Fresno State received a $1.75 million allocation through the California State University Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Student Achievement Program to provide culturally responsive support for Asian and Pacific Islander students and other underrepresented groups.
Funded by the State of California, the allocation will be distributed in increments of $350,000 over the next five years. It will help to enhance the educational experiences and promote higher education success for low-income, underserved, first-generation students of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander descent and other underrepresented groups on campus.
“I’m very excited because while opportunities don’t always depend on funding, having resources allows us to expand and deepen the work we do for our students. We’re creating new opportunities for students by strengthening staff support and academic resources, giving them space to cultivate cultural wealth and thrive on campus.”
Dr. Shimel Her Saychou, director of the Southeast Asian Student Success Center at Fresno State.
Her Saychou and Dr. Jenny Banh, anthropology professor and Asian American Studies Program coordinator at Fresno State, with help from others on campus, applied for and received $360,000 in the CSU program’s first round of funding this past year. With that money, the Bulldog Scholars Program was created along with the Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders Student Leadership Conference and support for other programming and events.
This year’s funding will allow staff and faculty to expand and promote existing and new programs and services. Her Saychou wants to hire more staff and students to support operations. She also wants to start a mentorship program for incoming freshmen. Banh, she said, will work on recruitment and curriculum for the new Asian American and Asian Studies major introduced this fall.
The allocation will be led by a campus team that also includes Dr. Bao Johri, vice president for Information Technology and chief information officer; Max Tsai, director for planning and digital transformation; Marie Tongson-Fernandez, senior survey specialist in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness; and Simran Nagra, research technician and data analyst in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.
The group will use institutional data to identify student needs, evaluate program effectiveness and support student success in retention, persistence and completion.
