This year LVA welcomed the Asian Student Union (ASU) as a new club, formerly known as the Filipino American (Fil-Am) club last year. Junior Raylen Rose Oliveros started the Fil-Am club last year and following the club’s success decided to expand it to become the ASU. 

“I wanted to grow a community in this school, specifically, people who wanted to embrace their Asian culture or just bring people together who wanted to learn more about it and support the Asian community together,” Oliveros said. 

The club and its new expansion hope to welcome a larger and more diverse community of interested people and give them more opportunities within the club and community as well. Oliveros talks of the high hopes she has for the club this year and what the new additions will look like for the club.

“I hope that it grows a lot and I hope that we can host the festival with other Asian clubs and we could do a really large fundraiser for multiple charities.”

When asked the main goal of the club this year Oliveros said, “I want people to have a group they can be comfortable with, even if they’re not Asian. It’s just a connection because I feel a lot of people can connect based on their cultures.”