When coming from a high school that doesn’t have many cultural clubs for minorities, it can make finding a place in college very nerve wracking for many students. It’s a new environment filled with thousands of people you don’t know. Many want to find groups like themselves not…

Asian Pacific Health Corps (APHC) was founded in 1980 at UCLA as an organization dedicated to providing hypertension screening for the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) population in the greater Los Angeles area. Throughout the 41 years of its operation, APHC has expanded greatly in size and methodology…

In the past decade, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have gone from being the least represented community among voters to having the greatest increase in voter turnout. In a Pacific Ties article titled “Events raise voter awareness in API community,” published in the Fall 2010 issue, writer…

Implicit biases are instinctive stereotypes about individuals or groups that engender negative attitudes and contribute to cycles of prejudice and discrimination. A key aspect of implicit bias is that it functions subconsciously. Thoughts associated with implicit bias occur spontaneously and are based on drawing inferences that one believes…

I’ve always been quite fond of my name—Iris. My mother’s decision to name me after the rainbow goddess turned out to be fitting for the years to come as I grew up between a clash of cultures and identities. The different colors of what I had seen, felt…

Mental health is a topic that can be controversial, taboo and contentious within APIDA (Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi American) families, especially as the next generation faces college in a world entrenched in the impacts of COVID-19 and unfamiliar to parents. A 2013 article in the Pacific Ties newsmagazine…