05/28/2026
Two years ago at New Student Orientation, the student organization AAPI@Candler placed a blank canvas on a table with one invitation: write your dreams, your hopes, and your expectations for your time at Candler, in any language you choose.
What emerged was a canvas full of color, full of scripts, full of futures, something that reflected our community. The practice was so powerful that the group repeated it at other gatherings they hosted.
For Candler’s AAPI community, language is a thread that runs through everything: connecting students to the cultures they carry, to the families they came from, and to the people they are becoming. Whether that journey began across an ocean or across a city, language holds something that is not easily translated: a sense of home, of self, of belonging.
Over the past two years, Asian and Pacific Islander students at Candler have built something here — in the Atrium at Lunar New Year, at late-night karaoke, over boba tea and moon cakes and games. They have built a community that is joyful, rooted, and open to everyone.
This May, Candler celebrates AAPI History Month with gratitude for every student who showed up, every language spoken, and every bond formed.
In every language — we are here.
