WINNER OF 2023 ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS PACEMAKER AWARD, NEWSPAPER/NEWSMAGAZINE NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION AND CALIFORNIA NEWS PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Volume 162 No. 34 SERVING SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
KAYA HENKES-POWER | SPARTAN DAILY
Christopher Yang, former director of MOSAIC Cross Cultural Affairs, moderates the Q&A session at the end of author Stephanie Foo’s speaker event titled ‘Decolonized Therapy’.
SJSU celebrates API Heritage Month By Kaya Henkes-Power STAFF WRITER
San José State takes the month of April to celebrate Asian Pacific Islander (API) Heritage Month. API Heritage Month is a yearly celebration that recognizes the contributions and achievements of individuals of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, according to a webpage on the United State’s Courts. Mary Trần, SJSU alumna and program coordinator for the Center for Asian Pacific Islander Student Empowerment (CAPISE), oversees students who create programs and operations there. “We’re not just celebrating our different Asian and Pacific Islander communities and cultures,” Trần said. “But also honoring the history and the legacy that it holds.” May is federally recognized as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, according to the USDA website. The observance was originally only a week long, until President George H.W. Bush extended it to a
duration of a month beginning in 1990, according to the same website. Trần said SJSU observes API Heritage in April partially because students are in final mode, but also because of the semester system. “So for us to be able to fully celebrate the month, that’s why we do it in April instead of May,” she said. She said the SJSU 2024 API Heritage Month theme is belonging, which focuses on what it looks like to feel a sense of belonging and to advocate for spaces of belonging. Jinni Pradhan, program director for the Center for Asian Pacific Islander Student Empowerment, said she feels that having the whole month to empower and uplift the API community is exciting. “It’s really great and having students connect to the events and the spaces we’re creating and is really, really what I do all this work for,” Pradhan said. She said that she is specifically looking forward to the fifth annual SJSU Night Market, and loves to hear the excitement from students. API Heritage Month has events
throughout the month, according to a post on the Center for Asian Pacific Islander Student Empowerment’s Instagram. “Student involvement collaborates with us,” Pradhan said. “It’s a really great opportunity that we get to work with them to create that space.” Student Involvement includes leadership development, fraternities and 350 recognized student organizations, according to the Weeks of Welcome SJSU Instagram biography. “Especially being an alumna it's been really cool to come back to campus and be able to pay it forward and work with students to create events that highlight different topics.” Trần said. Pradhan said they looked forward to a panel with Stephanie Foo, the author of What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing From Complex Trauma. As a part of API Heritage Month’s event lineup, Foo’s book talks about her journey of healing and figuring out intergenerational trauma. “I was born in Malaysia, but my parents and I immigrated to the
United States when I was two,” Foo said. “Our family moved to the Bay because it seemed like paradise.” She said behind the perfection and delight of moving to the Bay Area, she endured extreme physical and verbal abuse from her parents. Foo said it was not until decades later that she was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Complex PTSD is when an individual is subjected to prolonged chronic exposure to traumatic experiences, especially in childhood, according to a study by the National Library of Medicine. “The diagnosis rocked me, I didn’t know anyone else who had it,” Foo said. “I felt like a broken freak.” She said she coped through journalism and began researching her own trauma and spoke to her family about its origins, which led her back to San José. “Honestly one of the reasons why I never suspected I could have PTSD was because abuse was so normal,” Foo said. “To the point where for a long time we never even use the word.”
She later would ask her teachers if they knew about the abuse she was enduring while attending Piedmont High School. “They shook their heads, they told me that I was an exception.” Foo said. Foo said the ‘bullshit’ model minority myth blinded teachers from warning signs of abuse, and prevented them from getting help. “Everyone thought we got great grades and came from highachieving Asian households,” Foo said. The model minority myth stereotype characterizes people of Asian heritage as high-achieving economically and educationally, according to a 2023 article from the Pew Research Center. “The conversations around visibility of Asian and Pacific Islander stories and experiences continue to be an important one, not just one campus,” Pradhan said. Follow the Spartan Daily on Instagram @SpartanDaily
CAMPUS VOICES
“Personally, API Heritage month means showcasing our culture, and how our roots and upbringings have influenced us in becoming who we are today and the generations to follow.”
“API month is important to me because my parents immigrated from the Philippines to the U.S. for better opportunities so my family and I could have a better life moving forward.”
“API month to means acknowledging our roots and our history. It’s also acknowledging our people’s challenges and appreciating what they did for us to get to where we are today.”
JONATHAN CANAS | SPARTAN DAILY