But the group's primary goals are creating an environment where people feel comfortable and helping each other learn about their different backgrounds.
"We have a group where we can identify with each other," he says. "If you have a group to do this with, it makes it easier and more meaningful," he adds.
"[HAPA is] celebrating a watered-down Asianness," adds Andrew W. Hartlage '01, the group's "sergeant-at-arms."
Some group members say that, as half-Asian people, they don't feel entirely comfortable in organizations such as the Harvard-Radcliffe Chinese Students Association (CSA) or the Asian American Association (AAA).
"It just wasn't the comfort level I was looking for," Weisinger says of her experience with CSA and AAA.
Hartlage adds that being a person of mixed Asian heritage "doesn't come up" in CSA and AAA.
However, Emily Yu-chi Yang '00 and Walter Kim '00, this year's AAA co-presidents, say they are fully supportive of HAPA and that AAA is supportive of students whose membership overlaps with other ethnic organizations.
Read more in News
Williams Freezes TuitionRecommended Articles
-
Weekend Events to Celebrate Asian-American ExperienceMore than 800 are expected to attend this weekend's ninth annual Harvard Asian American Intercollegiate Conference, featuring a myriad of
-
Purported Discussion On Asian Gangs Provokes Cultural DebateUncertainty marked the first Asian American Association (AAA) Discussion Group meeting last night in Loker Commons. The talk, billed as
-
Two Ethnic Groups Create Guidebooks to Help First-Years Adjust to Harvard LifeAsian-American and African-American first-years will have a little extra help adjusting to Harvard life, thanks to guidebooks being published this
-
Finding a Space for Multiracial StudentsFor most Harvard students, checking a box for race on the application was a simple task. Yet in 1998, the
-
New Club Formed For 'Half' AsiansAre you part Asian-American? Do you feel out of place at other exclusively Asian associations on campus? If so, a
-
Cutting Up With ClubsJust when I thought that Harvard students had come up with all the possible unique names, categories and even sub-categories
