When its doors first opened in 2005, the Asian American Cultural Center (AACC) took up space physically on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s campus. A 6800-square-foot facility, the center is the largest of its kind in the Midwest. The AACC also took up space figuratively, a manifestation of collective dreaming and years of labor by student activists, university staff and administrators to envision and construct a space for the Illinois community to gather and share the rich cultures that are part of the Asian American experience.
The Asian American community at Illinois is both diverse and growing: approximately 40 percent of the Illinois student population—both domestic and international—identified as Asian in the First Year Enrollment 10th day report for Fall 2025. Driven by a mission to foster a supportive environment for all members of the university community, the AACC’s programs, events and services are open to all.
In October 2025, the Asian American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign celebrated its 20th anniversary. Staff, current students, faculty, alumni and friends gathered at 1210 W. Nevada Street in Urbana, Illinois for a multi-day celebration that included panels of alumni and current students, performances from registered student organizations, an archival exhibit from the Student Life and Culture Archives, and moments together to look toward the future.
Creating Next-Level Growth Experiences
For AACC’s founding and current senior director David Chih, this milestone provided an opportunity for him to reflect on a lifetime of growing within and serving his community.
“I’m one of the lucky people who was able to find a job that matched my interests,” Chih said. “I began to build a career—for almost 30 years at Illinois—doing exactly what I wanted to do. It’s the fulfillment of a professional dream.”
A second-generation Chinese American who grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, Chih majored in East Asian Studies and Psychology at Indiana University and founded the Asian American Association’s student chapter at IU. Trained as a counseling psychologist, one of Chih’s areas of research and clinical interest is in Asian American’s reactions to and coping with acts of discrimination and racism.
As the AACC’s director, Chih found ways to incorporate this research into programming that provided mental health support, primary prevention workshops, and health and wellness programming for Asian American students and community members, especially during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of racism and anti-Asian discrimination.
Chih said, “I’m always thinking about—”What does a college-age student of Asian descent want?” He continued, “And “What do they need, even if they don’t know they need it yet?” We are trying to create experiences that will help support them and also help push them to the next level of personal growth.”
In creating these experiences, according to Chih, no year looks the same at the AACC.
During 2025, the AACC hosted approximately 600 meetings and events with an average of 25,000 attendees. The Asiantation welcome program commemorated its 31st year, and around 800 students participated in this annual event. There are also annual programs, like the End of Year Leadership Awards, Food For Thought lunchtime discussion series, among others. For the past sixteen years, the AACC has provided resources to the local community during Lunar New Year: providing educational outreach and celebration for eighteen Champaign-Urbana area schools, reaching nearly 6,000 people.
This non-exhaustive list only scratches the surface of the types of multi-faceted resources and support that the AACC provides to Illinois students and the Champaign-Urbana community. Prior to 2005, there was not a central location for these resources. However, there were dedicated students and staff members who stepped in and stepped up.
Speaking Together in One Voice
When Jeremy Bautista (LAS ‘96) first stepped foot on campus at Illinois, it was the first time he had grappled with what it meant to be Asian American in a larger environmental context. He knew he was "Filipino at home,” in the village of Westmont, Illinois, but what did that look like on a college campus of several thousand undergraduate students in 1991?
For context, in 1991, it would be fourteen years before the Asian American Cultural Center opened its doors in fall 2005. Bautista graduated with a degree in History in 1996. In the fall of 1997, the Asian American Studies Committee was formed, and the Asian American Studies Program was developed in 2000, becoming a department in 2012.
Bautista set off on a path of self-exploration, joining the Asian American Association on campus where he learned about being part of a broader alliance within the Asian American community at Illinois. Bautista found kinship with his peers, who were also ’90s kids that had parents who emigrated to the United States in the 1960s. He was motivated by “this new realization of [his] identity” that he had never really explored before. At college, he could discover things at his own pace—and on his own terms.
Anything Bautista and his friends wanted to learn about themselves, they actually had to produce themselves —often at great cost to their academic and personal lives. Bautista mused that it would have been amazing to tap into a wealth of scholarship on specific topics, a speaker network, or even to have assistance in reserving campus spaces.
When he read about student activists who paved the way for his generation on campus, Bautista saw himself and his friends as part of that story, continuing the narrative that had been started years before. Together, the students began to operate as a coalition—an interconnected, strategic force on campus.
Taking their inspiration from Chicago political organizers and carrying on the legacies of Vietnam War protestors and Illinois alumni from decades prior, Bautista and his friends began to build—conferences, orientations, leadership retreats, event series, lectures, awards ceremonies—to address the needs and interests of their community, while providing avenues for them to be heard.
“We build the coalition on the backs of personal relationships,” Bautista shared. “It wasn’t contrived. We just knew that we had to prove that we were going to be there for each other. We’re going to go out, stand side-by-side, and we are going to speak together in one voice.”
A Brave Space to Explore Connection
These student leaders’ voices still resonate in the programs, resources and community built and sustained at the AACC. According to data from the AACC’s “Food For Thought” program, compiled from September 2023 to September 2025, 89 percent of the 680 respondents felt like they belonged at Illinois.
As an intern at the AACC, Felicia Jia (LAS ‘21) found this sense of belonging and community expanded beyond the zip code of Champaign-Urbana. On one of the annual field trips that are part of the internship experience, Jia and other Illinois students visited the Chinese Mutual Aid Association and the Rohingya Cultural Center in Chicago.
“I remember thinking, “Wow, these places are so special, and they have such a direct impact on people’s lives.” Jia said. “They’re cherished institutions in their communities, similar to the AACC.”
Majoring in political science with a minor in global studies, Jia planned to attend law school in the future. However, she felt empowered by the idea of working within and for her community, something she hadn’t realized was an option until her internship with the AACC. Jia interned at the center for two years: her junior year, she served as a marketing and communications intern; her senior year, she served as the APA Alumni Leadership intern. Before then, Jia was just “always kind of finding [herself] there” and attending events or hanging out at the AACC.
“The AACC continues to serve as a home away from home for so many people—this welcoming but also brave space—where people can explore their curiosity and connection,” said Jia. “The AACC instilled in me the interest in caring about the community. Not just who I am and my identity, but how that relates to other people and also what my obligation is to other people, too.”
During an event, Jia connected with a former intern who worked at KAN-WIN, a non-profit social service agency that specialized in serving Asian American and Asian immigrant survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Upon graduation, Jia joined KAN-WIN, and she has been with the organization for the last five years. She credited the AACC with connecting her to this career opportunity.
Jia found herself doing a variety of things at her first job: fundraising, coordinating community engagement events, and providing violence prevention education. At the core of her role, Jia connected and brought people together, something she really loved.
“Connection is so important because it teaches us how to be interdependent with each other,” Jia said. “We need to have spaces [like the AACC], where people can gather and have a better understanding of each other—where we can be more empathetic and inspired to take action.”
A Vessel for Change and Progress
Isa Sargan, graduating senior and current AACC leadership intern, is ready to act.
“In the world today, there’s a lack of third spaces where people can just convene and have community, a village,” said Sargan. “We put so much work in making this space available for everyone—it’s really evident that the joy and energy is just different here.”
An Asian American Studies major and president of the Philippine Student Association on campus, Sargan applies learnings from her coursework and her registered student organization (RSO) involvement into finding ways to accurately represent the community and to spread awareness of the AACC’s programs and services to others.
“We are open to everyone, and I want to make that known,” she said. “I want our actions and our programming to reflect that. It’s not just saying we are diverse in our experiences but also providing those diverse experiences and providing a platform for people to speak out.”
Sargan is part of a cohort of approximately 200 students who have interned at the AACC over the last two decades. She is deeply inspired by the work of student activists, like Bautista, who paved the way for her generation. She emphasized the beauty of seeing generations coming together across differences toward a shared goal.
“Everything we have right now was fought for,” Sargan said. “I believe the AACC’s legacy is a story of empowerment. The main thing I want to see from the AACC is using us [student leaders] as a vessel for change and for progress where we can connect, collaborate and empower each other.”
Looking to the Future
Chih also shared his dreams for the future of the AACC. Creating additional paid internship opportunities for students with the support of alumni and friends. Envisioning and working toward the procurement of a larger physical building with more room to accommodate student and community needs. His other dreams?
“For the center to reach this milestone sends a message that the U. of I. continues to be a leader in cultural diversity and inclusion,” Chih said. “I hope we will continue to welcome international students from around the world, and I hope our campus continues to invest in resources to teach cultural diversity and understanding to the campus community.”
