UMass Lowell Japanese Student Association (UMLJSA)

2022 Honorable Mention

Mina Lam, a junior business administration major, noticed that there were no organizations on campus that focused on Japanese culture and knew some people who were interested in learning and meeting others with similar interests. In April 2021, she founded the UMass Lowell Japanese Student Association (UML JSA) and recruited members to join her Executive Board to assist with operations.

UMass Lowell Japanese Student Association (UML JSA) is a student organization that aspires to promote greater awareness of Japanese culture throughout the University of Massachusetts Lowell community. Since the club was created in April 2021, the community organization has made a lot of progress such as collaborating with the Asian cultural clubs (Cambodian American Student Association, Korean Student Association, Vietnamese Student Association, South Asian Student Association, The Filipino Club, and Student Association of Chinese Americans) for Night Market and Asian Night, as well as with the UMass Boston Japanese Language Club. UML JSA is part of the New England Japanese Intercollegiate Network (N-JIN) and has helped the group organize events, like Undoukai (Japanese sports festival), which took place at Boston University. Through this connection, members of UML JSA can meet other students from UMass Boston, Northeastern University, Boston College, Tufts University, and many more colleges. At the 2022 DifferenceMaker $50K Idea Challenge, UML JSA was awarded the $2000 Honorable Mention award. With the funding, the team plans to buy apparel for their members, purchase materials to use at their general meetings, and organize more community events to allow students to meet others from different universities.