Puma Night Market is a celebration of the start of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Along with stalls of food, candy and games, there were a number of demonstrations for activities such as Global Link, Snow School, Student Organized Consent Conference (SOCCS), Robotics, Model UN and debate.
This year the Asian and Pacific Islander Student Union (APISU) collaborated with the experiential education office to create a bigger celebration.
“Historically, there’s always been what’s called Bring It Back for Global Link. So when all [the students] come back from Global Link, they usually present to an assembly, or we had a special presentation for the families,” Brian Gonzales, director of innovation and experiential education, said. “Then the Night Market started…and so Taylor [Kanemori] and I just decided to bridge them and make them one big powerful party.”
Senior Maddie Takamiya went on Global Link Taiwan last year and experienced a Taiwanese night market. She also attended the night market last year and both of her experiences prompted her to set up her own mochi stand at this year’s event.
“I loved it. I love all of the cultural things that UPrep does. I think that it brings together a really fun environment, and I think that food really bonds people together,” Takamiya said. “I worked with one of my friends and we just made mochi for four hours.”
APISU leader and junior Kathryn Ye ran a stand at this years night market. One of her favorite things about the night market is how she can cook for the community.
“I can showcase my culture with people who aren’t usually exposed to it,” Ye said. “It’s also a place where it can really be embraced because everyone’s kind of doing it. It’s also really fun to just put things together with my friends.”
With the night market already having grown to include so many events, Takamiya explains her hopes for it in the future.
“I want it to keep growing,” Takamiya said. “I think that if we could evolve to even include more cultures, more varieties of food that’d be amazing.”
