On Aug. 28, the recently formed Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) learning community kicked off the fall semester at Diablo Valley College with its first social event of the 2025-26 school year.
More than 80 enthusiastic students attended the “Communi-Tea with AANHPI” Boba Social, where participants met new people while enjoying free boba drinks and lumpia rolls — popular traditional nourishments in East and Southeast Asian cultures.
“Throughout my time as an Asian American student in my educational journey, I feel like there haven’t been a lot of resources or communities for me, like there are for certain groups or minorities,” said Shinjoo Kim, a business, economics, and political science major now in her first semester at DVC, who attended the event.
“Having something like this is really exciting for me,” she said.
The initiative launched in the 2025 spring semester and now joins similar educational programs that cater to specific student groups on campus. For example, both the Umoja and Puente learning communities, which serve African American and Mexican American/Latino students, respectively, have assisted DVC students for over 10 years.
Diablo Valley College is one of 51 community colleges in California launching the AANHPI program with a new course curriculum this fall, and the first in the Contra Costa County Community College District. The learning community aims to help over 1,300 AANHPI-identifying students at DVC navigate their academic experience with culturally responsive events, dedicated counseling, scholarships, college tours and conferences.
Half of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students in California attend community colleges, and 44 percent of Asian Americans, according to 2025 analytics released by AAPI Data.
Dedicated faculty and staff have been directly involved in bringing the AANHPI initiative to DVC, including the dean of business and computer science, Charlie Shi, who serves as the program’s campus lead.
Shi shared that monthly task force meetings between DVC personnel and AANHPI student ambassadors were held throughout the year, including discussions about upcoming events and mentorship sessions in preparation for the program’s launch. “We want to create a sense of community, especially for AANHPI identifying students,” he said.
“We have thousands of [those] students, AANHPI identifying students, and are focused on first-time and low-income students who need support.”
Andrea Medina, a Filipino-American media studies professor at DVC who helps coordinate the AANHPI program and its events, staffed a booth at the San Ramon Campus for Welcome Day on Aug. 23.
“I’m also a faculty at San Ramon Campus, and my classroom has 80-90 percent AAPI students,” Medina said. “I feel that they were really excited that they were recognized.”
“Puente is around cycle 30,” in terms of how many semesters it has been offered, Medina added. “Umoja is around cycle 20. We’re on cycle one. It’s completely brand new and long overdue.”
The AANHPI learning community will continue to host culturally celebratory events on campus this semester, including a Kava Ceremony on Sept. 19 and a Lunar Festival on Sept. 26.