Passersby in the Cesar Chavez Student Center might have heard the sounds of Britney Spears, Hawaiian hula music, Alicia Keyes, and ethnic music flow from Jack Adams Hall on a recent Monday evening.

The music came from the “Asian American Star Search,” a two-hour talent show of traditional Asian cultural dances and contemporary artists.

Michelle Chan, Therese Marzan, Joanna Umali and Ellenor Li – Asian Student Union club interns at SF State – and club volunteers spent less than a month coordinating the event.

About 100 attendees were treated to three rounds of dancing, singing, and specialty acts, including an acoustic version of John Mayer’s “Why Georgia” and a Thai New Year dance. There were five judges comprised of Asian-American studies instructors and Bay Area residents. Before the judges announced winners, the cultural fashion show ended the night of events.

“I was really impressed,” said Eric Mar, an Asian-American studies and Ethnic Studies instructor at SF State who judged the event. “The cultural dances made me proud. It was a good mix of tradition and cutting edge music and art.”

The cultural fashion show included Japanese kimonos, Thai sarongs, and Chinese cheongsams, among other clothes from Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

On the Tuesday before the show, interns Li and Chan scrambled to put up fliers in the psychology building and gym before they returned to their ASU meeting. None of the girls knew each other prior to joining ASU, except Li and Marzan who went to the same high school but were not friends. But by the way they laugh and joke with each other, it looks like they have been long-time friends.

Chan explained why she joined ASU.

“Last semester one of my close friends joined and she went from being a dependent person to an independent person so I really wanted to experience that for myself,” the petite 20-year-old Chan said.

All four girls are first semester interns for ASU. The ASU Internship program allows students to be involved with the Bay Area Asian-American community while receiving points to be exempt from a test, midterm, research paper.

The Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE) at SF State offers a similar internship program, but their interns can receive units for completing an internship. Selected Asian-American studies or ethnic studies instructors decide what type of credit is given in their classes.

Interns can attend community events or help produce an ASU event, but all interns are responsible for putting on a leadership project, such as the “Asian American Star Search.” Anyone can join and be a member of ASU without completing the internship program.

“The biggest part of their evaluation is the on campus event,” explained Patrick Toy, ASU co-internship coordinator. “They (interns) had three weeks to do this. It’s amazing...The interns learn the roots to go onto other internships.”

The day before the event, the four interns plus Rose Jiang and Kristina Huey -- two volunteers -- spent at least three hours making candy leis for volunteers.

“We all have different responsibilities,” said Li, 19. “But we meet a lot of people and get training in leadership.”

Chan was responsible for collecting donations and she performed a cover of Mariah Carey’s “One Sweet Day.” Li designed the flyers. Umali, a 20-year-old nursing major, made the program booklet.

Marzan, 19, was in charge of finding the performing talent. She was also the stage manager of the event.

“Basically I became an intern so I wouldn’t have to do a research paper for my Asian-American studies class,” Marzan said. “But I also use it as an opportunity to join a student organization because it’s my first year in college and I wanted to be involved more.”

Four eighth graders from The Chung Ngai Dance Group performed Chinese Yo Yo. They held a string while they balanced, threw and juggled a wooden-like dumbbell called Chi-ling.

Maya Whearty, a junior at SF State, won for her Hawaiian dance. Lily Luu won for singing to Britney Spears’s “Toxic.” The George W. featuring the Mystery Funk Trio -- three San Francisco high schoolers -- won for the specialty category.

“Being a person of mixed background, I’m black and Japanese, I’m hoping to get into the Asian-American community but also to use my ethnicities as a bridge to get others and hopefully we’ll get more of a mixed background instead of just the Asian-American community coming out to see us,” said Autumn Yamamoto, 21, before the show started. Yamamoto performed a spoken word piece about her identity.

Attendee Patrick Miers, 20, said even though some people messed up, “there’s mad love from the audience.”

“It’s about the strong community feeling,” James Valerio chimed in. “No one can mess up in front of family.” Valerio said he was surprised by the amount of professionalism in the performances and event organization. “It was $7 well spent.”