Every fall, MAASU hosts a Leadership Summit, catered to 150-200 students and every spring, MAASU hosts a Spring Conference, accommodating over 700 attendees.
These conferences bring to light the history, challenges, and initiatives that the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American community faces. Each year, these conferences are hosted at different schools, allowing for students around the Midwest to travel, explore, and gain a further understanding of the resources that their peers have. In addition, each host school showcases the talent of its students and local community through performances, workshops, and keynotes. Each conference closes with a banquet, and the Spring Conference also recognizes particular members in the community for their outstanding work in service and leadership.
For the 2023-2024 school year, our Leadership Summit will take place Nov. 10-12, 2023 at Wichita State University, and our Spring Conference will take place April 5-7, 2023 at the University of Michigan.
Because the Leadership Summit caters to a smaller group of students, the aim of this Summit is to really focus on leadership development. While the focus is on leadership, the Summit still offers a spectrum of different workshops to capture the wide range of interests of the MAASU student network. A unique aspect of Leadership Summit is connecting organization presidents with each other; typically, presidents are invited to a Presidents’ Council during one of the workshop sessions. All attendees are welcome to register for workshops ranging from professional networking to leadership style training.
Attendance for Spring Conference ranges from 700 to over 1,000 attendees and has a broader focus. It builds off the themes of leadership development from the Leadership Summit, and also includes workshops on understanding identity, engaging in advocacy and more. Spring Conference is MAASU’s largest event of the year and a fantastic opportunity for students to build networks with one another as they prepare for the coming year. Soon-to-be graduates are also offered professional outreach opportunities to prepare for life after graduation.