AANHPI Heritage Month, also known as Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, is being celebrated throughout May with events, educational opportunities and cultural programming at both Niles West and across the Chicagoland area. AANHPI Heritage Month recognizes the history, cultures and contributions of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in the United States.

The Niles West PASA club, also known as the Pan-Asian Students Association, sent a school wide calender, highlighting all events happening this month. Student organizations, including Bollywest, Central Asian Student Association, Chinese Club, Filipino Club, Japanese-Anime Club, Korean Club, South Asian Student Association and Vietnamese Student Association, offer students opportunities to celebrate their cultures and build community throughout the school year.

Students can also explore AANHPI history through courses such as Asian American Studies and Asian American Literature, which highlight perspectives often overlooked in traditional classes. Asian American Studies teacher John Lee thinks the timing is unfortunate with AP tests and finals, but celebrates it in other ways.

“Because it’s the last month of our school year, it often goes overlooked, and our school doesn’t really highlight it as much,” Lee said. “I celebrate by taking time to learn about Asian American history figures.”

Students part of these cultural clubs are interested in sharing their culture with other students. Sophomore and board member of Filipino Club Rickymae Cabreros wants other students at West to attend meetings and learn about Filipino culture.

“I think we should encourage students to be aware of why the school is so diverse and why we have different cultural clubs,” Cabreros said. “For instance, as a board member of the Filipino club, I really want non-Filipinos to also come to our meetings so we can introduce ourselves and share our unique culture.”

Some students, like many freshmen, haven’t had exposure to other Asian cultures and are interested in learning about them, like Freshman Khadijah Hussain. 

“I became interested in learning about other cultures since there are so many different people at school and after taking AP world,” she said.

Chances to celebrate don’t stop at school, however. The 2026 AAPI Heritage Month Festival in Wilmette featured cultural performances and food. The National Cambodian Heritage Museum offers students a chance to learn about Cambodian American history, which is also a museum that the Asian American Studies and Literature classes take a field trip to every year. Celebrating at home can be done by visiting the AAPI page on the Chicago.gov website, which will be displayed all month.