I know this is a blog about PR and diversity, but I wanted to speak about the successful PR efforts of the UGA Asian American Student Association.
Before anything, I want to give a little background about the The University of Georgia Asian American Student Association [AASA].
It was was restarted in 2003 and it has had a difficult time reestablishing itself due to a few variables including but not limited to the plethora of language barriers, the spectrum of majors for Asian students and much more, however this year the executive board has done a fantastic job in recruiting freshman and current UGA students.
First from a PR standpoint, we had to look at the whole group. Minorities are different--that is the first premise people must acknowledge, however keeping that in mind, the sender must also acknowledge that they also share similarities with the majority.
So with this in mind, how do we get hundreds of students excited about an Asian organization when they don't relate themselves with the Asian race but instead think of themselves as a subset of the race like Filipino, Taiwanese, Chinese, Korean, etc?
And moreover, these subsets already have organizations themselves.
Hmmmm, interesting right?
Well, the approach was simple. First know that they are students first. Don't over complicate a situation. What do students want?
They want help. They want resources. They want a reason to join.
We, as AASA, must provide them [students] with what they want.
After assessing this--we looked at ways we can incorporate this with their culture.
The goal became clear--AASA is to be a resource for Asian students to succeed in school, while gaining friendships, along with becoming more aware of Asian issues across the board.
We implemented a mentoring program [FoundAsian] for freshman and upperclassmen, where freshman became mentees and upperclassmen became mentors. This was phenomenal. It did a few things. It broke the 'model minority' stereotype. It allowed members to feel needed. And lastly, it became a resource to build resumes and garner relationships.
Second, we looked at all the other Asian clubs [Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.] and assessed what AASA can do for them.
It was simple--these clubs are small. AASA is big [or is suppose to be].
We had to bridge the gap. We had to welcome other organizations and explain that AASA is trying to help them succeed by allowing them to be part of a community.
One voice versus many voices?
Which louder?
Their issues will be heard,if they buy into the unification that AASA is trying to do.
Before anything, I want to give a little background about the The University of Georgia Asian American Student Association [AASA].
It was was restarted in 2003 and it has had a difficult time reestablishing itself due to a few variables including but not limited to the plethora of language barriers, the spectrum of majors for Asian students and much more, however this year the executive board has done a fantastic job in recruiting freshman and current UGA students.
First from a PR standpoint, we had to look at the whole group. Minorities are different--that is the first premise people must acknowledge, however keeping that in mind, the sender must also acknowledge that they also share similarities with the majority.
So with this in mind, how do we get hundreds of students excited about an Asian organization when they don't relate themselves with the Asian race but instead think of themselves as a subset of the race like Filipino, Taiwanese, Chinese, Korean, etc?
And moreover, these subsets already have organizations themselves.
Hmmmm, interesting right?
Well, the approach was simple. First know that they are students first. Don't over complicate a situation. What do students want?
They want help. They want resources. They want a reason to join.
We, as AASA, must provide them [students] with what they want.
After assessing this--we looked at ways we can incorporate this with their culture.
The goal became clear--AASA is to be a resource for Asian students to succeed in school, while gaining friendships, along with becoming more aware of Asian issues across the board.
We implemented a mentoring program [FoundAsian] for freshman and upperclassmen, where freshman became mentees and upperclassmen became mentors. This was phenomenal. It did a few things. It broke the 'model minority' stereotype. It allowed members to feel needed. And lastly, it became a resource to build resumes and garner relationships.
Second, we looked at all the other Asian clubs [Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.] and assessed what AASA can do for them.
It was simple--these clubs are small. AASA is big [or is suppose to be].
We had to bridge the gap. We had to welcome other organizations and explain that AASA is trying to help them succeed by allowing them to be part of a community.
One voice versus many voices?
Which louder?
Their issues will be heard,if they buy into the unification that AASA is trying to do.
Soon, we saw response and though it was slow, response was there.
As more organizations joined in, more organizations wanted to be part of the movement.
This Thursday on August 28th, UGA AASA had the biggest turnout in the club's history.
People were genuinely excited--PR efforts are still happening, but the beginning of the year has begun. I cannot wait to see what AASA will do next!
This is an example of minority PR, and how looking at the target audience allows the goals and objectives to be defined.
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