Photo Courtesy of Beauty of Asia

By Megan Guerrero

As a member of the Beauty of Asia (BOA) club carefully pulls every bead for the bracelet she is making into place, she is suddenly distracted by the contagious laughter, and drops her bracelet, sending the beads scattering all across the room. Even if she didn’t successfully craft her bracelet, she still took something extremely valuable from this club meeting. She learned about and celebrated the importance of Filipino Heritage Month and Filipino culture through making traditional bracelets. 

The Beauty of Asia project is not a typical arts and crafts club. Rather, it is dedicated to educating and celebrating the importance of different Asian cultures through artistic projects. 

Seniors Ma Zara Tan and Alessandra Cardona established the club this year to educate their peers on the significance of Asian culture and art. They wanted to ensure that the club’s activities educated people in a way that was fun, engaging, and accessible in order to encourage participation from a variety of students. 

With multiple Asian culture clubs across campus, Tan and Cardona wanted to create a space in which students could learn about the beauty of all Asian cultures.  

“We want to set our club apart from others on campus because our club is so informative,” Tan said. ¨Rather than only focusing on raising awareness, we are also highlighting achievements. We just really want to create an impact and educate others on our topics.”

Now, every Tuesday, students gather to learn about and celebrate the achievements and history of the weekly featured Asian culture, usually relating to different annual celebrations, history, and heritage months, as well as holidays in Asian culture for that week. Then, club members complete an arts and crafts activity that represents and commemorates a characteristic from the culture that was featured. 

“We do arts and crafts and club activities,” Cardona said. ¨It starts with Zara and me doing presentations and stating which event we are celebrating for that time. For example, the first meeting was the Mid-Chinese Autumn Festival. In the last meeting, in honor of Filipino Heritage Month, we did a Filipino-centered meeting. We explain the importance and history of the event, for example, the importance of mooncakes and their importance to the cultures that celebrate the Chinese Autumn Festival.¨

The club welcomes people of all backgrounds, not just Asian, to come to learn about the culture selected for that week’s meeting. The club officers ensure that the club is a fun environment for everyone. 

“We want to really emphasize that you don’t have to be Asian to join,” Tan said. “It’s a very welcoming place. We just do lots of fun activities, eat snacks, and educate people. It’s fun learning.”

Additionally, having other Asian culture clubs at Granada offers unique aspirations for the club presidents that other niche clubs may not have. Throughout the school year, the BOA project plans to collaborate with other Asian culture clubs across campus and create a dedicated Asian culture day festival here in our community.