The Need

In 2023, 24.8 million Americans or 7% of the total US population identified as “Asian”. Amongst these “Asian Americans”, more than half are foreign born (55%), have a bachelor’s degree or more (56%) and earn a median household income of $105,600 per year (Krogstad and Im, 2025).

However, the assumption that these achievements mean Asian Americans have “successfully integrated” into mainstream American society is part of the long-lived  “Model Minority Myth” (MMM) which has served to obfuscate ongoing challenges and struggles faced by long term and newly arrived Asian immigrants, refugees, and low income or first generation households (Walton and Truong, 2023). The MMM’s ahistorical, colorblind approach erases the diversity of Asian American communities and holds complex personal, familial, and public narratives to a single expectation of exceptionalism, often dismissing Asian American concerns about racial inequality (Yu, 2006).

More than two dozen ethnicities with multiple countries of origin are huddled under the Asian American umbrella (Krogstad and Im, 2025). Disaggregation of data is critical to visibility, equity, and justice, especially as pertains to educational achievement. 

For example, Hmong (26%), Lao (18%), Cambodian (22%), and Burmese (23%) students have consistently fallen behind their peers in educational achievement (Krogstad and Im, 2025).  Afghan, Chin, Iu Mien, Karen, and Tibetan Americans — also heavily impacted by refugee, exile, and resettlement experiences — face similar barriers in college access, preparedness, and success. 

Limited access to culturally competent advising, tailored academic development, and college literacy resources magnifies these challenges. First-generation and low-income Asian American students often lack mentorship in navigating financial aid, admissions requirements, and college fit — crucial elements in the path to higher education (Ngo and Lee, 2007). Standardized test-prep and generic counseling fail to address lived realities shaped by displacement, precarious labor, and multilingual identity (Yosso, 2005).

As such, AASPIRES serves underrepresented Asian American students who also identify as refugees, are asylum seeking, and/or first generation and/or low-income by providing both academic, professional, and personal support services. AASPIRES students are scholars — not stereotypes. 

Our organization ensures that underrepresented Asian American youth and young professionals, including those from historically refugee and low-visibility communities, can access educational futures aligned with their full brilliance, cultural strengths, and aspirations. We honor the intellectual power of storytelling, the necessity of culturally sustaining pedagogy, and the transformative impact of individualized support (Yosso, 2005).

College access, when humanized, becomes not just possible — but empowering.