Shippensburg University’s Asian American Pacific Islander Organization (AAPIO) celebrated “Everything AAPIO” at the 2024 AAPIO Extravaganza on Friday night.
This annual celebration marked the final AAPIO event of the year, which was bittersweet as executive board members Jeremy Satyawan Putra and Skylar Walder are graduating this May. Satyawan Putra and Walder revitalized AAPIO in 2020, and this was the second extravaganza AAPIO has held since.
Friday night was full of vendors, performances and food that encompassed the theme for this year’s extravaganza, “Everything AAPIO.”
Tampa Taiko was the first performance of the night. Ron Collins, managing director of Tampa Taiko, showcased his skills on the drums while educating the audience on the history of Taiko drums. Eventually, Collins even invited audience members to the stage to learn songs with him.
As attendees indulged in the event’s impressive catering, featuring traditional foods such as lumpia, sushi, and even Thai boba tea.
While students chowed down, the GVCS Broadfording demonstration team took to the stage to entertain the audience with the martial art of Tae Kwon Do. This demonstration was full of non-stop action and lots of broken wooden boards, leaving the audience entranced, earning many large rounds of applause from the audience.
Island Style Luau Entertainment closed out the event with a combination of lessons in both dance and history. Both performers showcased their hula dancing abilities, and audience members were then encouraged to gather to the front to learn some moves. After an engaging and humorous twist on the classic Cupid Shuffle line dance, the extravaganza came to an end.
Despite being over schedule, the executive board members of AAPIO proceeded to make their final remarks and passed the microphone to the director of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA), Ms. Diane Jefferson.
“We want to say thank you to one of the finest executive boards on this campus, to one of the finest organizations on campus,” Jefferson said. “This year you took this organization to a brand-new height, and I am so proud of all of the work that you all have done.”
Visit @shipaapio on Instagram to stay updated on future AAPIO events.
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