As the semester draws to a close, it is with great pleasure that we reflect upon the resoundingly successful conclusion of the 2022-23 Asia Bridge Junior Fellowship and Graduate (in its inaugural year!) Fellowship programs at the Center for Asia Pacific Studies.

This semester, our six undergraduate and six graduate fellows independently researched and wrote articles on a variety of specialist topics relating to the Asia-Pacific region, presented their research, as well as participated and collaborated in numerous on-campus academic and social events, including organizing two student-led events open to members of our community: Jeopardy! Lunchtime Trivia and a historical walking tour of San Francisco Chinatown.

View highlights from the junior fellows’ Jeopardy! event and the graduate fellows’ Chinatown walking tour below:

One of the core successes of the programs was to bring together diverse perspectives to build bridges across the Pacific region, developing closer intellectual relations and a deeper understanding and empathy for the academic, social, political, and philosophical traditions and status quo in the Asia Pacific. Each of our fellowship cohorts brought together students from across multiple disciplines, fostering a lively and vital academic community right here on the USF campus.

In practical terms, all of our Asia Bridge fellows have gained valuable experience in organization, research, writing, and presentation; and several of the fellows intend to develop their research papers for future publication submissions. 

View highlights from the Graduate Fellow Capstone Presentations on May 3, 2023:

View highlights from the Junior Fellow Poster Presentations at USF’s Creativity Activity Research Day (CARD) on May 5, 2023. Congratulations to Reinier Bautista and Corina Mong for their “Best Poster Presentation” awards!

We congratulate our 2022-23 Asia Bridge fellows and look forward to welcoming new students into the program in the fall semester. If you would like to support these and other curious and driven students who care about the Asia Pacific, please donate here.

We’re proud of the accomplishments of our former fellows too! Congratulations to

• Sunshine Joyce A. Batasin (Asia Bridge junior cohort ‘19-’20) who won a 2023 USF Senior Leadership Award. Sunshine’s Asia Bridge project “Combating Xenophobia in the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Importance of Health Literacy” was published in the Inquiries Journal in 2020.
• Celeste Baird (Asia Bridge junior cohort, ‘21-’22) whose Asia Bridge research project, “Pressure to Produce: Traditional Gendered Norms, Modernization, and the Reproductive Decisions of Gen Z Women in China,” was published in Writing for the Real World, 2021-22: A Multidisciplinary Anthology by USF Students and won the journal’s Fr. Urban Grassi, S.J. Award for Eloquentia Perfecta.

Special thanks to our fellowship coordinators Dr. Cynthia Schultes (Asia Bridge Junior Fellows) and Dr. James Stone Lunde (Asia Bridge Graduate Fellows) for their excellent work mentoring, teaching, and instilling excellence in all of our fellows this year.