Watching movies, eating dim sum, going to museums, and having potlucks. What more does anyone need? Jackson-Reed’s new Asian Student Union envisions all of this in its future.

Founded by juniors Lila Chesser, Nico Anagnostopoulus, and Addison Childre, the Asian Student Union had its first interest meeting on Thursday, February 9. 

“We have a really big vision for it to be a super fun and safe space for Asians at Jackson-Reed, especially because there aren’t that many Asians at Jackson-Reed compared to other [ethnic] groups,” said Chesser. 

In the 2021-2022 school year, five percent of the Jackson-Reed student body were Asian. 

Anagnostopoulus added that “our goal is to create a space for all Asians at our school and to share Asian culture [between] Asian students.”

Anagnostopoulos attempted to start the union last year, but it ended up only lasting a couple months. Chesser felt that last year, the union did not reach enough Asian students to spread its presence through Jackson-Reed’s Asian community. This year, along with Childre, they decided to revive it. The plan this year is to do a better job publicizing the union. So far, they have attracted 35 members and are hopeful that number will grow. 

The first few meetings will be dedicated to getting to know each other and brainstorming future activities. “We want to hear everyone’s ideas so that the union can serve as a collaborative space,” said Chesser. Childre added that “it’s not a club that’s one big friend group, it’s a lot of people who don’t know each other and right now we’re really trying to get everyone to [connect].”

The initial interest meeting generated activity ideas including trips to Asian museum exhibits, restaurant field trips, boba reviews, and attending political protests against Asian hate. The founding trio has also planned culture sharing activities such as presentations and potlucks based on members’ countries of origin. “We have a lot of different people from a lot of different Asian backgrounds, and we want them to bring pieces of their culture into the union,” Childre explained. Meetings will also be used to discuss worldly Asian events and events pertaining to Asian-Americans, but Chesser added that they are open to doing whatever members would like to do. 

The Asian Student Union is now the newest of many student unions at Jackson-Reed and hopes to become a long-term community. They draw inspiration from the other student unions as well as the Asian Student Union at Georgetown Day School. Anagnostopoulos said he would count the union as successful if members “are happy and excited to be [in the union] and to have a good working environment where people are thriving and learning new things.”

Members can join using the Remind code @asiansty.