Our Vision

Honoring and reaching all Asian American communities on campus

We do this by developing, discipling, and empowering distinctly Asian American Christian leaders - students, faculty, staff, and volunteers.

Our team

Our history

Our Team

Get to know the team behind AAM

Behind every story and chapter are people who care deeply. Meet the staff and leaders who serve, guide, and walk with our community.

Rev. Sabrina Chan

National Ministry Director

James Ho

Area Ministry Director

Sara Kwon

Associate National Director

Melissa Casiano-Sebastian

National Pilipino American Coordinator

Jessica Cheng

Associate Director

La Thao

National S.East Asian Min. Coordinator

Angela Cho

Associate Director

Timothy Lin

Regional Ministry Director

1979

1993

2001

2003

2009

1979

1993

2001

2003

2009

Establishing

Asian American Ministry (AAM) owes its existence to pioneers like Nina Lau-Branson and Jeanette Yep, the first national leaders of what would become AAM. Nina became the first coordinator of what was then called Asian American Ministry Fellowship in 1979. By 1980, she led a network of 12 Asian American staff and almost 700 Asian American students. In 1983, Jeanette was appointed the coordinator and continued to push the ministry forward. Through their leadership, InterVarsity became a fellowship that intentionally cared for and empowered Asian American staff and students. But Asian Americans were reaching college campuses before AAM even started: in 1948, Gwen was the first full time Asian American staff in InterVarsity and went on to plant ministries in Hawai’i, the Philippines, and other parts of Asia. Her commitment to raising up local leadership is a legacy that continues to shape AAM today.

Empowering

Paul Tokunaga was appointed the Asian American Ministries Coordinator in 1993 and gathered the first Asian American Leadership Team to develop plans focused on the next generation of Asian American leaders. This resulted in a national Asian American Staff Conference specifically designed to develop Asian American staff in 1996, an in-house resource for all staff working with Asian American students called Developing Asian American Leaders in 1998, and the Daniel Project, an executive leadership development program for young Asian American staff. The 1990s saw rapid growth in Asian American students on campus and the ministry grew to over 160 staff and 4600 students. In recognition of the need for a more sustained focus towards Asian American ministry development, the Asian American Ministries Coordinator role, which had been a part time position, became a full time role.

Expanding

n the early 2000s, AAM, which was largely East Asian, started to sense the invitation to reach communities beyond itself. James Choung, who became the National Director of Asian American Ministries in 2009, decided to focus on evangelistic and multiethnic ministry. In 2010, to continue to learn more about reaching non-Christian Asian Americans, the national leadership of five major Asian American campus ministries gathered for the Asian American Evangelism Symposium.   During this time, there were emerging ministries in the South Asian, Pilipino, and Hmong student communities, and student leadership conferences were hosted by staff leaders in these communities. The South Asian Leadership Institute was held in 2008 and 2011, a Pilipino student leadership institute called KaLI was held in 2013, and the annual Hmong Christian College Conference was started in 2005.

Deepening

Beginning in the mid 2010s, under the leadership of Joe Ho who became National Director in 2013, AAM began to recognize that the biggest question that Asian Americans were asking on campus was of what to do after graduation. As a result, AAM developed resources that helped Asian American students chart a faithful way forward between their own desires, societal and family pressures, and God’s calling in their vocational choices. A key innovation during this time was the AAM Vocation Conference, a scalable and replicable student “conference in a box”. The focus on multiethnic ministry development within AAM continued with the establishment of specific funds that would help sustain the burgeoning student movements in the South Asian, Southeast Asian, Pilipino communities.

Focusing

Sabrina Chan became National Director in 2017 and AAM turned its attention towards cultivating focused spaces for Asian American students. This came out of a realization that the most important ingredient in Asian American ministry development was simply being able to gather together. The staff leadership of Asian American chapters started to receive coordinated and sustained training and development for the first time and a greater emphasis was placed on creating contextualized resources for Asian American ministry. The student movements in the South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pilipino communities also became fully formed ministries, with their own coordinators and directors. AAM continues to grow and, at present, 260 Asian American staff serve in InterVarsity and 5,111 Asian American students are involved in chapters.

Our Locations

Where you'll find us