After graduating from Chico High School, I got accepted into CSU, Chico. I didn’t realize how quickly my next leadership opportunity would come in my second semester of college. In the Spring semester of my Freshmen year in college, I was fortunate to have been selected by the Asian and Pacific Islander Council at CSU, Chico to attend the Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in Higher Education Conference in Oakland, California. To be selected, we had to complete an interview process and submit a form to answer the questionnaires. I was one of the lucky six API (Asian and/or Pacific Islander) students selected to attend. Thank you to the APIC Council for this opportunity.

I was one of the only two male API students from Chico State so we were roommates and I just want to give a huge shoutout to Xeej. He was about to graduate in May that year and I am just so so grateful to had the time and opportunity to pick his brain and talk to him about life. I knew him for a short time but he made such a big impact on my life. Thank you to Shrutti as well, I will forever remember that night in which you, Xeej, and I talked late into the night.

This conference gave me so much confidence and a sense of direction with where I wanted to go and accomplish in my college career. Learning about burning out, how to use kindness and compassion in a leadership role, and most importantly, hearing the best-ever keynote speakers (IMO) in person… there is just too much I learned there to recap everything. This is where I began to embrace my API identity and start to think about how I can positively impact the lives of the people I encounter.
Overall, I think the most important things I will remember from this experience are the conversations I had with the attendees there. Talking about what it means to be an Asian-American living in the U.S. and specifically, what it means as a Hmong-American. Talking about what are the best ways we can positively serve our community and impact the younger generation to pursue higher education. And most importantly, how do we advocate not only for ourselves but also for other communities as well?