Any student interested in finding a date for Valentine’s Day or meeting new friends has the opportunity to try speed dating.

Speed dating, presented by the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) and the Association of Latin American Students (ALAS), is open to any student on campus.

“We basically feel like this is an event that people can get to know each other,” Jasmine Yu, president of the APAC at ISU, said.

“There’s no pressure to be very ‘coupley’ or anything to do with finding love, but more like to get to know people that are not usually people you see — especially with APAC and ALAS because it’s a collaboration,” she added.

The event itself is pairing up with somebody, speaking for a minute or two until the timer buzzes and moving to the next person in line, Yu explained.

After the event, a discussion about interracial dating is held. The attendees converse about how they feel about the event, share ideas about tradition and values and reflect on what they gained from getting to know other people, she added.

This is the second year the event is being held, Yu said.

There will also be small desserts and refreshments to set the mood since it is close to Valentine’s Day, she added.

Speed dating benefits students as they get to learn about communicating and different backgrounds.

“This really expands your mind with communicating with somebody [whom] you have no connection with whatsoever at first, you might gain that connection,” Yu said.

Yu encourages all students to come out to the event and find out what else APAC has in store.

“I think it’d be really good for people to come out [because you] can meet people [and] you can have conversations; if anything, we are all very friendly in our group, and we love to meet new people. We love to have people come to our events and learn about them,” she explained.