CENTRAL AMERICAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION (CASA)
The Central American Student Association at UT - Austin (CASA) is UT’s premier student organization that celebrates and promotes Central American (CA) culture and informs on issues affecting Central America. We provide resources for students to learn about our heritage and celebrate the aspects that makes Central America unique. Please help the Central American Student Association at UT fundraise to continue our network of support and awareness.
Help Raise Awareness on Issues Affecting Central Americans - We host biweekly meetings where we inform members on issues, such as as the political state of Nicaragua, the Caravan Crisis, and TPS. In order to host a successful meeting, we need funding. The funding is allocated towards printing informational flyers, hosting recruitment events, and helping our goal to start a scholarship fund for students of Central American heritage.
Celebrating Food - We retain and share our culture through food. Most meetings we hold have an array of fresh made Central American snacks like aguas frescas and baleadas. Both the flavor of familiar foods and process to make them is important to us, so we nurture this with our annual Pupusa workshop. The workshop allows students to have hands on experience making the traditional Salvadoran dish. Sometimes we sell our foods to fundraise our projects.
Engaging in Art - Appreciating Central American art is an important way to understand the Central American experience. We engage in art by member led initiatives to share work by contemporary Central American artists and even make our own. In the past, we have done our own versions of ancient Mayan art to connect with our indigenous American roots.
Freshmen Welcome - CASA remembers how overwhelming starting at UT can be, so we’ve made it a point to host events at freshmen orientation to help ease the transition. Last summer, we hosted a widely successful Latin Dancing Night at freshmen orientation with fresh made fried plantains to greet all incoming students and make ourselves especially available for Central American students looking for somewhere to fit in.
Peer support - Fostering a sense of community is essential at a school of over 50,000 people. The Central American student association has created a place of support for our members to connect by cultural background, common interest, involvement in the community, and close knit friendships. We do not charge member fees so there is no barrier to entry for anyone that wants to be a part of our community. The extent that our association has grown since its founding only 3 years ago has proven this was a niche students wanted filled
