Emmanouel Sofillas Asst. Sports Editor
The Asian Student Association (ASA) brought the warmth of homemade chai to campus this week as part of a two-day fundraiser aimed at supporting the club’s programming and events.
Junior computer engineering major Farhan Bishal prepared the homemade chai, sharing a recipe rooted in his upbringing. Bishal said the drink represents both tradition and authenticity.
“This Chai itself is my recipe,” Bishal said. “I learned, I grew up making it from my mom, and what I want to do is share that authenticity that I have with this Chai with everyone else on this campus.”
Bishal described chai as a beverage with deep roots in the Indian subcontinent, noting that its flavor can be difficult to define.
“Chai itself is actually…a type of tea that originated in the sub Indian continent,” Bishal said. “The point is that it’s such a hard flavor to distinguish and describe that you cannot associate it with an actual flavor. It’s hard to say what it is unless you’ve actually had it.”
Bishal compared the taste to Thai tea, emphasizing its distinctiveness from more commercialized versions often found in the United States.
“Chai has its own unique flavor that is not the same as the conventional American chai tea,” Bishal said.
To make the drink more accessible to a wider audience, Bishal said he adjusted the traditional preparation.
“This chai is actually a watered down version of what is usually sold in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and those desi countries,” Bishal said. “I did not add any extra spices, just to keep it a plain and very simple drink that has a lot of flavor.”
ASA founder and president Shu Amanuma, a junior majoring in international studies with a concentration in global affairs, said the fundraiser plays a key role in sustaining the club’s programming throughout the semester.
“Generally, we do not get funding from the school,” Amanuma said. “Hence, for us to do a lot of events, such as the paw marks or the K town dinners, that has been very popular. It requires us to do a fundraiser, raise the money so that we can give back to the community that we’re serving. So it’s a cyclical system.”
Amanuma said the organization set a goal of raising between $200 and $250 each day of the two-day event to maintain its operating budget.
“This event, I think we are targeting to raise about $250 — yeah, $200 to $250 today,” Amanuma said.
Although the fundraiser coincided with midterms, Amanuma said the executive board spent several weeks preparing.
“We definitely spent two to three weeks on the planning,” Amanuma said. “The actual preparations, like physical preparations, just happened yesterday and today.”
Beyond fundraising, Amanuma emphasized ASA’s broader mission of building community and fostering cultural exploration on campus.
“My mission and the mission of ASA is to create a safe community for students with Asian backgrounds and identity, so for them to explore and further expand understanding of their own cultural identity through sharing and just experiencing other people’s culture,” Amanuma said.
Raphael Alcober, a junior computer engineering major and the club’s secretary, said he joined ASA to help cultivate that sense of belonging.
“I joined because I wanted to join a small, close knit community,” Alcober said. “I thought that ASA…had good potential, and I wanted to be part of the reason why it grows.”
Alcober added that ASA provides representation and a welcoming environment for Asian students on campus.
“I say that ASA provides a safe space,” Alcober said.
The chai fundraiser is part of a series of themed events ASA has hosted throughout the year. Amanuma said the club previously sold boba and plans to introduce additional items in the future.
“We did boba last time. We’re doing Chai this time,” Amanuma said. “And then in the future…when the outside environment gets warmer, we can sell colder drinks. Matcha would be wonderful.”
As students stopped by for a warm cup between exams, the event served as both a cultural introduction and a reminder of ASA’s growing presence on campus — one cup of chai at a time.