Miami Asian American student group shines at Midwestern conference

Local student wins Midwestern Star Award

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Pil and Chang are pictured with Midwestern Star Award

OXFORD, OH (04/16/2013)(readMedia)--  Miami Asian American student group shines at Midwestern conference

Christopher Chang, a senior supply chain and operations management major from Reynoldsburg, OH., 43068 and Christine Pil, a senior zoology major from West Chester, OH., 45069, as president and vice president of Miami University's Asian American Association (AAA), have won the Midwestern Star Award from the Midwest Asian American Student Union (MAASU) at the group's spring conference.

MAASU links various Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) organizations across the Midwest. The Midwestern Star award is presented to leaders who demonstrate outstanding leadership in promoting change in society.

"The past two years, AAA attended the spring conference to gain ideas on how to diversify Miami University and bring more cultural understanding to students. With the growing population of international students and minorities on this campus, we feel the need to provide a sense of support and understanding for those students," said Pil.

This is the second year AAA participated in the conference; more than 20 members from Miami attended the conference this year. Miami's AAA also was chosen to host MAASU's fall leadership retreat with potentially 300 student leaders from the Midwest coming to Oxford.

Chang and Pil also won the Board of Advisors Award recognizing AAA's work with other multicultural organizations, staff and administrators to improve the behaviors towards domestic and international minority students, added Pil.

Three other AAA members, first-year Craig Byll and sophomores Stephen Wong and Mark Loh, were nominated to be on the MAASU executive coordinating committee.

Known for "Fusion," its annual cultural event, AAA recently ran a social media campaign, "The Real Oxford Asians," to counter a Twitter account that mocked international students.

AAA is advised by Aimin Wang, professor of educational psychology.