UIC AANAPISI Initiative
New on the Job: Q&A With Viraj Patel, Director of Asian American Student Academic Program Heading link
The inaugural director shared about her work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the role of the model minority myth in Asian American student success and her future goals.
Read complete article here.
Asian American Student Academic Program Opens Office Heading link
Fourteen years ago, UIC made history as the first Midwestern institution to be funded as an AANAPISI institution. The newly formed Asian American Student Academic Program will continue to build on the promise of this designation, which supports the recruitment, retention and graduation of Asian American and Pacific Islander students at UIC.
As the inaugural director of the Asian American Student Academic Program, Viraj Patel said the program’s mission is to advance UIC’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
“We are thrilled to open the doors to the Asian American Student Academic Program, nearly 30 years after students started to organize for equitable campus resources,” Patel said. “We will advance student success with heart and unwavering commitment to building communities and opportunities.”
Read more about it here.
Celebrating AANAPISI Week Heading link
UIC became the first Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) in the Midwest, and since 2010, the UIC AANAPISI Initiative has received four grants, totalling $7.1 million, from the U.S. Department of Education to enhance the capacity of UIC to serve Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) students. The UIC AANAPISI Initiative has helped to establish or strengthen the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center, Global Asian Studies, and the new Asian American Student Academic Program and many other supports for on campus for all UIC students.
We are excited to spread the word about AANAPISI Week (September 25 – October 01, 2023). AANAPISI Week celebrates Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI), which were established by Congress on September 27, 2007, to improve the availability and quality of postsecondary education programs to support low-income, first generation Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students.
AANAPISI Week commemorates the significance and achievements of AANAPISIs and provides the opportunity for organizations and institutions to celebrate the educational support of underserved AANHPI students.
We invite you to join us in celebrating the impact of AANAPISIs by engaging in AANAPISI Week and sharing our resources with your networks.
To learn more about AANAPISI Week, visit AANAPISI Week Toolkit.
UIC AANAPISI Initiative Heading link
The UIC AANAPISI Initiative supports the recruitment, retention, and graduation of Asian American and Pacific Islander students at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It is fully funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) Program, which started after the federal designation was created through legislation in 2007.
The U.S. Department of Education’s term “Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander” refers to Asian American students (with origins from East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia including the Philippines) and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander students (with origins from Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and other Pacific Islands.) The federal funding has supported many first-generation, immigrant, low-income students.
Notable facts about the AANAPISI program nationally:
- AANAPISIs are the newest federal designation of the Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) program and in 2021 received only 1% of all the appropriations for MSIs.
- Despite the small amount of appropriations, three quarters of low-income AAPI students attend an AANAPISI.
- AANAPISIs enroll 40% of AAPI college students even though AANAPISIs only make up 5% of colleges and universities in the U.S.
- While the focus is to serve Asian American and Pacific Islander students, AANAPISI federal programs have benefited all students at each AANAPISI institution regardless of background.
The faculty and staff of UIC’s Asian American Resource and Cultural Center and Asian American Studies, and now Global Asian Studies applied for these competitive federal grants and were successfully awarded four AANAPISI grants to enhance the capacity of UIC to serve AA and PI students.
Notable facts about the UIC AANAPISI Initiative:
- In 2010, UIC became the first funded AANAPISI in the Midwest with the first grant.
- Becoming an AANAPISI in 2010 designated UIC as a Minority Serving Institution before it also became a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in 2016.
- The UIC AANAPISI Initiative is made up of four grants totalling $7.1 million:
- 2010-2015: Part A Grant, $2 million
- 2011-2017: Part F Grant, $2.1 million
- 2015-2021: Part A Grant, $1.5 million
- 2021-2026: Part A Grant, $1.5 million
- UIC is one of 28 currently funded institutions in 2021 and one of 38 institutions who have received an AANAPISI grant since 2008.
- There are 166 AANAPISI-eligible institutions of which UIC is one. To be eligible, a campus undergraduate enrollment must be over 10% AAPI students and over 50% of all undergraduates at an institution must receive federal financial aid, such as the Pell Grant.
UIC plays a major role in educating Asian American and Pacific Islander students in the Midwest and nationally. Illinois and the Chicago metropolitan area have the highest population of Asian Americans in the Midwest while Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri have the highest population of Pacific Islanders in the Midwest. Also, almost 90% of Asian Americans in Illinois live here, which contributes to the 20% of UIC students who are Asian American.
To learn more about the programs and research carried out by the first three grants at UIC, please see Initiative Reports and Research.
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