. As a press intern for the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, she will contribute to its work on behalf of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. You can read more about the work of past year’s fellows here.
Supporting Original Student Research
This year, AASP piloted a Small Grants Initiative, offering up to two $500 awards each quarter to support undergraduate and graduate research.The initiative’s first recipients included Emma Wilkinson, a Ph.D. student in Linguistics studying how Chicagoland Japanese Americans express regional and ethnic identities through their Chicago accents. Undergraduate Aman Reddy used his grant to support interviews for his upcoming thesis on how new immigration policy has influenced the migration and motivation of immigrant doctors in the Midwest.
These grants allow students to undertake interviews, visit archives, travel to conferences, and meet other expenses that allow their research to make substantial impact.
Celebrating Student Leaders
Thanks to alumni support, we were able to present graduating seniors Brian Dinh, Therese Manego, Kaavya Butaney, and Esther Lian with $500 awards recognizing their intellectual contributions to Asian American Studies and their commitment to building community at Northwestern and beyond.
Two of our graduating seniors also presented the findings of their year-long senior theses: Brian Dinh, whose research for his honors thesis, Reinventing Space: Revitalization and Gentrification in Chicago's Asia on Argyle Corridor, was supported by AASP grants; and Esther Lian, whose thesis project was titled Feminine Interfaces: Techno-Orientalism and Ornamentalism in the Visual Worlds of K-Pop.
Extending Learning Beyond the Classroom
Donor support is crucial to helping AASP bring students into conversation with artists, scholars, activists, and community leaders. During the past academic year, the program welcomed twelve guest speakers, ranging from award-winning poet Cathy Linh Che to International Hotel activist Emil de Guzman. Additionally, through your support, the program could bring our students outside of the classroom and into the larger Asian American community in Chicago at events such as Dim Sum & Drag and the Umbrella Festival.
Fellowships, research grants, student awards, and public programs supplement AASP’s regular instructional budget and allow the program to respond to opportunities that would otherwise remain out of reach. Together, they help students connect what they learn in the Asian American Studies classroom to the world beyond it. We are so grateful to the alumni and friends whose support made these opportunities possible.