The Asian Student Association (ASA) held an event open to all students and taught them how to fold dumplings. While their events usually take place in Marano Campus Center, this time, it was held in the Johnson Hall basement kitchen and brought an array of students from many different backgrounds.
Members from SUNY Oswego’s Black Student Union, Latino Student Union, Bold Black Beauties, Two and a Half, and African Student Organization also attended and folded some great dumplings!
The official ASA mission statement says, “The Asian Student Association exists to involve students in Asian culture, as well as provide an Asian/Asian-American community to SUNY Oswego. When you hear ASA, we want you to think of diversity, spice, and everything nice!”
The organization’s current president John Wu also gave a statement saying, “I joined ASA because I want to spread light to other Asian cultures and give Asians on-campus a voice.”
Once the event began, the ASA members presented a quick powerpoint that gave some interesting information about the origin of dumplings. The organization’s videographer, Damon Park, explained how dumplings were originally used in history to help people overcome the cold weather, and how the herbs put inside worked to improve blood circulation.
Dumplings can include a variety of meat, vegetables, herbs, etc., and they can also be cooked in a variety of ways, including steamed, fried, and boiled.
For those who could not attend the event, here is the link to the dumpling folding tutorial that the association played before attendees were able to try themselves.
Here are also some dumpling recipes and cooking instructions:
Cooking Dumplings in Three Ways
Overall, the meeting was educational and fun. While it turns out that I am terrible at folding dumplings, I had so much fun learning some new information and having some delicious items to take home. I definitely plan on attending more ASA meetings and encourage other SUNY Oswego students to attend too!
I also want to give a huge shoutout to ASA’s director of programming, Tyler West, for putting together a great presentation and for making all of the new attendees feel welcome.
If you want to get in contact with ASA or find out when other events are happening, follow them on Instagram @asa_osu! Events/meetings are usually every Wednesday at 6pm in MCC 306. Some previous ASA themed meetings this semester were “Asian Myths, Tales, & Folklore” and “The Untold (U.S) History of The Philippines”.
You can also email the ASA email at asa.osu@gmail.com or watch any of their YouTube videos!
Here are the Instagram accounts for the other student organizations who host meetings and encourage all students to attend:
Black Student Union: oswegobsu
Latino Student Union: lsu_osu
Two and Half: twohalf_osu
Bold Black Beauties: bbb.oswego
African Student Organization: oswego_aso
For any other Oswego club/organization information, make sure to utilize Lakerlife!