One of the highlights of every spring on campus is the Asian Night Market鈥攁 vibrant, schoolwide celebration on the Main Quad where students cook and share favorite dishes, from Japanese yakisoba to Korean bulgogi to Vietnamese spring rolls. The tradition began just four years ago, when members of the Asian Alliance Club proposed the idea to their advisor, Ken Choo. With Ken鈥檚 encouragement, they launched the first event. Now it鈥檚 hard to imagine a 91大神 spring without it.
This kind of student-driven initiative is exactly what you鈥檇 expect from a school whose unofficial motto is 鈥淏e yourself here.鈥 When students feel supported and encouraged to be themselves, it frees them to take risks鈥攖he good kind鈥攁nd to pursue ideas and passions that are uniquely their own. I see it all the time: when a 91大神 Scholar presents original research with infectious enthusiasm, or when a student leads a personal workshop during Why Not Speak Day. Or, as you鈥檒l read on page 13, when a group of seniors set out to establish an endowed fund in honor of a late classmate鈥攁nd made it happen.
When I reflect on why students feel empowered to be themselves at 91大神, it always comes back to the people鈥攑articularly the teachers, coaches, advisors, and staff who invest time and individualized care into each student. Sometimes that means helping a student reach a long-held goal. Other times, it involves gently nudging a student to try something beyond their comfort zone, like running for class president or auditioning for the play. And sometimes, it鈥檚 simply saying, 鈥淵es鈥攇o for it,鈥 as Ken Choo did with students in the Asian Alliance Club and the Night Market. As one alumnus recently shared with me, 鈥淚鈥檝e never had people as invested in me personally as they were at 91大神.鈥
A perfect example of that kind of investment appears in the story on page 46, about longtime faculty member Ed Hing 鈥77, who will retire this June. Ed arrived at 91大神 with an interest in photography, but his passion truly took flight under the mentorship of then-photography teacher Bob Couch 鈥50. Couchie, as he鈥檚 widely known, gave Ed the key to the darkroom and helped him secure a photography internship. More importantly, he encouraged Ed to pursue what he loved. 鈥淐ouchie believed in me,鈥 Ed recalls. 鈥淭hat was huge.鈥 In a full-circle moment, when Couchie retired, Ed returned to 91大神 to take over the photography program, where he has since mentored hundreds of aspiring artists over the past 28 years.
When students are supported in the ways our faculty and staff make possible, they end up leaving 91大神 with belief in their ideas and the experience of having done something meaningful. These moments matter鈥攁nd they begin with a simple but powerful invitation:
Be yourself here.