Adithya Raviprakash, events coordinator for the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE), works on engineering homework in Room 1101 of the Driftmier Engineering Center on Feb. 8, 2024. (Photo/Ethan Wilcox)
By Ethan Wilcox
Adithya Raviprakash, a second-year electrical engineering student from Cumming, Georgia, is the events coordinator for the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE), an organization that prepares Asians in STEM for a professional career.
Q: Is there any particular event from your time with SASE that has stood out to you, such as a national convention?
A: So I’ve only been to the one national SASE National Convention, which was in Atlanta this past October. There’s a lot of people who are not just from colleges, there are also like people who are from, like, big, big national companies. A lot of people of Asian heritage fail to reach that upper level, like management and higher management. They try to promote the fact that people of Asian heritage are just as capable as any other person.
Q: SASE co-founder Tom Fernandez said that a study from the Center for Work-Life Policy says that Asian employees have been deemed unassertive and lacked leadership potential. How does SASE work to break these stereotypes?
A: A lot of the times we do a bunch of professional events, such as helping out with interviews, elevator pitches and also helping with our resume workshops. Those things land you those higher roles. From what I’ve heard from a lot of recruiters, is that they tend to love University of Georgia students because we know how to do well in interviews and all that.
Q: SASE on paper seems, of course, very oriented toward Asian students and people interested in that field, do you try to tailor events toward other groups as well, or is the focus mostly on Asian students?
A: It’s not just oriented around people of Asian heritage, but it’s like any other organization. We try to promote the people who fall within our category, because they’re the ones who are falling behind more than the other people. SASE as a whole is very, very inclusive. But, we try to make sure that our people are being represented.
Q: SASE is inclusive of all Asian groups. What steps are taken to ensure that all of them are also represented within the organization?
A: We try to make sure that we have events that are tailored towards all different cultures in the pan-Asian culture. So for example, we celebrate Diwali, Mid-Autumn Festival and then we also celebrate part of the festival of Ramadan.
Q: What are your goals in regards to maintaining a stable membership?
A: We’re actually getting a lot more people to our cultural events as opposed to our professional events. I want to make sure that both sides start to even out, because there’s way more diversity in who gets accepted. Our entire goal as an org (organization) is to promote professionalism and all that. And if we don’t do that, then how are we different than like the Asian American Student Association?
Q: Is there anything at all that you want to say or that I should know?
A: I’ve seen a lot of the news where like, diversity, equity and inclusion is being threatened by governments and all that. And I want to close off on saying that these orgs are very important, because they promote stuff that’s not necessarily there already. And so, like SASE, there’s like a bunch of different orgs that promote the, hey, we need more people to be a part of the higher management, like CEOs and all that. I think that personally, DEI has benefitted the state of Georgia way more than not having it.
Comments trimmed for length and clarity.
Why I Wrote the Story:
I met Adithya Raviprakash at Georgia’s Engagement Fair, where he explained the mission and goals of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers to me. I thought he would be a strong source for the Diversity and Equity beat due to his knowledge of Asian culture, and as events coordinator, he would have unique insight on what goes into making decisions for a club at the university.