Boiler Gold Rush, Aug 20 & 21 3-5pm

Wednesday, Aug 21 and Thursday, Aug 22 | 3-5pm

915 5th Street

A partnership of the Latino Cultural Center (LCC), Native American Education and Cultural Center (NAECC), and the Asian American and Asian Resource and Cultural Center (AAARCC) with Purdue Orientation Programs

Visit the LCC, NAECC, and AAARCC during Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) with your BGR group and new friends to enjoy snow cones, summer crafts, and tours to learn about cultural center resources!

Craft Stations:

• AAARCC: Paint a tote bag and design your own pin badge button; karaoke inside
• LCC: Succulent planting and pot painting
• NAECC: Tea candle holder decorating

This program is made possible by the generous support of the Purdue Orientations Programs office.

First Day of School Open House, Aug 25

Aug 25, Wednesday | 11am – 4pm

AAARCC (915 5th St)

Stop by the AAARCC on the first day of the Fall 2025 semester to enjoy popsicles and cup noodles, take a “first day of ...” commemorative photo, tour the AAARCC building, check-out our pop-up bread and vegetable table, and meet the AAARCC staff and volunteers!

Express Fest, August 27

August 27, Wednesday | 3-5pm

Cultural Center Island | Outside Latino Cultural Center (LCC), Native American Education and Cultural Center (NAECC), and AAARCC (915 5^th St)

Express Fest is the LCC's, AAARCC's , and NAECC's free annual resource and welcome fair. It bridges students, faculty and staff to the resources available at Purdue University and the Cultural Centers. Enjoy live performances, resource tables, and celebrate diversity with us through learning, sharing, and connecting. Departments, academic units, and community organizations are invited to participate in the fair. Express Fest occurs annually on the first Wednesday of the Fall semester.

This program is made possible by the generous support of the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging.

Lunch & Learn, Thursdays 12pm-1pm

The AAARCC hosts a Lunch and Learn guest speaker series each semester on Thursdays from 12pm-1pm at the AAARCC (915 5th St.) or a campus specific location (listed for each session). Each Lunch and Learn features diverse faculty, staff, and students sharing their research or expertise. We believe each Lunch and Learn session poses a valuable opportunity for students to learn from experts and engage in meaningful discussions. We cater lunches from a variety of local businesses in the greater West Lafayette community.

This event starts promptly at 12pm. This is a hybrid event. In-person seating is limited to the first 50 attendees. Please consider joining us over Zoom at: bit.ly/aaarccLL

If you have feedback about our Lunch and Learn series, please consider filling out this survey to let us know: bit.ly/aaarccLLsur

L&L #1 | Sept 4 - Grass to Garden: A Guide to Growing Community-based Gardens

Sept 4, Thursday, 12pm-1pm

Karen Mitchell, Consumer Horticulture Extension Specialist

Purdue Extension Office

From improving access to fruits and vegetables to educating people on how food is grown, community gardens offer many benefits to the place you call home. Grass to Garden is a Purdue Extension Signature Program co-led by members from both the Agriculture and Natural Resources and Community Development Educator teams to bring Indiana residents together and teach tactics on how to start a community-based garden. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the Purdue Extension Grass to Garden Signature Program aims to provide information focused on more than just growing plants by strengthening agricultural and community development efforts, resulting in healthier communities with improved access to local food.

This Lunch & Learn Session is generously co-sponsored by Purdue Extension Office

L&L #2 | Sept 11 - Designing a Co-Learning Space for Expressive Forms of Scholarly Engagement

Dada Docot (Faculty), Courtney Wittekind (Faculty), Olivia Papepoi (PhD Student)

The ALab, Purdue Department of Anthropology

The ALab is a new creative laboratory, co-learning space, and multimodal gallery that aims to celebrate and support diverse expressive forms and modes of scholarly engagement. At The ALab, we work together to decolonize and decanonize academic practices through creative inquiry and engagement. The ALab is open to affiliates interested in presenting their work to fellow creatives, receiving/providing mentorship, and participating in crafting the lab’s vision, direction, and service to the community.

More details about this session to be announced!

This Lunch & Learn Session is generously co-sponsored by The ALab, Purdue Department of Anthropology

L&L #3 | Sept 25 - Tour of Purdue Student Farm

Sept 25, Thursday, 12pm-1pm

1491 Cherry Ln. (Free parking is available at the Student Farm) (Meet at AAARCC if you require transportation)

Purdue Student Farm

The Purdue Student Farm is a small, sustainable farm managed by the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture (HLA). The Student Farm is the outdoor lab that demonstrates how food can be grown effectively on a small scale, marketing for profit, and interests with the economy and the environment.

Transportation to Purdue Student Farm provided to attendees who RSVP by September 11. This is an in-person event and there will not be a Zoom option available.

This Lunch & Learn session is generously co-sponsored by the Purdue Office of Multicultural Programs.

L&L #4 | Oct 2 - Turning Casual Involvement into Career Opportunities

Oct 2, Thursday 12-1pm

AAARCC (915 5^th St)

Ervin Liao, Undergraduate Student

Ervin Liao is a rising 3^rd year student studying Mechanical Engineering. Ervin has contributed significantly to Asian and Asian American student life on campus while serving as an academic role model within the College of Engineering. Ervin will be sharing how he got involved with the Asian and Asian American community at Purdue and how the community provided him with opportunities for conferences, research, internships, and professional development opportunities.

More details about this session to be announced!

This Lunch & Learn session is generously co-sponsored by the Purdue Department of Mechanical Engineering.

L&L #5 | Oct 9– Started from the Bottom, Now We’re Here: From First-Gen College Student to Studying Immigrant Families in My PhD

Nathan Lieng, PhD candidate in Human Development and Family Science

Learn about my journey as the son of refugee and immigrant parents, the first in my family to pursue college, and my research on how U.S.-born children of immigrants make sense of and reconcile cultural differences with their foreign-born parents.

Nathan will share about his journey and how it led him to pursue a PhD to make his community’s experiences more visible and understood.  He will present findings from his research on parent-child relationships in Asian American immigrant families, highlighting the often-overlooked complexity, bond, and emotional depth within these families. He will also discuss ways students can get involved in research.

This Lunch & Learn Session is generously co-sponsored by

L&L #6 | Oct 16 - Applying Environmental & Ecological Engineering to Cultural Communities

Mukhamad Suhermanto, PhD Student  

More details about this session to be announced!

This Lunch & Learn session is generously co-sponsored by the Purdue Department of Environmental & Ecological Engineering.

L&L #7 | Oct 30, 2025, TBD Math / Chenflix

- Thursday, October 30, 2025 - TBD Math / Chenflix

L&L #8 | Nov 6, 2025 - TBD CCO / Pharmacy Podcast

Thursday, November 6, 2025 - TBD CCO / Pharmacy Podcast

Student Leadership Retreat

Sept 6, Saturday, 9am-3pm

TBD Location

Calling all student organization presidents! Start your fall semester strong with your fellow student leaders at the AAARCC’s Fall 2025 Student Leadership Retreat. Learn from different campus offices and community members about cultivating healthy relationships with organization members, navigating challenges and conflicts using your constitution, collaborating and partnering with local businesses, connecting with Purdue alum, and maintaining a legacy for your organization. Light breakfast and lunch will be provided for attendees who RSVP. This retreat is free and open to any student organization president who is interested in collaborating with the AAARCC and Asian Student Union Board (ASUB) during the 2025-2026 academic year. Please RSVP at bit.ly/aaarcc-slr by Monday, August 25 to attend the retreat.

Following the student leadership retreat, we invite all student organization officers to join us for an alum networking session and tailgate outside the AAARCC.

This program is made possible with the generous support of

Tailgate & Networking with Student Leaders and Alum

Sept 6, Saturday, 4pm-6pm

AAARCC (915 5th St)

Calling all Purdue alum and student organization officers! Join us for a tailgate outside the AAARCC during the Purdue vs Souther IL home football game. This is a great opportunity for alum to revisit campus, see the new changes around the AAARCC, reminisce about student leadership experiences, and connect with current students. Student organization officers should consider attending as a group to network with other student organization leaders and alum. This tailgate is free and open to any student organization officer interested in collaborating with the AAARCC and ASUB during the 2025-2026 academic year. Please RSVP at bit.ly/aaarcc-tailgate by Monday, Aug 25 to help us estimate attendance!

This program is made possible with the generous support of

Sept 15, Monday – Sept 20, Saturday

AAARRCC (915 5^th St.), ALab (Schleman 300, 656 Oval Dr), and various locations

About Bryan Thao Worra

Bryan Thao Worra is the first Lao American to receive an NEA Fellowship in Literature in 2009 for poetry and was a Cultural Olympian representing Laos during the 2012 London Summer Games. He was awarded an Asian Pacific American Leadership Award in 2009 from the State Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans and a 2002 Many Voices Fellowship from the Minnesota Playwrights Center. Since 2018, he has served as the Lao Minnesotan Poet Laureate. His writing is cited in over 9 international textbooks, including the 2012 edition of the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics and Wenying Xu’s Historical Dictionary of Asian American Literature and Theater. He served as a consultant or contractor to numerous institutions, including the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, the National Endowment of the Arts, the Minnesota History Center, the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. As the author of 8 books, his work appears in 100+ publications globally, including Australia, Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Chile, Pakistan, and the United States. His writing is translated in Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Tagalog, Bengali, and Lao.

Visit Bryan's website featuring to read more about his previous exhibitions and projects in the Midwest: https://thaoworra.wordpress.com/

Poet in Residence Week of Events

Bryan will be facilitating a variety of workshops related to consulting, artistic strategies, and writing, visual, and performing arts. More information about the workshops, keynote, and exhibition coming soon.

The Fall 2025 Poet in Residence programs are generously co-sponsored by the ALab and College of Education.

Unsettling Refugees: Vietnamese Refugees Fighting Gentrification in America's Suburbs

October 23, Thursday, 12-1pm

Location TBA

Author Bio: Jennifer Huynh is a sociologist and an assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of Suburban Refugees: Class and Resistance in Little Saigon (University of California Press, 2025). She is on the editorial board for American Quarterly, and her next book project is a comparative study of Southeast Asian deportation. She is a first generation college student from Southern California.

More information about the guest speaker talk coming soon.

This guest speaker series is generously co-sponsored by Purdue Asian Studies program.

Friendsgiving with AAARCC & NAECC, Nov 24

Nov 24, Monday, 12pm-1pm

Native American Education and Cultural Center (NAECC) 903 5th St.

Join the AAARCC and NAECC for our annual Friendsgiving Lunch.

This event is free and open to the campus community.

More details about the lunch RSVP to be announced!

Campus Partner, Student Leadership, and Volunteer Recognition Dinner, November TBA

OWL Liaison Hours, TBD

More information about the OWL Writing Consultants and Fall 2025 liaison satellite hours at the AAARCC (915 5^th St.) to be announced. 

What can Purdue Owl Help you with?

Thousands of Purdue students, especially the good writers, come to the OWL because they know it's useful to talk about what they're writing and to get feedback. Writers bring in papers from courses in biology, engineering, political science, technology, communications, and job applications, and many other courses besides English. They also come in to work on resumes and job applications, internship and co-op reports, or any other writing task they're working on, including papers for graduate seminars. We help Purdue students, faculty, staff, and even those learning English as a second language.

CAPS Liaison Hour & Workshops, Wednesdays 12-1pm

AAARCC (915 5^th St.)

Stop by for an informal chat to check-in on how your semester is going and learn how CAPS can support your student success! Visit the AAARCC (915 5th St.) on Wednesdays from noon to 1pm to chat with our CAPS Liaisons. No prior appointment in necessary.

More information about the CAPS Liaisons and and future workshops to be announced.

CARE Liaison Hour & Workshops, Wednesdays 3-4pm

AAARCC (915 5^th St.)

Visit the AAARCC (915 5th St.) on select Wednesdays each month from 3-4pm to chat about healthy relationships with CARE Advocates while learning a new craft.

More information about the healthy relationships and craft workshops to be announced.

Meet Your Advocate:

Tiffany Botsford-Samuels,
Assistant Director
Center for Advocacy, Response, & Education (CARE)

I have worked at Purdue since 2022. I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the state of Indiana and I practiced mental health therapy before coming to Purdue. I completed my bachelor's in psychology from Indiana University-Kokomo and my master's in Clinical and Community Mental Health from Western Illinois University. I am a proud daughter, sister, wife, and cat-mom. 
I love reading, crafting, and making people laugh.

CCO/PPA Liaison Hour & Workshops, Wednesdays 1-2pm

Visit the AAARCC (915 5th St.) on select Wednesdays each month from 1-2pm to chat with our CCO and PPA Liaisons. No prior appointment is necessary.

Stop by during CCO Liaison hours with Shihling to review your resume or cover letter, prepare for interviews, and chat about job opportunities.

Stop by during PPA Liaison hours with Cristy to chat about programs in healthcare and law, ask about recommended exams and courses, and review your personal statement or applications.

More information about the dates for the CCO/PPA liaison hours to be announced.

Weekly Grad Students Hours

• Thursday | 1:30 - 3:30PM | 2nd Floor, AAARCC (915 5th St)

GRAD TEA

Come network or quiet work with other graduate students while enjoying tea and snacks

View Flyer

Co-hosted by: Asian American and Asian Graduate Student Association (AAAGraSA)

Fall 2025 Pop-Up Bread Table

• Mondays | 11 AM | AAARCC (915 5th St)

Stop by the AAARCC to pick up free bread and pastries!

Offered on a first-come, first-served basis on Mondays from 11 AM while supplies last.

Announcements will be made on @purdueaaarcc social media when the bread is gone for the day.

Co-hosted by: ACE Food Pantry

Pop-up Veggies (Summer-Early Fall 2025)

• Mondays | 11 AM | AAARCC (915 5th St)

Stop by the AAARCC to pick up free veggies!

Offered on a first-come, first-served basis on Mondays from 11 AM while supplies last.

Announcements will be made on @purdueaaarcc social media when the bread is gone for the day.

Co-hosted by: Purdue Student Farm