The Asian American Association at Indiana University received Student Organization of the Year last month during the Student Organization Awards Ceremony.
The student organization of the year is awarded to an organization with a large impact on its members and the IU community, while exceeding at “community engagement, collaboration, and/or leadership development,” according to the Office of Student Life. The awards are chosen by a committee from the Student Involvement and Leadership Center.
AAA was founded at IU in 1987 as a nonprofit focused on fostering a community for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
In addition to monthly meetings for club members, AAA hosts events open to the whole student body. The group hosted events this year such as the Lunar New Year celebration in February, which featured student performances and food. It also hosted the Halloween “Grave Rave” in October at Kilroy’s Sports, and a game night in November at the Global International Studies Building.
AAA places club members into six “families” comprising around 20-25 members. These families help foster relationships inside the club, freshman Irene Thang said, and they hold meetings depending on the availability and interest of the members.
Internal Events Coordinator, Frank Nguyen introduced a family ranking system to add friendly competition and boost participation, Thang said in a text to the Indiana Daily Student. The families compete over attendance and participation or in games.
The rankings are gold, silver, bronze, platinum and diamond, and families can earn prizes such as extra funding for family events, sponsored events and bragging rights, Thang wrote.
Junior vice president Jason Tang has been a member of AAA since his freshman year and was elected April 14 to serve as president in the 2026-27 school year.
Tang said the organization helped him find community on campus.
“As far as being an out of state student, coming to college, I didn’t know anybody else here, so I was really looking for a community, a place to find my closest friends, and Triple A has definitely, by far, been that organization for me,” Tang said.
Senior Anthony Patiag is the current president of AAA. Pataig started off as a freshman representative and worked his way up through the executive board. He said his main goal is to build social relationships through AAA’s advocacy, which focuses on AAPI experiences, political issues and community building.
“There’s a lot of unstated responsibilities that the president has, primarily, acting as the liaison for Triple A to the public, but also intra-organizational, with organizing our events alongside our board and then just making sure the board collaborates as a team to pursue our mission,” Patiag said.
This is not the organization’s first time earning student award recognition. In 2024, AAA was first runner up to the award behind the African Women’s Leadership Organization. The office gives nine awards each year for various organizations and leaders.
This year, the first runner up was Black Men Evolve, with the second runner up being Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc.
Thang said the club has helped her find community. She found out about the club through her older cousins in AAA, including junior Zingtin Thang, who is the current marketing design chair.
“It was a great group of people, and I couldn’t wait to be involved,” Irene Thang said.
Irene Thang is serving as a freshman representative this school year alongside freshmen Calvin Song and Jimmy Li. Thang will be returning next school year as the club’s external events coordinator.
Patiag said he hopes to help other people find the kinds of close friendships that AAA provided for him.
“Most of my friends that I met freshman year are still the same friends that I have this year, and it’s just a big support group that I've always honored and could never thank Triple A enough for introducing me to,” Patiag said.
Tang said being club president is a daunting task, but he is excited to take on the role next year.
“I love the organization so much that the burden of the work doesn’t really scare me off,” Tang said. “I think it’s more of like a challenge and an opportunity than it is anything to be worried about.”
To find more information about the organization, AAA is on BeINvolved and Instagram.
