The program started in April 1992 and was supported by Augsburg President Charles Anderson. Augsburg had received a large grant from the General Mills Foundation to develop support services for Asian students, focusing on Southeast Asian populations. Having supported the American Indian support services a few years prior, Anderson saw the same need in the Asian community, especially for Southeast Asian and first-generation college students. The support program was initially called “Asian American Support Services (AASS)” and housed on the second floor of the Music Building.
Today, the program serves over 200 self-identified Asian or mixed ethnicity undergraduate students and manages a peer-to-peer mentor program that helps Augsburg recruit and retain the Pan Asian community.
