FAWKES: A Fiercely Cultural Sorority at the University of Denver

By Amy Wagner on October 30, 2012

On Monday night, the campus group Fierce Asian Women Keeping Each Other Strong (FAWKES) hosted a fundraiser at Ben & Jerry’s that I attended. The proceeds of this event went to travel costs for their national conference. While munching on my tasty treat, I interviewed Lena Chhay, one of the founders of the group.

FAWKES is a “group of girls pushing for an Asian-interest sorority on DU’s campus to foster sisterhood, a closer DU community, and philanthropic support to local charities,” as it states on their Facebook page. In addition to Lena, there are twelve other founding members: Linda Le, Chemka Tsaschikher, Moral Masuoka, Katrina Yoshida, Alexis Nguyen, Karen Huang, Younsung Park, Jen Lee, Joie Ha, Susanna Park, Sophia Man, and Victoria Lam. Sujie Kim, a graduate student and Inclusive Excellence Fellow at the Center for Multicultural Excellence, is their advisor.

Photo from the DU FAWKES Interest Group Facebook page

“FAWKES was founded because the women in our group felt like there was something missing in the University of Denver community,” Lena says. A few of the now-members were impressed by the activities of the two multicultural Greek sororities on the DU campus, and even joked that they should start an Asian sorority. Everything changed when Lena and another founding member went to an event hosted by an Asian-interest sorority at CU Boulder. It was precisely at that moment, she says, when “we instantly fell in love with the idea that DU could have an Asian community this strong. DU could have a group that brings together women and unites them under a cause.”

Although the name of this organization specifically refers to Asian women, Lena wishes for it to be known that FAWKES is a multicultural organization. “We are looking for women who are passionate about their community, have the fire to make a difference, and share similar values.” In order to make themselves known, to foster a community, and in the spirit of fundraising, FAWKES hosts many events around campus as well as in the surrounding community.

On October 30^th at 6:30PM in Davis Auditorium (located in Sturm Hall), DUPB special events committee is partnering with FAWKES to bring Ali Wong, an Asian-American comedienne, to DU. “I think this is really special because the comedic industry is extremely male-dominated,” Lena says.

In addition, they have planned a fundraiser at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in which the members will wrap books to raise money for the national conference. The Cultural Ball will be hosted by FAWKES as well; it is currently scheduled for January 5th. This event will celebrate cultural diversity not only throughout DU’s campus, but also in Colorado. Lena promises that there will be “a wide variety of foods and their origins, along with traditional dances of certain cultures from around the world.” This event will be a fundraiser for an undecided charity.

FAWKES has many core values that are important to the organization as a whole, but culture is arguably one of the most important. As Lena enthusiastically says, “we all care about culture, and believe [that] cultural awareness and diversity [are] beautiful to celebrate!” This sentiment is one we all can, and should, take to heart.