In the fall of my first quarter at UCLA I decided to expand my knowledge of the Japanese American community in a fun, explorative way: the Nikkei Student Union (NSU). NSU is a student organization that places an emphasis on raising awareness for the Japanese American culture. Even though we are a Japanese American based club, a fair amount of our members are of diverse ethnic backgrounds. We welcome and seek to connect individuals with the common JA interest through various social events and sports activities/tournaments as well as development of leadership skills. One of our culminating events is our annual Culture Night, which addresses the Japanese American history and issues, both past and current, in order to promote both the culture and political awareness.

In addition to educating the UCLA community we continue the vision of the founders by maintaining a strong link and dedication to the community. We actively participate in the community, in Little Tokyo and beyond, in such projects as the Little Tokyo Health Fair, Chibi-K Fun Run, and more. In addition, in this past year we initiated one of our own volunteer program called Project Hashi, which bridges the connections between our students and the community based organizations located in Little Tokyo.

This collection is composed of photographs taken from September 2008 to June 2009. For more information about the UCLA Nikkei Student Union visit www.nikkeibruins.org