– Additional reporting and photos by Athena Ebuen and David Ajtun
For Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month, CSUN Newsroom spoke with Matadors from across campus about the cultural backgrounds, traditions and communities that shape who they are. Their experiences span student organizations, courses and campus connections that show how students can find belonging at CSUN. Their stories show how identity can ground students, shape who they are becoming and help them find community, pride and direction at CSUN.
Mannat Chadha, 20. “I am Indian.”
Mannat Chadha told Newsroom she found one of her strongest connections to culture through leadership. A third-year accounting major, Chadha serves as co-president of the Sikh Student Association, a cultural and religious student organization that helped her become more open about sharing her identity at CSUN. She first got involved as a freshman after attending a Diwali meeting, where she connected with the students who had started the club. They later asked her to join as secretary, a moment that stayed with her because she had not been trying to prove herself. “They saw the potential,” Chadha said. “They saw that I would bring something to the club.” As she helped build the organization, Chadha said the size of the group was less important than the sense of belonging it could create. “A community doesn’t have to be small or big,” she said. “We’re just trying to build a community.”
That experience has also shaped the way Chadha talks about her culture beyond the club. She said growing recognition of Indian culture has made it easier to claim her identity with pride. “When I say I’m Indian, it means to me the food and the culture and the music and the movies that I come from,” Chadha said. “That’s what people recognize first.” At CSUN, that openness has helped her share more of herself, whether she is introducing friends to Indian music, talking about Indian weddings or answering questions about Sikh traditions.
At CSUN, Chadha found “community along with acceptance.”
KC Park, 19. “I am Korean American.”
KC Park thinks about her heritage often, especially as a Korean American student growing up in a country shaped by many cultures and identities. For Park, knowing where she comes from helps her feel steady in who she is. “Keeping my identity, knowing that I’m Korean… keeps me more grounded,” she said. “It makes me feel more powerful knowing where I came from.” That feeling deepened during her first year at CSUN, when she took AAS 100, Introduction to Asian American Studies, and connected with other students who were just as eager to learn more about Asian American history and their cultures.
The class stayed with Park because of the community she saw in the room. “It made me feel really more connected to myself and also to other people as well,” she said. “We all were here for one thing and one thing only, to learn about our heritage, to learn about our culture.” As a screenwriting major in Cinema and Television Arts, Park is thinking about representation not just as something she hopes to see, but as something she wants to create. She said becoming a Korean American woman filmmaker means challenging expectations about the paths Asian students are often encouraged to follow. “I knew I always wanted to be a filmmaker,” Park said. “Why can’t we just choose our own paths?” She wants to create work that honors Korean heritage while telling stories audiences from many backgrounds can connect with. “I kind of want to make something that highlights my Korean heritage,” Park said, “but at the same time makes it good for the public.”
At CSUN, Park found “community.”
Anthony Tom, 21. “I am Filipino.”
After growing up in Hawaii, where Asian cultures and experiences were part of everyday life, Anthony Tom began thinking about his identity differently at CSUN. Familiar foods and everyday cultural touchpoints were no longer everywhere around him. “Having to go to more niche places sort of makes me realize more that I’m Asian in my daily life,” Tom said. The shift also changed how he experienced connection on campus. “When I see someone who’s Asian, I feel like there’s more of an instant connection.”
Tom has felt that connection most in creative spaces. As a TV production major, he said he is not involved in a cultural organization on campus, but he notices moments of community while working on student film and television projects. On production crews, he said, Asian students sometimes naturally find one another, creating a sense of recognition and shared experience outside a formal cultural organization. Those moments have pushed him to think more about his own Filipino culture and to learn from people who are more connected to their identities. “I feel more like an obligation to tap into my culture since coming here,” Tom said. Seeing others express pride in their heritage, he said, “motivates me to learn more about my culture and be more proud of it.”
At CSUN, Tom found “pride.”
Jacob Cha, 23. “I am Korean American.”
For Jacob Cha, a third-year art major with a concentration in animation, being Korean American is both a source of pride and a story with many layers. He sees Korean culture celebrated in the United States through food, K-pop, dramas, traditions and family values, but his own connection to that identity runs deeper. “That’s like the surface of really popular Korean culture,” Cha said. “But what about more of the inside?” For Cha, that deeper understanding includes learning to accept the traditions and conflicts within his culture, navigating the challenges of growing up Asian in spaces where he did not always feel understood and facing “the internal struggles” connected to generations of Korean heritage. “That shaped me into the person I am today,” Cha said, “and I am proud to be the person I am today because of my Korean heritage.”
At CSUN, Cha found one of his early points of connection through the Vietnamese Student Association, where he saw how shared experiences across Asian communities could create belonging. During his first year, he attended a general meeting at the Northridge Fashion Center and remembered being surrounded by “great and loving people.” Even though the group did not reflect his specific heritage, the experience helped him feel connected to a wider Asian community at CSUN. That sense of connection continues through the values he carries from his Korean household, including respect, discipline, faith and care for community. “I think my peers and friends are what helped me grow at CSUN mostly,” he told Newsroom. “And I love interacting and making new friends, especially with people in different clubs and different environments throughout the school, Asian community or not.”
At CSUN, Cha found “direction.”
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