As we look back over the past year, I am struck by the impressive milestones and continued strides that the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs (MESA) has achieved despite the challenging and tense campus climate. With the close of the 2023-2024 year, I feel honored to reflect on the profound impact that MESA has had on our campus community.
We started the year with our coveted and dynamic welcome programs that empowered 239 incoming and transferring students. Once connected students have the opportunity to engage campus in one of a 111 events across five heritage months, 52 events were coordinated and sponsored by MESA. We were honored to host approximately 4,000 participants
We also provided the opportunity for students to build community spaces and events that are meaningful to them through our grants program, which awarded 104 out of 122 applications. These events brought together an astounding combined attendance of 13,359 participants.
This year we achieved many firsts. We were honored to host the first Midwest Asian American Student Union (MAASU) Conference post-pandemic in person which brought in students from 26 institutions. We were proud to celebrate the work of our sponsored student organizations like the Oceanic Student Association which hosted their first ever conference on campus and continue to show momentum on campus. We advanced equity work by naming Andrea Wilkerson the assistant director of Native American student enrichment and belonging. Her new role will focus on the advancement of the Native student experience in the co-curricular spaces and better connect students with Student Life partners for a more robust campus experience. Looking ahead we are thrilled to be hosting the Big Ten Native Alliance Gathering on campus in October and anticipate a record number of students for our welcome programs.
MESA is prepared for what we predict will be a highly engaged and potentially tense campus climate with a presidential election, national tensions and ongoing global wars that impact our students and community locally. We will be offering more individual
office hours to better connect with our students and make improvements to our physical spaces to increase a sense of belonging. Our grants programs will remain available for students to lead programming. We will continue to offer support and coaching to students and organizations to sharpen their leadership skills and better understand their options in the context of the campus.
I would like to extend my gratitude to all who have contributed to these phenomenal achievements in MESA and invite you all to read through the comprehensive details outlined in our report. We hope to see you in our office space and always welcome connecting.
In community, Dr. Nadia Bazzy
AY 2023-24 By the numbers
Total of 111 events across those five heritage months, of which 52 were coordinated and sponsored by MESA, and the rest were submitted to include in the heritage month event calendar.
1,596 attended the peer-led Anti-Racism and Coalition Building Teach-Ins.
We received 122 grant applications to fund education programming. Events impressively saw an estimated combined attendance of 13,359 across 104 awarded projects.
208 combined pre and post 30-minute advising sessions were conducted.
239 incoming and transferred students attended our welcome programs—ALMA, SALAM, GOAAL, and NASW.
100 high school students attended the annual High School Conference
61 Little SIBS and 64 Big SIBS participated in the program throughout the year.
350 students, staff, and community members from 26 colleges and universities across the Midwest attended the Midwest Asian American Student Union (MAASU) Conference.
13K+ grant event attendees
AY 23-24
1.6K teach-in attendees AY 23-24
239 welcome prog. attendees AY 23-24
Living our mission and vision
The Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs (MESA) engages the campus community and transforms the student experience to build inclusive spaces and equitable opportunities for all through various cultural and educational programs and leadership opportunities.
MESA strives to achieve our vision of a diverse and vibrant campus community where all members are embraced, nurtured, belong, and free to achieve their definition of success. Our work and strategies are grounded in both theories and practices, especially in facilitating social belonging and the opportunity to grow. We do so by focusing on affirming identities through the lens of race and ethnicity and engaging both the individual and collective to promote cross-collaboration.
In doing so, we nurture intercultural, intellectual, and leadership skills, and empower students to address social justice issues in ways that celebrate, educate, and build social capital.
LIVING OUR MISSION & VISION
Celebration
MESA leads campus-wide programming with students to offer educational content and celebrates race, ethnicity, and intersectional identities. These opportunities are identity-affirming. They enrich our community, highlight interconnectedness, and amplify diverse voices and experiences.
Heritage months
MESA facilitates five heritage months throughout the year—Latinx, Native American, Black, Arab, and Asian American & Pacific Islander. Each monthlong celebration provides spaces and opportunities to celebrate, teach, and learn about cultural history, affirm identity, and also to examine the way in which these cultures are viewed and evolved within American discourse. They continue to be highly relevant and critical not only for our students’ holistic growth but for society at large.
There were a combined total of 111 events across those five heritage months, of which
52 were coordinated and sponsored by MESA, and the rest were submitted to be included in the heritage month event calendar. All events created a dynamic heritage month experience that consisted of a mix of cultural celebrations and educational dialogues to commemorate the history and contributions each community made to society.
14 schools and academic departments, 7 Student Life units, and 11 student organizations joined in the celebration and contribution to the intellectual content and engagement across campus.
Approximately 4,000 students, faculty, staff, and community members attended the events facilitated by MESA.
111 heritage month events
52 sponsored events
4K+ attendees at MESA events
7 Student Life units involved
14 academic units involved
11 student orgs involved
Stories are good medicine: My
36-year overnight success story
MESA and several academic departments and schools including the Rackham Graduate School, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Center for Education of Women+, and the Department of English Language and Literature, joint force to invite back to campus the #1 New York Times BestSelling author Angeline Boulley to talk about her story and writing journey after the release of her second book, Warrior Girl Unearthed. Her debut work, Firekeeper’s Daughter, was named one of the top 100 young adult novels of all time by Time magazine in addition to being the NYT Best Seller and won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Novel in 2022. She, a Chippewa (Ojibwe) author, has worked to improve education for Indigenous children and advocated for increased representation of Native American characters in literature. Her story and presence during the Native American Heritage Month celebration not only further brought Native American visibility to the University of Michigan and
the Ann Arbor community, but also inspired the audience to read.
“I am just so grateful that my parents gave us the gift, the best gift, which is the freedom to read .”
ANGELINE BOULLEY
The intersection of identities and experiences
This year under the theme “¡Aquí Estamos: Una Celebración de Comunidad, Orgullo y Vida! – We Are Here: A Celebration of Community, Pride, and Life!” served as a powerful affirmation of presence and resilience. The Latinx Heritage Month Planning Committee featured keynote speaker Sonora Reyes, a National Bestselling author of The Lesbiana’s Guide
to Catholic School and the young adult novel The Luis Ortega Survival Club, whose personal life and writing career celebrates the intersectionality of identities such as LGBTQ+, Afro-Latinx, Indigenous, and disabilities, and more.
Black creativity and expression
The Black History Month Planning Committee this year sponsored and coordinated 17 events, and received an additional 26 program submissions from various entities across campus who hosted events to commemorate Black History Month. Under the theme “Empowering Generations: Past, Present, and Future,” and a sub-theme of “Black Creativity and Expression,” the Black History Month opening ceremony embraced the essence of the theme by providing young Black students and professionals from a wide range of disciplines and industries a
platform and opportunity to share history, culture, and insight into navigating different spaces with their Blackness. Each expression is about reclaiming joy, pride, and confidence, and its transforming power. In partnership with many Black student organizations on campus, the event drew almost 500 people.
A conversation and reading with Hieu Minh Nguyen
When we center our students’ development by giving them healthy autonomy, the joy of learning and engaging, and the opportunity to create, we are often pleasantly surprised by not only the level of creativity but also the content that is relevant and important to them and their generation. This has always been the case, and again this year the Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month Planning Committee demonstrated
just that. Under the theme “Mine, All Mine: Sharing Our Love and Reclaiming What’s Ours,” they curated a dynamic program consisting of many events, touching on displacement, in a figurative and literal sense, and the solidarity we share with people, in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and out, as they navigate uncertainties. In their collective expression, “As we begin to reclaim the core of our identities, we hope our heritage month works to humanize our experiences and most poignant emotions.” “After all, we build and carry some of life’s most valuable possessions in our hearts; and through creative expression, activism, collaboration, and more, we hope that each individual walks away from our events feeling as though this heritage month was curated specifically for them.” Hieu Minh Nguyen, an award-winning Vietnamese American poet and author of a collection of poetry Not Hear and This Way to the Sugar spoke at one of the AA&PI Heritage Month events that MESA collaborated with the Spectrum Center, about his books that dealt with navigating intersectional identities, “I used poetry for the longest time to talk about my own life and how I wanted people to understand my story, but I realized I can also use poetry as a way to understand other people.”
Expressing Arab identity
A peer-led dialogue centered around Arab student experiences for students interested in reflecting on identity and building community is an integral part of learning. It is a powerful way to engage, support, and learn; however, it is not always easy and it requires some skills and strategies to make it effective and meaningful. This year, MESA’s Arab Heritage Month Planning Committee collaborated with the Program for InterGroup Relations (IGR) to offer facilitated space for such engagement and support. 28 students showed up to share not only stories, self-examination, and discovery, but also intellectual relationships. It was a meaningful experience as we’ve observed that moving forward we hope to maintain such collaboration for every Heritage Month program.
LIVING OUR MISSION & VISION
Education
MESA strives to incorporate opportunities for learning in many ways throughout all our themes of celebration, education, and social capital. Through our educational engagement opportunities, we hope that students increase their knowledge and awareness of identity and its impact on self, others, and the community. Using a social justice framework and holding a lens of race and ethnicity we help students grow the knowledge and skills needed to navigate diverse environments.
Anti-Racism & Coalition Building Teach-In
The MESA Anti-Racism and Coalition Building Teach-In is in its sixth year. Peer Inclusive Education (PIE) team members facilitate this peer-led teachin program. Using guided facilitation rooted in dialogic pedagogy, the PIE team engages their peers with analytical frameworks for examining systemic cultural, social, economic, and political forces in the community. Additionally, there is individual reflection with the hope of contributing to social changes by raising critical consciousness, understanding the
opportunity for action, and how resources can be distributed.
50 teach-ins were delivered to a total of 1,596 students in AY 23-24. Those who responded to the qualitative data of the teach-in have expressed an understanding of how social identities (not only just race, but other social identities) shape one’s lived experience including their own, and commit to the continued learning of this complex social issues that continue to shape them, their community, and the community at large.
Based on the 23-24 Evaluation, 394 participants provided feedback on their experiences and learning with the Anti-Racism Teach-In. 50
agreed that they “understand the difference between non-racism and anti-racism.”
agreed that attending “has helped me to recognize how racism has been internalized in my daily life.”
felt their “organization is better prepared to apply the strategies discussed in their workshop”
felt their “organization benefited from the dialogues throughout the workshop”
1.6K
From our participants
“I found that this teach-in was something our organization needed and it inspired me to continue with anti-racism work.”
“I found that this teachin was something our organization needed and it inspired me to continue with anti-racism work.”
TEACH-IN PARTICIPANT
“I find the act of spreading knowledge, awareness, and strategies to combat racism very meaningful. Bringing that to the group and allowing us to converse and learn from one another is very important to me.”
“This topic can be very uncomfortable to talk about and you [all] did a great job creating an environment to talk about these issues (smiling face).”
“I appreciated the teach-in and I felt like I learned something, or at least grew some anti-racist skills.”
“I was very impressed with this teach-in and think this is the most honest and intelligent conversation I’ve ever had about race. Definitely worthwhile!”
Student-led conferences
Student-led conferences have been one of the key areas that MESA utilizes to facilitate learning opportunities for students. It is directly linked to empowerment for students to advocate for their own learning and issues that are important to them. The conferences also provide opportunities for students to prepare, reflect on, and discuss evidence of their learning and growth through engagement in various workshops, dialogues, and community-building activities.
At the heart of MESA’s efforts is that every one of our students will be life-long active participants in their education with a strong sense of self and community rather than passive consumers of information. Student-led conferences are integral to realizing this mission from the lens of race and ethnicity.
4 student-led conferences
2 X
679 attendees total 145%
APIA High School Conference (HSC)
A MESA-sponsored event led by UAAO’s HSC Planning Committee, the High School Conference (HSC) is a free, oneday conference held at the University of Michigan that aims to help high school students explore and affirm their identities, inspire them to become leaders in their community, and provide insight into college life.
SAAN Annual Conference
100 attendees AT HSC
This year, the theme for the conference was “Spotlight on AsAm: Lights, Camera, Action!” Through the conference, participants had the opportunity to learn more about themselves and their communities by engaging with a multitude of topics related to identity and self-reflection, particularly through the media lens as 2023 had great milestones with the AsAm community. The conference also highlights a variety of performances from U-M’s very own AsAm organizations.
The high school conference welcomed 100 attendees (of 118 registrations), with 14 small group leaders, 20 performers, and five workshops.
Under the theme “Ignite: Fueling Bonds, Catalyzing Change” SAAN continued to engage and educate the community to promote social justice with a diverse and inclusive South Asian lens. As a continuing theme from last year’s conference, they aimed to empower attendees to dismantle the physical and social barriers within the South Asian community and beyond to create sustainable change through meaningful relationships.
146 attendees AT SAAN
SAAN welcomed 146 attendees (of 216 registrations) and offered five workshops with guest speakers.
Midwest Asian American Student Union Conference
In partnership with UAAO and the MAASU national organization, we welcomed the Midwest Asian American Student Union (MAASU) back to the Ann Arbor campus after seven years. The conference theme “Transforming Our Futures: Storytelling and the Pathway towards Generational Change & Healing,” suggested a focus on the power of storytelling as a tool for bringing about positive change and healing in individuals, communities, and societies across the world. The conference drew 350 students, faculty, staff, and community members from 26 colleges and universities across the Midwest to the Ann Arbor campus between April 5th-7th, during which two awardwinning documentary films were screened, followed by panel discussions with casts and producers, and additional selected 45 workshops and presentations that aligned with the conference theme.
TASI Conference
Inspired by Tongan scholar Epeli Hau‘ofa and his work “Our Sea of Islands,” the Oceania Student Association at the University of Michigan hosted its first-ever conference “TASI,” seeking to unite the Pacific Islander community in and around the Midwest. Tasi means one (Samoan) ocean (CHamoru) - something that resonates with our PI students’ experiences being many miles away from the places we call home. The conference drew Pacific Islander students and community members from as far as Purdue and Wayne State University.
The conference included workshops focused on movement, creative expression, community building, and wellness. TASI brought together 83 students and community members for a collection of four workshops.
83 attendees AT TASI
350 attendees AT MAASU
LIVING OUR MISSION & VISION
Building social capital
Building social capital matters. Students learn to recognize, build, and then amplify their social capital and make a difference throughout their college career. Social capital is more than the conventional combination of hard and soft skills. It is a complex web that includes widening strong supportive networks, access to relevant and essential information, and intentional guidance for realistic goal setting to develop a deeper sense of agency and social belonging as they navigate college life and beyond. MESA’s grants, welcome, and mentoring programs are designed to provide such opportunities for the students to be effective in improving social and academic engagement. In addition, focus on agency building that allows for continued achievement.
MESA welcome programs
239
welcome prog. attendees
ALMA
The ALMA welcome program is a partnership between MESA and La Casa. During the four-day program, participants attended community building (Rope Course) events, resources scavenger hunts, discussion panels, and workshops further exploring personal and social identities, and reflections, while engaging in dialogue topics relating to the Latinx experiences.
• 76 participants completed the four day program
• 8 core members
• 36 La Casa and ALMA alum volunteers
64 volunteer engagements
SALAM
SALAM is a partnership between the Arab Student Association and the Office of Multi-Ethnic Students Affairs (MESA). This three-day program is for incoming first and transfer students to build community, learn about campus resources, and connect with one another about the Arab student experience.
• 94 participants completed the three-day program
• 8 core members
• 29 ASA and SALAM alum student volunteers
GOAAL
Growing Oceanic and Asian American Leader at Michigan had nine core members from the United Asian American Organization (UAAO) and Oceanic Student Association. They worked closely together to offer their first social event to welcome incoming students who are interested in the AA and PI community, resources, and network of support on campus. Through a student panel event and UAAO presentation, they explore and critically think about identity, cross-group coalition building, and leadership.
• 39 participants attended
• 6 core members
• 8 volunteers
NASW
The Native American Student Welcome (NASW) is a program offered to all incoming first-year and transfer students who would like to learn about and connect with Native American students, faculty, and staff at the U-M. In partnership with the Native American Student Association, this program offers opportunities to build community, inform their knowledge of campus support, and deepen their learning of Native identity. The program this year included a trip to Michigan’s upper peninsula where students visited the University of Michigan Biostation, attended Pow-wow and met with Secretary Deb Haaland during her talk about the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative she established in 2021.
• 29 participants attended
• 5 core members
• 10 volunteers
• 65 community members
Mentoring
Supporting Incoming Black Students (SIBS) is the only mentoring program at the University of Michigan that mainly focuses on social, cultural, and community building. We believe that fostering community and a sense of belonging contributes to their academic performance, retention, and well-being. This program has grown steadily over the past four years and both structure and organization continue to improve.
22 events hosted
61 Big SIBS UPPER YEARS
64 Little SIBS FIRST YEARS
From our participants—What does it look like to live out what you have learned from experiencing this event/program?
“Advocating and standing up for what you believe in and living in a caring and ever-growing community.”
“To implement all the career and academic advice I’ve received and to do it alongside the people I’ve met and created close friendships with.”
“A sense of belonging and support.”
“I think Alma was a great experience to get to know people that belong to the same community, and learn about the Latinx organizations on campus.”
Student org grants
MESA’s grant program plays a pivotal role in narrowing the equity gap for student organizations whose works and programs are not only aligned with MESA’s mission and vision but also contribute to DEI efforts on campus. Since multicultural student organization funding benchmarking was
122 grant apps received
completed in fall 2018, the grant program has steadily grown to become both robust and essential in supporting multicultural student organizations in their engagement, learning, and fostering a sense of community and belonging.
104 grants awarded
42 grants awarded in fall 2023 16%
62 grants awarded in winter 2024
208 pre/post advising sessions
13K+ grant event attendees
“[Our] event would quite literally have not been able to happen without MESA’s support.” GRANTEE
From our grantees
“Funding and support provided by MESA (from firsthand experience and from hearing from others) is crucial in the development and building social capital through race and ethnicity.”
GENAPA
“I learned that there are so many more organizations than I originally thought that are promoting diversity in campus.”
POSA
“I learned more about the marketing and advertising resources available for student organizations on campus.”
SOCIETY OF ASIAN SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS
“I heard a variety of events that MESA and OAMI has been able to fund and it’s incredible to have supporters like that on campus.”
LAMBDA THETA ALPHA LATIN SORORITY, INC.
“Our organization has struggled to find reliable funding for our events and have otherwise relied on the reimbursement funding system conducted through SOFC/CSG. MESA funded our largest event of the year, and with the room and AV equipment totaling hundreds of dollars, the event would quite literally have not been able to happen without MESA’s support.”
ANONYMOUS
“MESA’s mission aligns with the goals of our events and helps us create an engaging event by providing materials for activities and food.”
ANONYMOUS
Student organization advising
Many legacy student organizations have MESA as their sponsoring unit, or at least have an SSO event sponsored by MESA. Through that relationship, MESA provides advising and coaching to the leaders of those organizations as well as guiding them through budget responsibilities and university rules and regulations pertaining to liability and risk management.
Sponsored student organizations
• Black Student Union
• La Casa
• Native American Student Association
• Supporting Incoming Black Students
• South Asian Awareness Network
• Oceanic Student Organization
• Mixed at Michigan
• Caribbean Student Association
Voluntary student organizations with Sponsored Event Agreements through MESA
• UAAO
• Arab Student Association
Impact
This is the third and final year that MESA surveyed programmatic impacts on student experiences attending MESA events across three specific areas:
1. Academic performance
2. Current and future career
3. Civic engagement
86.8%
reported that the event/ program makes them feel a sense of community on campus.
81.7% reported that the event/ program enhances their civic and community engagement.
74.1% reported that they received information/knowledge from attending the event/program that can be applied in their academic experiences.
n=394
In their words
Some highlighted anonymous reflections when asked “What does it look like to live out what you have learned from experiencing this (MESA) event or program?”
“It looks like being more proactive about making a change and believing that I have the ability to produce a positive result in the world around me through effort.”
“Valuable lessons on how to show up authentically and ask for what you want. Also learned to give yourself grace and that there is no direct path to success.”
“Sharing what I learned with my classmates in class discussions or family back home.”
“To connect with others in my community through sharing experiences about our culture.”
“Both noticing the disparities that exist and actively attempting to correct them.”
“Being yourself unapologetically.”
“To give back to the community and be better than who I was yesterday.”
Staff highlights
Andrea Wilkerson
Promoted to assistant director in fall 2023 and received the Student Life Values in Action Award the following June
Dr. Krishna Han
Selected as a “Roots. Wounds. Words.” Literacy Fellow, a Literary Arts Revolution Fellowship Program for BIPOC Storytellers for his manuscript in progress “The Knot: An Anthropology of Self”
Dr. Nadia Bazzy
Became a clinical fellow for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
Giving Blueday
MESA and several student organizations participated in Giving Blueday—U-M’s annual day of giving—and garnered support from friends and alumnx.
43 total donors
$6.5K total raised
BREAKDOWN BY FUND
MESA gift fund: 12 donors
BSU: 28 donors
La Casa: 2 donors
NASA: 1 donor
Digital engagement
Social media: Focus on IG
Consistent use of Instagram’s collaborator function extended the reach of MESA’s messages through joint posts with the U-M flagship account, and accounts for Student Life, Spectrum Center, Trotter Multicultural Center, The Program on Intergroup Relations, and student organizations.
21K+ post likes on Instagram
1.9K followers on Instagram
Newsletter
MESA Notes is our newsletter for students and the campus community. It’s a core communication channel for MESA and heritage months at the University of Michigan. After a hiatus in 2022-23, the formerly monthly newsletter returned bi-weekly for 17 editions from August 2023 through April 2024. Our list remains very healthy, with our campaigns exceeding industry averages. Our 67% open rate far outpaces higher education industry benchmarks of 28-42%.
67% average open rate
In the news
MESA hosts opening ceremony for Latinx Heritage Month by Jonathan Sarasa, Constantina Perakis, and Jovanna Gallegos
October 3, 2023 | The Michigan Daily
Berkhofer Lecture brings Native American visibility to UMich by Ellen Drejza
November 3, 2023 | The Michigan Daily
Black Student Union hosts opening ceremony for Black History Month by Ellen Drejza
February 5, 2024 | The Michigan Daily
AAPI Heritage Month kicks off with art fair and celebration of culture by Audrey Shabelski
March 20, 2024 | The Michigan Daily
Poet Hieu Minh Nguyen speaks on his intersectional identities by Lyra Wilder
March 31, 2024 | The Michigan Daily
Pride Month at UMich kicks off with Queer Art Showcase by Audrey Shabelski
April 3, 2024 | The Michigan Daily
Acknowledgements
Professional staff
Dr. Nadia Bazzy
she/her Director
Dr. Krishna Han
he/him
Associate Director Andrea Wilkerson
she/her
Assistant Director
Jamie Carter
she/her
Program Manager
Ruby Flores Camacho
she/her
Program Manager
Nick Pfost
he/they
Communications Strategist
Irma Shepard
she/her
Office Assistant
Pa Houa Xiong
she/they
Program Manager
“Love is an action, never simply a feeling. Love is necessary work and it is in love that we learn to resist, thrive, and lead under any circumstances.”
bell hooks
Woods; Michael J. Behm, Grand Blanc; Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor; Paul W. Brown, Ann Arbor; Sarah Hubbard, Okemos; Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms; Ron Weiser, Ann Arbor; Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor; Santa J. Ono (ex officio)
