Graduating Senior and Inaugural AAI Fellow, Amy (Shay) Stulman, reflects on her role within the Initiative

Shay, you have been part of the Asian American Initiative since you were a sophomore, and you have just graduated–congratulations! Tell us about how you got involved in AAI as a student and if the Initiative influenced your trajectory at Columbia in any way.

When I came to college, I wanted to take coursework on Asian American identity, and the first course at Columbia that I found that fulfilled this interest was Prof. Jennifer Lee's Immigration, Race, and Asian Americans. Prof. Lee invited the class to help staff the event "The Asian American Vote," featuring Kurt Bardella, Karthick Ramakrishnan, and Janelle Wong, and moderated by Katie Phang. The event was so inspiring in its focus on community action and the importance of Asian American presence in politics. To think we now have an Asian American Mayor! What also stayed with me were Prof. Lee's closing remarks, in which she took great care to personally name every student and staff member who had made the event possible. That's when I decided that AAI was somewhere I really wanted to be.

I had always known I wanted to write my senior thesis on something connected to my identity as a Chinese American. I ended up writing about Chinese labor along the transcontinental railroad and the questions this raised around citizenship and belonging. So much of that work felt connected to AAI's mission to center Asian Americans in the public narrative. It was really full circle that my last event was Michael Luo's Strangers in the Land since I had actually drawn on the book in my thesis. 

Can you describe your role as the AAI Inaugural Fellow and what did you find challenging in this role, if any?

It was definitely a busy year, but a really inspiring one. As the AAI Inaugural Fellow, I talked to student groups about events and programming they wanted to see, reached out to my peers about the questions they wanted to explore around identity and belonging over the course of their time at Columbia, and worked with AAI leadership to think about how we could answer those questions through programming. We explored Asian American representation in literature, film, and research, and it was kind of surreal to have some of my favorite authors, directors, and researchers speak about these topics. 

What advice do you have for the incoming fellow?

Take advantage of everything! The panelists, the organizations, the ideas, the staff, and the faculty you will have access to through AAI are really remarkable. Our director, Prof. Qin Gao, always reminds us that everything is for you, the students, and I would really encourage the incoming fellow to take that to heart. This is a rare opportunity to pursue work that is both intellectually meaningful and personally resonant! 

Good luck Shay–we look forward to staying in touch!