Shippensburg University’s Asian American Pacific Islander Organization (AAPIO) chapter hosted Winter Karaoke in McFeely’s Coffeehouse on Nov. 19, bringing chapter members and students together for an hour of music and singing.
Karaoke has been a marquee event of AAPIO’s yearly agenda, paralleling the organization’s “hope to educate and unify students that have diverse backgrounds, creating a welcoming community.”
Several attendees performed, leading with Denise Rodriguez, who sang Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” and “Beauty and the Beat.”
Following Rodriguez, chapter president Theo Campomanes sang “Yeah Glo!” by GloRilla.
Other performances included Megan Sawka and Mara Eberle, who performed a duet of “Champagne” by Karen Olivo and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Sofia Baldwin performed “The End” by My Chemical Romance.
Emily Boger sang three times, including a duet with Dave Thomson to “All the Small Things” by Blink-182.
Boger also sang “I Found” by Amber Run and “Get Down” by SIX.
“‘I Found’ is a very close song to me,” Boger said. “It has some heartbreak in it but also some new beginnings in the song. SIX is my favorite musical so far, and ‘Get Down’ is a very powerful song, with women standing up for themselves and pretty much telling her side of the story.”
Elisa Reitman is AAPIO’s secretary and has been with the organization since her freshman year. After the event, she said, “I think it was really successful with how everyone enjoyed singing and enjoyed showing out.”
Reitman performed “From the Start” from Laufey and chose the song because Laufey is an Asian jazz artist.
“I thought having that representation would be really cool,” she said.
Campomanes reacted to Winter Karaoke’s success and commended his organization’s efforts to organize an event open to the campus community.
“I’m pretty satisfied and happy that we were able to turn something that was always just a thought in our general meetings into something that not only we as a student organization can enjoy, but also other students of the university,” Campomanes said.
Campomanes also thanked Shippensburg University’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) [LR1] chapter and Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA) for assisting the chapter with organizing and promoting the event.
Students interested in Shippensburg University’s AAPIO chapter are encouraged to follow their Instagram account @shipaapio.
The Slate welcomes thoughtful discussion on all of our stories, but please keep comments civil and on-topic. Read our full guidelines here.