East-West Center Participants Association

Aloha!

Welcome to the official website of the East-West Center Participants Association (EWCPA).

The purpose of this site is to share information with current and past EWC participants – please follow the links for information about our board members, the organization’s history, upcoming events and activities, and more. Stay tuned for additional updates, including EWC announcements, photo gallery, and a discussion forum. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to contact this year’s board members.

EWC Participant Info: https://ewcparticipantinfo.org/

About EWCPA

The EWCPA Board proudly takes the responsibility to chart the future for our special community here at the EWC. The board's mission is to develop an Asia-Pacific community that can work productively together and promotes harmony among nations. In line with the EWCPA Constitution, the future will consist of an EWC participant community that comes together across country lines, cultural lines, and program lines to live, learn, share, and experience culture, diversity, thoughts, arts, knowledge music, talents and ohana with few distinctions made between programs or countries. The overriding goals of student advocacy, promoting culture, and developing community spirit will pervade all activities of the EWCPA.

The EWCPA community will be brought together in a variety of social and academic forums in order to take advantage of all of the talents and skills of members of the EWCPA community towards building a stronger Asia-Pacific community. Also, through various representatives, EWCPA will strive to address the concerns of all members and promote community interests wherever appropriate.

History

The first group of 100 students who arrived in February 1961 set the tone for students organizing their own activities. Scattered into temporary quarters in the Makiki-Mānoa area until mid-1963 when the East-West Center (EWC) buildings were completed, students banded together to make their experience memorable. It was never the case of “foreign” students becoming invisible in the community. The EWC international community at the university was very noticeable. As a result, by the summer of 1962, the East-West Center students established a student government named EWCGA-the East-West Center Grantees Association. By 1970 the name of the organization was changed to EWCSA-the East-West Center Students Association. Finally, by the 1980s it became EWCPA-the East-West Center Participants Association that we have at present. The first presidents of EWCGA were Diosdado Asuncion from the Philippines and the next was Saleem Ahmed from Pakistan.

The EWC students were excited to be in Hawai'i, and similarly, the Hawai'i community welcomed them warmly into their homes, their university, and their business. This situation initiated them to encourage a community support group of volunteers established in 1961, which is now known as The Friends of the East-West Center. The Friends of EWC set up the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council (PAAC) and the EWC staff. Peggy Kai, Juanita Kenda, and Frances Allison were the early leaders of this group. The EWC Friends worked with the “grantees" in making a memorable experience in Hawaii. The EWC Friends still exists now and is an important part of participants’ social lives here. All those organizations, EWCGA, the Friends of EWC, PAAC, and EWC staff members worked together to establish some goals. These goals are 1) a system of community host families for grantees, 2) a system of social and academic interaction with public school classes across the State, 3) a system of “neighbor-island tours” and field trips, and, 4) a system of personal support for grantees—emergency loans, magazines, and newspapers from the home country, opportunities to attend community events. These objectives then create a spirit of the students who graduated by forming a group called the Alumni of EWC. This group then continues to further the mission of the Center. Collectively, they are contributing to global understanding, building an Asia Pacific Community, and making a world of difference.

As representatives from many countries who come here to study under the East-West Center scholarship, the students are always highly motivated—individually or in groups, academically or socially. As student numbers increase, they formed national groups which share celebrations or their cultures through performances, flag-raising ceremonies, and food. In Fall 1962, The EWGCA sponsored one of its first large-scale major public events—an International Night—held at Roosevelt High School due to the EWC building construction was not finished until spring 1963. The main goal of that activity was to show gratitude to the Hawai'i community for their support of EWC participants. By 1973, International Nights then became all-day fairs attended by about 10,000 people in their heyday. By the year 2000, this enduring celebration became famously known as the East-West Fest that we host every year.

In the 1960s and 1970s, National Nights—evening programs of songs, dances, films, and food—also celebrated the various cultures and countries represented at the East-West Center. Each national group had two flag-raising ceremonies a year to honor national Independence Day and one other significant national holiday. The full range of national flags of EWC countries flies in the Jefferson Hall public lobby until the mid-1970s, national disputes over territory and names got “hot” enough that flags were only brought out for ceremonies with visiting dignitaries.

On the lighters side, in the 1970s students organized an annual spring Mini-Olympics with 1) athletic sports events, 2) tug-of-war, and 3) table game competitions. In the table game competitions, it frequently seemed that Asian and Islanders won at the English language Scrabble games, while sometimes Western students won at Chinese mahjong or Japanese go games. At various times, international choirs emerged which provided a time of singing and great fun.

The EWC students through its organization developed culture and issue-oriented newsletters and magazines—also yearbooks, recipe books, and song books. They tackled serious cultural and social issues with seminar series, conferences, and film discussions. The EWCGA produced a magazine/newsletter, Pioneer, by the end of 1961. In 1964, the student body editorial board changed the name of the magazine to East-West Review, then Contact, and finally decided on the name Impulse in 1970. The articles of the magazines celebrated the joys and strains of “inter-culching” EWC style, and frequently brought strong student reactions to the turbulent times of the late 1960s-1970s. Several times the EWC administration stopped the publication of these issues.

The EWC staff and students worked together in celebrating their Asia-Pacific-US cultures by developing yearbook pictures, international recipe books, and songbooks, during the 1960s and 1970s, At that time, the EWC Friends worked with the students to produce a beautiful calendar with information about national celebration across the Asia-Pacific-US region.

Asia-America Seminars of the 1960s were a required UH/EWC credit course that uses books, films, and dialogue to educate students about other cultures. The seminar is called the Globalization Seminar and all EWC students are required to participate in it. The students also organized Issue Seminars with panels of students discussing “burning” issues such as civil rights, women’s rights, the military overthrow of governments in regions, the Vietnam War, and border conflict in Asia. This activity is known today as the International Graduate Students Conference.

In 2005, EWCPA begins its programs with a Plan of Action. The ability of board members to plan comprehensive activities for one year is supported by the diversity of their knowledge and skills. In addition, board members are expected to follow the plan as a guideline. It creates transparency and accountability for student organizations. The board members are always open to receiving new ideas to build the spirit of the East-West Center.

There are many things we did, many things that we can remember. We may forget what we did but history may not be forgotten. This brief history should maintain the spirit of the East-West Center. The spirit should not toss itself in the external play of events. In contrast, it is that which established history absolutely, and it stands firm against the chance prevalence, which dominates and developed for its own purpose. (Irwansyah, Secretary of EWCPA 2004-2005).

EWCPA OFFICE: HALE MĀNOA, ROOM 301