The Colorado Asian Student Pacific Alliance has put on a number of cultural events at DU as well as throughout the Denver community this quarter with the goal of promoting diversity. When some Colorado College students, in Colorado Springs, were experiencing racism, they called on CAPSA for assistance. CAPSA provided support by holding a meeting for the community and the surrounding college campus to discuss the issue. In addition to their on-campus work, CAPSA will be attending the Regional Leadership Training conference along with the National Organization of Chinese Americans with which CAPSA is involved. CAPSA will be involved with the Festival of Nations taking place on April 20th at the University of Denver’s Sturm Hall. The group will also be attending the annual high school youth conference later this spring. CAPSA will end the year with a basketball tournament at the University of Denver Ritchie Center through which they hope to continue spreading their message of diversity. Co-President Hanh Phi stated, “CAPSA’s name in the community speaks for itself quite well. At DU we are still developing our ties with the rest of the school and building our organization. We’re the first Asian Pacific American student group to be active in the community and to be concerned with issues such as politics, violence, drugs, gangs, etc. Although our numbers are small, our strength is large!”

On April 27th, CAPSA along with the Diversity Council, the Colorado State University Asian Pacific American Student Services, and DUPB will be hosting a theater group called Here and Now who will be performing in Sturm Auditorium at 7pm. Here and Now is an acting company composed of ten Asian American actors who perform skits that deal with culturally sensitive topics that people face in society today. Here and Now has been touring throughout the country and appearing at various university campuses nationwide. Co-President Jonathan Lee stated, “Entertainment is only one of the many benefits that Here and Now will bring to DU. Having this amazing group perform will help enrich and promote the cultural diversity on campus. This group is not only beneficial to the Asian students on campus but all students on campus as they perform skits on all types of societal concerns.”

In the future CAPSA would like to bring both the community and campus even closer together through various events including a college conference as well as more activities which will provide awareness and knowledge to the DU students about the Asian Pacific American community. In addition, CAPSA would like to host social events including bowling and basketball tournaments to try and get all members of the community involved.