Last Thursday, the 16th annual Stanford Asian American Awards were presented to 13 recipients — which included faculty, staff, alumni and students — during a ceremony at Paul Brest Hall in Munger. The ceremony included not only speeches from the award recipients but also performances from various organizations of Asian/Pacific Islander (API)-identified groups.

The Stanford Asian American Awards are given to individuals every year to recognize award recipients for their service, achievement and dedication. These recipients are nominated through various means throughout the Stanford community and are finally selected by members of an advisory board.

The 2015 faculty and staff awards were given to Mindie Nguyen, associate professor of medicine and the director of the hepatology clerkship in the Department of Medicine, Cherry Cachero, a senior assistant director of admission at the Office of Undergraduate Admission and Manju Smith, financial management analyst at Stanford and a board member of the Asian Staff Forum.

This year’s alumni award was presented to Gary Mukai M.A. ’81, director of the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE).

Three graduate students — Yanwen Wu M.S. ’15, Chris Suh, fifth-year student in the Department of History and Alyssa Fu Ph.D. ’15 — and six undergraduate students — Katherine Nasol ’15, Sunli Kim ’15, Garima Sharma ’15,  Asia Chiao ’15, Tony Tran ’15 and James Huynh ’15 — were awarded and their specific achievements were recognized during the ceremony.

Performances this year included a musical score from The Asian American Theater Project, a dance from Kayumanggi and a piece from The Stanford Chinese Music Ensemble.

Contact Catherine Zaw at czaw13 ‘at’ stanford.edu.