Scholarships for Asian Scholars
Creative engagement is a way to reflect on crucial but overlooked issues in society using more components and mediums than methods that are typically used to convey a message. A creative intervention serves an underrepresented community through a form of art by bringing attention to it. It appeals to different audiences that normally might not even think about it. The underrepresented community I am representing through my engagement project is Asian-American students at Rutgers University- New Brunswick. Specifically, the goal of my engagement project is helping to shine light on the scholarship and tuition deficits for Asian-American students.
Asians and Pacific Islanders are considered minorities along with Blacks/African-Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and American Indians and Alaska Natives. However out of all the minority groups, Asians are the most overlooked and overshadowed. They are offered the least help in regards to how to combat the disadvantages which carry into school environments as well. Rutgers University contributes to this problem by not providing the same opportunities for students of Asian descent. Asian Americans are stunted of reaching their potential because they are not offered the same scholarships and assistance as other groups. Furthermore, in most recent years, hate against Asian American Pacific Islander communities has risen during the COVID-19 pandemic. This brought upon a change to create a minor in Asian American studies at Rutgers University in 2021 becoming official this academic year. This was a great historic addition to the curriculum but long overdue and suffering had to be shown to see that this was just as important of a topic as other ethnicities. Programs like Africana and Puerto Rican studies have emerged at Rutgers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. My overall goal for this project is to bring awareness to not only scholarships for Asian Americans but also more assistance to the community in general without using violence but instead, art.
As I prepared to carry out this project, I set a few goals I decided I needed to fulfill. I will need to collect more data on the scholarships offered to Asian American students here at Rutgers University. When I completed my own research, the only scholarship readily available to students who are part of the School of Arts and Science was the “Long Corridor Asset Management Scholarship.” However, this scholarship is only accessible to Chinese-American students. This scholarship was established in 2020 by Xinjun (James) Tu RC’99 who is the founder of Long Corridor Asset Management, to provide financial assistance to students who are members of the Chinese Student Organization. Non-academic based requirements for this scholarship make it difficult for Asian-students to even consider this a scholarship that appleist o themselves. Some requirements include being a full-time undergraduate student who demonstrates financial need as determined by the Office of Financial Aid. They must also be first in their immediate family to obtain a college degree in the United States. The requirements also state that a “preference will be given to students who are employed part-time.” The renewable scholarship of up to $2,500 is awarded annually to two students which does not even come close to the average tuition of $13,000 ($30,0000 out of state) attending Rutgers University. There are a lot of limitations and the scholarship meant for other Asian groups are either for graduate students or specific majors as well. Another restriction is created for Asian American students trying to fulfill opportunities. Other minority groups have more than at least three and they even dive into specifics such as “Black Women in Sisterhood for Action Scholarships.”
Rutgers University- New Brunswick total enrollment is approximately 50,411 students. Asian Americans make up 26.9% of Rutgers students which is the second highest next to White students who make up 31.5% of the students enrolled. I believe the Jersey Mike’s Arena in Livingston would be a great place to put a large mural to raise awareness to this issue. I was considering the OneStop building on Busch which deals with financial aid but the location is too hidden to bring much awareness compared to Livingston. Livingston is also down the street from the Asian American Cultural Center. The statistical correspondence from students and scholarships provided to specific groups is counterintuitive and this is an area I would like to explore further.
