Awareness, community, and culture are the three focuses of Berkeley High School\u2019s South and South East Asian Student Union (SASU), which was described by one of its club members as feeling more like a group of friends than a typical club. \u201cI feel like we\u2019re more connected than other people that are just in random clubs,\u201d Asha Bui, a BHS junior who is the president of the club, said. Bui hopes that SASU can be a place for students to both learn about culture and also socialize and form connections.<\/p>\n
The club meets every week on Mondays in C-206. Just a few weeks ago the meetings were bustling with students preparing for the club\u2019s art exhibit, which was held on Sunday, April 19, 2026 at the Berkeley Art Center. It was a major event put on by the club that focused on uplifting student-made art. The art show featured works from numerous BHS students.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times student artists don\u2019t have a way to show their art,\u201d Bui said, \u201cSo I think it\u2019s good to provide that to specifically minority students.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
BHS junior Jennifer Keith Mendoza, another SASU member, echoed this sentiment. \u201cI thought it was really cool how we were fundraising for the project (and) making art that relates to our identity in America,\u201d Keith Mendoza said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Putting the art show on was also a unique experience, according to Julian Martinez, another club member and BHS senior. \u201cIt was a really fun process, and I think it turned out really well,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n
Although the art show took up the most recent meetings, the club mostly focuses on\u00a0 spreading awareness of South and Southeast Asian culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a nice community. And also people get to talk about issues that they think about and aren\u2019t really discussed in mainstream media,\u201d Martinez said. He explained that during meetings there are sometimes presentations about issues related to the community, such as cultural appropriation. In addition to presentations, the club also celebrates and teaches about holidays such as Diwali and Lunar New Year together.<\/p>\n
In a school of 3000 students, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to find a community. \u201c(SASU\u2019s mission is) to provide minority students with a community and a group of friends that they can go to, where we can connect about our culture. Because a lot of times we feel very isolated,\u201d Bui said.\u00a0 If you\u2019re looking for a friendly lunch environment and a place to learn about and celebrate South and Southeast Asian culture, SASU welcomes all to C-206.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Awareness, community, and culture are the three focuses of Berkeley High School\u2019s South and South East Asian Student…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-306934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}