They performed the hula at colloquy. They shared their personal testimonies at vespers. And they prayed in several languages during church. There was something unique happening on campus, and it soon became known to all: it was Asian-American Cultural Emphasis Week.

“I was surprised when I first heard about it, because we haven’t had anything like this before,” said Kevin Camato, a junior theology major. “But I was really happy to have a weekend to celebrate Asian students and to share our culture and history with the campus.”

This celebration of Asian culture was one of three special weeks PUC is featuring this year (the other two cultural emphasis weeks will feature African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans).

“The cultural emphasis weeks are valuable since they allow us to celebrate the different heritages that are present on campus and learn about who we are and where we come from,” says Julius Nam, PUC religion professor and a participant in the Asian-American colloquy program. “Understanding one another becomes easier if we have a deeper appreciation of our heritages,” he adds. Fall quarter’s cultural emphasis events were a time for the many Asian-Americans on campus to be represented and have a strong, public voice.

In a hip, energetic and heartfelt all-school colloquy, students Kevin Camato and Diane Pulido hosted the game-show-style program, complete with interviews (both live and by video), book-reading by Sherwin Nam (the young son of Julius Nam), a beautiful hula performance and plenty of music. The program kept people engaged and laughing, but also touched on some serious and very relevant aspects of culture and history.

Friday vespers presented a more spiritual and personal side of Asian-American life as a number of students shared their own experiences at PUC and their struggles dealing with the conflict between being Asian and being American. Ultimately, they concluded, they can always be certain that they are children of God.

“What I'm the most proud of,” says Nam, “is the contribution that the Asian students are making in the spiritual area. I believe they bring in a quiet but deep devotion and passion for Christ to the PUC campus that's unique and very positive.”

Finally, on Sabbath, Richard Choi, assistant professor of New Testament at Andrews University, spoke on “The Mystery of the Orient and the Magic of the West.” The program included many other Asian-American touches as well, such as prayers and Scripture readings in a variety of Asian languages.

Nam was struck by the unifying effect of the weekend: “It drew various groups of Asian-Americans together…We were able to come together and work together and celebrate our common heritage.”