RAJA THIRU/Arizona Daily Wildcat Physiological sciences freshman Jina Meyek, left and undeclared sophomore Chris Ham spend time reading a newspaper Friday afternoon in the Asian cultural center, located at Old Main.

Fredrick Floranda's classmates often crowd around him during lecture to try to copy his notes.

It happens a lot, and according to Floranda, it happens because he's Asian.

An agricultural economics senior, whose parents came to the United States from the Philippines, Floranda is one of many Asian students at the UA who has encountered the "model minority myth," a stereotype that indicates all Asian students should excel academically.

According to the myth, those who are of Asian descent are highly intelligent, hard-working successful individuals and thus comprise the model minority in the United States.

Josie Gin, director of Asian Pacific American Student Affairs said a lot of students, and sometimes faculty members, assume that Asian college-goers are naturally smart and serious students who spend all their time studying and doing homework.

While that kind of assumption might not sound like such a negative thing in a university setting, Gin said the pressures students feel from the model minority myth could be harmful.

Expectations created by the myth can place an unreasonable amount of pressure on students to succeed. Students who can't live up to those expectations sometimes become so discouraged that they give up school entirely, Gin said.

Sanjum Punia, an economics junior, said she thinks teachers sometimes assume that Asian students will automatically understand the material presented in class and said she thinks it's harder for Asian students to find help with schoolwork when they need it.

Several students at the APASA center said that one of the biggest misconceptions about Asian students is that they are all math and science geniuses.

Avneet Singh, a marketing and business economics junior whose parents came to the U.S. from India, said she has as much trouble with math as the next person.

Singh said when her classmates ask her for math help and she is unable to give it to them, they sometimes think she is lying just to avoid helping them.

Singh said the stereotypes only become a problem when students take them too seriously and let it skew their views of themselves and what's important to them.

"I've seen people give up their social life completely and lock themselves in a room and study because they feel they have to," Singh said.

She said the worst thing about the myth is that it offers such a one-dimensional view of Asians.

"Everyone assumes that you're all about school and nothing else, and if anything's wrong with you it must be about school," she said. "If you don't do well in school, you get looked down on, even if you're good at something else."

A midday visit to the APASA center in Old Main might help dispel the myth that Asian students do nothing but study.

In fact, it might be a bit tough to hit the books there, amidst the fierce video game and Foosball competitions, guitar playing and general laughter and chatter.

Floranda said he wants people to understand that academic success has nothing to do with one's ethnicity.

"We're like other people. If we do succeed, it means we're pulling out the hard work like anyone else," he said.