The establishment of the AAPI Studies Minor Program at UC San Diego in 2020 marked an important milestone. Yet, the very institutionalization of AAPI Studies risks eliding the long and rich history of campus activism led by generations of AAPI students, for whom the demand for a minor and program was always framed within a broader demand for social transformation. 

Out of these efforts grew the initial start of GROW. Formerly known as the AAPI Community Archive Project, there were two primary purposes of this project:

The first is to document and preserve the history of AAPI activism at UCSD for future students and researchers. In this effort, we will contribute to ongoing projects – such as the living archive, Tell Us How UC It, and UCSD Student History: An (Incomplete) Archive of Student Activism at UCSD – and learn relevant research and oral history methods from our librarians. We see the work of doing research, talking with people, and building knowledge together as part of the process that comes before conducting oral history interviews, which we began conducting in Spring 2021. To share these stories after, we publish our work in our digital collection as well as present in classes, community events, and at conferences.

The second aim is to build community among current and former students through the process of documenting this history. Throughout the quarters, we will hear from alumni, current students, and faculty about their recollections and experiences of particular historical moments at UCSD. Alongside documenting the history of AAPI activism we will also document the process of this community taking shape through personal and group reflections. In Spring 2022, we expanded our relations to connecting with similar initiatives and projects at other universities across the nation to learn from each other and to support and uplift each others efforts.