The AAPI Initiative is part of the Department of Commerce’s (DOC) efforts to address and assist in reversing the less than expected participation of AAPIs at DOC and better serve the nation's AAPI community.
The AAPI Initiative seeks to recruit talented candidates for employment with DOC; retain, promote, and develop current employees; and create a pipeline for addressing current and future workforce needs.
The AAPI Initiative is tied to our Equal Employment Opportunity policy. Through the AAPI Initiative, DOC is seeking to build relationships with AAPI communities and engage them in DOC’s mission of ensuring and enabling this Nation’s economic growth and development. The AAPI Initiative calls for strengthening departmental outreach activities in a comprehensive effort to promote partnership opportunities with the AAPI community in three critical areas: employment, education, and business opportunities.
All Federal agencies, including the Department of Commerce, must take a proactive stance in addressing AAPI underutilization in the Federal Government.
The Census Bureau reports that by the year 2050, or sooner, 33.4 million U.S. residents will identify themselves as Asian. They would comprise 8 percent of the total population by that year. This significant increase in the AAPI population has given rise to a large influx of AAPIs into America’s workforce. The DOC must be prepared to effectively manage the recruitment, selection, hiring, retention, and development of AAPIs in its workforce.
Program Manager: Cristina Bartolomei
News
2019 AAPI Heritage Month #ThisIsMyStory Event
Asian American and Pacific Islander Initiative May 21, 2019
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Good morning everyone and welcome to the Department of Commerce's Asian-American
Pacific Islander Heritage Month observance thank you everyone for joining us we have
plenty to cover in this event so I'm just gonna make my remarks a little bit brief my
name is I always forget to say my name so I'm gonna say it my name is Cristina Bartolomei
or Cristina Bartolome and I work for the Department of Commerce Office of Civil Rights and I'm
really happy to emcee today and also to serve as a photographer and as the Deputy Undersecretary
says other duties as assigned so I'll be running around throughout the event as many of you
know and as you see over here the month of May is Asian American and Pacific Islander
Heritage Month and it is a time to honor to celebrate the Asian American and Pacific Islanders
community in the United States and around the world and to celebrate the contributions
to our economic academic cultural and social institutions so today's program #this is my
story I decided to put a # because it always sounds so modern and great so and if you do
use social media please use it to # this is my story maybe add the DOC right there at
the end so it was coordinated to echo the spirit of this month and a few weeks ago a
couple of commerce employees very dedicated commerce employees we got together and they
met with the Office of Civil Rights and we brainstormed ideas of how we can make this
event a little bit more inclusive because often when we do these events we think about
the outside how do we bring the outside in, right? and this time we thought how do we
bring the insiders the inside in in whatever and what about Commerce employees what about
Commerce leadership? and so this event was born it is a storytelling showcase in which
we will be giving Commerce employees and leaders a platform to share their stories and to connect
with you and for you our audience as you can see here to learn to engage with one another
and to grow as a person and as a professional so you're in for a treat I actually heard
a couple of these presentations already and I was just stunned so no pressure guys they're
right here in the front yeah you can tell which ones are going to be the presenters
today because they're all looking at their papers and their presentations right now you're
gonna kill it you're gonna be amazing so before we move on to our first presentation I want
to acknowledge the Department of Commerce let me make sure that I say this right HQ
AAPI ERG that stands for Asian-American no Headquarters Asian American and Pacific Islander
employee resource group it is the first-ever AAPI ERG general AAPI ERG group at the Department
of Commerce and think it was just officially announced yesterday so congrats to you I see
Xiobing Feng in the back in the back she's the president so congrats to you and she has
been a huge help for us and for this event and I also want to acknowledge Miss Erin Yun
Liu she's in the back over there I see you she is the founder of the American Asian Pacific
Culture Advancement Society her dedication to the Asian community and her efforts in
ensuring that we have the wonderful tasting menu that we have in the back of this room
and I also want to thank master cook chefs Andy Junqiao Li and Michael Chuanhui Chen
I hope I'm pronouncing them right Chuanhui Chen for their efforts and making these delicious
sample of imperial court desserts you can only find them here or in Beijing so make
sure that you got grab a little bit of those desserts so and thank you to our volunteer
presenters I am in awe of your stories and I can't wait for everybody else to hear them
and with that said let us begin I am very very honored to introduce you to our first
guest speaker I got a chance to sit one-on-one with her yesterday and it was a wonderful
experience she is a Deputy Undersecretary for International Trade Sarah Kemp I called
her Miss Kemp she's like just call me Sarah so Sarah she currently oversees the daily
operations of the International Trade Administration I see a couple of ITA folks over here and
yes ITA has an annual budget of 483 million dollars and probably more right now with approximately
2,100 trade and investment professionals based on more than 100 US cities and 70 markets
around the world she is a dedicated public servant with vast professional experience
in working with Asian countries promoting US exports US trade promotion trade policy
and more she has, and correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that she has lived in Hong Kong,
Beijing, Vietnam, and other Asian cities across the world but I'll let her speak more about
this herself so please give a warm welcome to the stage Deputy Undersecretary Sarah Kemp
so first and foremost I want to thank each and every one of you for coming today it's
an important event and I want to thank Cristina I want to thank our presenters I can't wait
to hear your stories but I also want to thank each one of you when Xiobing approached me
and said hey would you be willing to do this of course I said yes and then I went ohh what
am I gonna talk About? and I want to thank Xiobing for being sort of this spark for this
and and really encouraging me to come up and share my story I am humbled by the opportunity
if you know me you know that I want this to be interactive so I hope you all have had
your coffee or caffeine or whatever gets you jazzed in the morning uh and so as opposed
to sitting here and telling you you know how did I come on this Asian tour of my career
I thought I'd cut to the chase so click where's the clicker? okay so how did I end up on what
I call my Asian Odyssey started with a junior year you can read through some of the highlights
of what brought me to a 27-year career focused on Asia here at the Department of Commerce
and I have been extraordinarily grateful for the opportunities that I have been able to
pursue here at Commerce I started with a junior year in Hong Kong I worked in a Vietnamese
refugee camp in Hong Kong I worked at the Center for Chinese Legal Studies at Columbia
joined Commerce and then started with working on ASEAN policy for four years at headquarters
before I went to Beijing and then did Beijing, Hong Kong, Beijing, Vietnam, Beijing but there's
a whole other side of me than this professional I've done all these assignments overseas so
what might not be obvious to you when you look at me is that when I go to school events
I'm known as Mrs. Hong right I also overseas when I show up at events they would often
say oh because I was in Asia what does your husband do? and I would say well he very nicely
helps me take care of my kids Cause the assumption was the I was the stay at home ex-pat wife
And finally my children don t necessarily look like me although I think they do and
are often thought of as not mine I've had many people come up and say Oh whose children
are these and I say they re mine I raised them they're often too Western for China and
they've grown up in China until they came back three years ago to the States they d
totally grown up in China and in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Asia and too Asian for US my son
in his high school is known as the Asian kid which to me is like really? Cause I see you
as so mixed but on that did you want to click so here's a video here in case you're curious
and just a tip for all you who have teenagers you might appreciate this where's the audio?
where's the audio Matt? we need your help seriously let's see it's on Matt we need your
help let's see its connected there it is they re gonna kill me for this really I saw this
already oh no its not gonna work oh no ok so I ll set the scene this is bowling at the
White House how cool is that? they have a very funny way of trying to imitate me and
make me feel just you know surprised but anyway I just put that up there as a way of trying
to make it a little more personal so that's me and I really wanted this to be interactive
so I'm happy to take questions I'm happy to take anything you want to throw at me in terms
of professional personal questions that you might have but I thought I would put this
sort of professional personal mix up there just to try to raise the questions and to
get people to think that what you see is not always what is there and you know we are all
onions with layers you peel back or they don't judge a book by its cover I have loved in
my life that I have shown up and been not what was expected in many different ways I
have embraced the Asian culture and feel privileged to be able to share in it with my husband
and my family and I just again want to thank you all for showing up but any questions anyone
okay don't be shy Yes how did your kids feel about moving from Asian culture to US culture?
How did they assimilate? that's a great question so my kids are third country kids and my daughter
when she went to choose colleges made it really easy anything in Manhattan seriously that
was her entire college tour was Manhattan because she felt she wanted a cosmopolitan
big city because she had only lived in big cities and she wanted to be able to blend
my son came back for ninth grade right bring him back for high school and I have to say
he's become very American very American in a way that I did not totally expect but he
has really embraced sort of being a teenager and a high schooler all of it so very different
approaches but they they interestingly enough so my daughter when she was born she was born
in Thailand she until she was 11 thought she was Thai so when you said what are you she
said oh I'm Thai oh you re actually American Passport you know they grow up when they were
14 and 9 and they we came back for July 4th and they couldn't do the Pledge of Allegiance
they didn't know the National Anthem I was like oh my god I gotta do something right
so I of course as a good almost Asian mother as I'm sometimes sometimes they claim that
I am put them in American history school right, I'm like oh my god you have got to learn something
you're the kid of an American diplomat you don't know the Pledge of Allegiance so you
know they went through every Wednesday from you know 4 to 6 they learned American history
and the Pledge of Allegiance I'm happy to say but yes they've definitely been a third
country kid other questions yes did you experience reverse culture shock? oh yeah yes so cars
stop for you you know so I you know particularly coming back from I would say Vietnam more
so then China was crossing the street it was like this Nirvana like well I put my toe up
and the cars were stopping um I did that kind of jokingly and then my son actually picked
it up I'm like no no you can't do that you have to actually really deliberately cross
but but part of it was just sort of the traffic flow is one of the big things when we came
back and I will say that I never never never never never never never take for granted what
you have outside the fact that I can't see I can't taste I can't smell the air you know
we used to joke in Beijing like if you can't see taste or smell and how do you know it's
there you guys take a leap of faith every day because there's air out there and it's
there and you're gonna be able to breathe right so that that was another thing in terms
of coming back wow you guys so awesome do you know that yes How did you decide to get
involved with Asian culture? sure haha I had this really intense discussion no what happened
was it was really like a 30-second conversation with myself I in high school had the opportunity
to go to France and Scotland on exchanges and I went something like this huh I want
to get away from Hamilton which if anyone knows Hamilton College in upstate New York
it's in the middle of nowhere and there's probably more cows than people so I thought
huh I really want to get away I've been to Europe so that's kind of old school I need
to do Asia that's kind of new school I think I think more people in Japan speak English
than in China so I should learn Chinese that was the entire extent of my conversation right
and then so Hamilton didn't have a Chinese language program so I listened to tapes anyone
know what a tape is? They had to fly a professor from from Cornell in to test me at the end
of the semester I just listen to tapes that s all I did and then I made the decision to
go to China right all of you who are experts in Asia are gonna laugh at this so where did
I go Hong Kong and I got off and went this isn't China and it wasn't but it was a really
great experience and it kind of launched me on my path to really focus on Asia for a career
What kind of foods do you cook at home? ha ok so my son loves Indian that's his favorite
so I cook western my husband cooks better than I do everything but he does all the Asian
cooking because I just I just didn't want that sort of stress of like yeah it's not
like your mom I know but I do all the Western cooking except for the steaks and he does
all the Asian cooking so that's how that breaks down again my son loves Indian which I can't
cook so we order out one more question What is the reaction when your family travels?
I haven't been to Disneyworld so we haven't I'll be very honest we've had
a very I mean I haven't had an experience I will tell you the only experience that comes
to mind was in ninty a long time ago when my husband and I were first in DC a very very
very very long dinosaurs when dinosaurs ages as my son likes to remind me he and I you
know on a Friday night would go to a bar or restaurant and I remember being at a bar once
and the okay I looked very young so I'm gonna give it a the bartender said oh is this your
exchange student and I was like kinda yeah that's the only thing that comes to mind great
well with that I just want to say thank you to each and every
one of you thank you for your contributions it's important and I appreciate what you do
each and every day and I'm really looking forward to the stories of everyone else so
thank you for participating thank you so much Sarah I got the money shot right now by the
way I got a perfect picture of you I'm gonna send it to you it looks amazing thank you
for your Q&A; your remarks I think it literally when we first spoke we talked about how diversity
and inclusion is just so encompassing right and it's interesting that from an outsider
they would look at you and you will seem a certain way and they wouldn't know the depth
of your experience and your connection to a different culture that people wouldn't perceive
right and you know that's that's what we like to do here at the Commerce Civil Rights office
we'd like to defy expectations and upturn biases and you know make sure that folks are
included so thank you so much for your remarks another round of applause please all right
you guys ready fun part all right so now it's time to do introduce you to the other stars
of today's event so these individuals will each join the stage and they will have about
a five-minute presentation each a little bit of a TED talk like presentation it's not easy
but these guys have managed to just do these brief presentations so if we time this right
you will have a lot opportunity to ask them questions after everybody is done so let's
start with Lisa Dr. Lisa Ng she is a mechanical engineer in the engineering laboratory at
the National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST and has been there over eight years conducting
on building related research including air flow and indoor air quality performance in
buildings that's very impressive welcome Dr. Ng well good morning everybody thank you so
much for being here Sarah thank you for giving your remarks Christina thank you for the introduction
I really enjoyed the last bullet on your slide where you said your children weren't American
enough for the US but not Chinese enough for the for China and I think my story kind of
echoes that so my name is is now Lisa but that wasn't the name that I was given at home
growing up my parents called me Xiao Hua which literally means little Chinese so at home
it was Xiao Hua do your homework and at school it was Lisa where's your homework at home
I ate rice at school I ate pizza at home I spoke Chinglish which is a mixture of Chinese
and English and at school I spoke well actually I didn't speak very much so I was actually
quite shy but I was living a double life and I didn't even know it but I was neither embarrassed
by my Americaness in front of my Chinese family or ashamed of my Chineseness in front of my
American friends I lived in two worlds and I slipped each into each and out of them seamlessly
and growing up in Philadelphia made this very easy I always grew up in diverse communities
and went to diverse schools so I had American friends I had Chinese friends we went to the
mall and we went to dim sum and I never felt out of place as a child I didn't even feel
out of place when I went to an engineering college and was the only female in an engineering
classroom not even then so can you guess where it was that I finally felt out of place Washington
DC Washington DC close it was actually in Taiwan where my mother was born and where
I moved to after college to take a job after college and it was surprising because I look
like people there I have black hair I have dark brown eyes I've olive skin and if I mumble
enough my Mandarin can pass as a native for just a few seconds but I had never felt so
out of place as I did there one time I walked into a clothing store just didn't say a word
just doing my browsing business and the saleswoman said to me you're not from around here are
you I mean what I did I have a sign on my back? I was wearing all clothes I had bought
in Taiwan granted they were from the Gap but the styles are different and that's when I
realized that my Americaness was showing through even if I looked like them even if I dressed
like them so I began a very cliche post-college journey to find myself in Taiwan and I was
there for two years and I learned a lot about myself I learned about what it was to be a
professional in the working world I learned about myself personally and I learned a lot
about what it really means to be an American but in Taiwan so three things I learned one
I'm sarcastic and I never really realized that I was it's not like sarcasm runs deep
in our culture or anything but it's a very American thing to be sarcastic and speaking
to Taiwanese they didn't get my jokes so that was the first thing the second thing was I
learned that I'm growing up in America I've learned to be very independent so when I first
got to Taiwan everyone was very concerned about my well-being they wanted to make sure
if I knew which bus to ride which bus stop to get on which bus stop to get off if I would
eat dinner because you know my Mandarin was so awesome they were afraid I might starve
and at first it was intrusive like why are you in my business but that's just how they
are they're very caring they care about everyone even co-workers as family and the last thing
I learned was that I'm proud to be an American and maybe it was the way I was carrying myself
in that store that kind of set me apart and why am I proud to be American because we get
to live in a melting pot we get to live in the land of opportunities and these are values
that our country were built on and we still have a long way to go but I'm proud that a
lot of us have the vision to get there so I guess I'm American all right mystery solved
I got on a plane craving a cheeseburger the entire 14 hour flight and lo and behold it
was not as easy as that I got off the airplane and suddenly I was self-conscious not just
of my Taiwanese clothes but just how Chinese I looked compared to everyone else and I didn't
know what to make of these feelings because I had grown up in the US for close to 20 years
and I never felt out of place so why now why didn't I have these feelings earlier but maybe
it was okay that I didn't have these feelings earlier so I went on round B of my journey
of self-discovery and I learned that I don't have to pick my Americaness or my Asianess
I can embrace both so what I embrace about my Americaness uh my Asianess is one that
we care for one another even if we've just met and I don't have to be so standoffish
as not all Americans are but we can be that way another thing I learned from my parents
that I like to carry on is to respect my elders to put my family first and there's nothing
wrong with that I remind my children every day to respect their elders me and I like
my americaness - I think my sarcasm has increased since I returned from Taiwan and that's okay
it binds us together and lastly I like being independent I like figuring things out on
my own and that's okay too and I'm really proud to be part of this event today to get
to hear the stories from all of our our colleagues at Commerce and that are freely able to do
this in America and I'm proud of that so I've learned to live in both worlds actually I
think I'm taking a little bit of this world and a little bit of that world and making
the best of both worlds thank you fantastic thank you so much that was wonderful see guys
I told you alright we'll go ahead now I'm gonna present Pauline Truong she's also from
the National Institute of Standards and Technology she's a conference coordinator at the Office
of Public Affairs welcome Pauline awesome I was waiting for Lisa's presentation for
like the longest time so that was very very empowering Lisa thank you all right so my
name is Pauline Truong and I'm a conference coordinator like Christina said and this is
my story all right so when I was little I like tried so hard to fit in not with just
my peers with my family but there were a lot of things that was expected of me and asked
from me that I would do because I respect my elders but never understood it I couldn't
relate to it my favorite story I still tell and I tell my grandmother this all the time
it really it's it has to do with her and she denies it so I was like 9 or 10 and it's Sunday
night it's family gathering everyone's at my grandma and grandpa's house I'm playing
outside in the living room my grandma calls me in from the kitchen and she goes I go in
and she goes Pauline it's time you learn to do the dishes your mom and your auntie they
cook dinner for everyone like you got to do your part and I'm thinking okay cool so I'm
doing it and I'm doing it as like a 9 or 10-year-old so you're hearing clank clunk like you know
I'm not used to holding delicate porcelain bowls and from the side I hear my grandma
and I still I could see her and she goes huuu how are you gonna feed your husband and take
care of your family if you wash dishes like that and I'm thinking seriously this is what
dictates my life how I wash dishes so growing up it was a bunch of those type of stories
where I just kind of just was going with the flow and doing it horribly just trying to
please my parents and my grandma and I kind of did this and felt kind of lost and lonely
up until Mulan happened you guys have seen Mulan right? because my my examples are gonna
be like spoilers okay so I watched Mulan when I was like probably 10 11 so I was like two
three years after this movie came out and it was she changed my life she gave me meaning
I could relate to someone I could do a thing where if I get stuck I would be like what
would Mulan do um and I have have three pictures or in A jiffy that kind of worked my favorite
scenes of of the movie so one of them was when she she's like crying and she's sad and
she's sitting on the great stone dragon and she's thinking like man I really disappointed
my family because she spoke up in front of the town people because her dad got called
to go to the army to defeat the Huns and she's like no don't do it my dad my dad has served
his time and she got shunned for it she got you know so she's sitting on the great stone
dragon she's sad and you don't know if it's tears that she's crying over it's the rain
and that's when she decides like you know what I'm gonna do this I'm gonna follow my
heart I'm gonna do what's right so the scene of her cutting her hair with a sword like
like a total rock star that's inspiring to me like it's it's awesome so I kind of followed
this like what would Mulan do for like a long long time like 10 15 years okay you talk to
my friends and stuff they like ya polly Mulan like it's crazy and I kept doing that until
Ali Wong showed up okay do you guys know who Ali Wong is she is obnoxious and raw but authentic
and real I stumbled on Ali Wong s her stand-up special on Netflix I'm just flipping through
and I'm like what is this Asian girl with awesome glasses and you know what is she gonna
do so I watched it and my mom came in halfway through and I'm like ah crap she's gonna say
something and she did she's like she's foul I don't like her she's but she's my mom sat
through the whole thing with me um you know so I'm like okay so I think you do like her
I think you like how awesome and original she is so Ali Wong makes me feel human so
last night I was doing like a dry run with my sister and we were talking about a Ali
Wong we always talked about Ali Wong and she we got on a topic of bad a bad Asian and she's
like you remember during that stand up when Ali Wong was going yeah her mom was discouraging
her cuz I guess during her stand-up shows she'll show her panties or something and her
like that's so bad of you you're a bad Asian she's like I'm the bad Asian like your other
daughter's a lesbian so Ali Wong is great she like you know she makes me feel proud
to be an Asian-American like you know there's more sides to us then you know what's stereotyped
so shortly after Ali Wong I started noticing this snowball effect of Asian representation
in the media you know I got the Marie Kondo life-changing magic the spark joy you know
if it doesn't spark joy guys toss it out okay and then you know Miss Philippine crowned
Miss Universe last year all these crazy things Fresh Off The Boat is a show and then the
Crazy Rich Asian film phenomenon and book trilogies right like it's such a great it
makes me feel proud over being represented more than just finding kung-fu or I don't
know owning a laundry mat so my favorite my favorites but I guess my proudest moment of
this like realizing like oh my god there's more Asians in the media and more stuff for
us to you know go to was when I went to go see Crazy Rich Asians and I went with my friend
and her son his name is Luka he's 13 and he goes we're getting popcorn he goes Miss Pauline
and I'm so excited I think after watching this movie I'm gonna know you a bit more and
I'm thinking it's just a movie like okay so I watched a movie and I kid you not throughout
the whole movie I was taking notes like talk to Luka about this talk to Luka about that
like I wanted him to know and I was happy that I can tell him and also he got to see
it on the big screen of how I live and I was raised so I guess I wanted to do a talk because
I feel so proud I think it's like such a great time to be an Asian-American right now you
know like I mentioned Mulan and how she popped up like when I was 10 or 11 and then I had
and I had her as my idol for like 15 years until Ali Wong came up we don't have to do
that anymore we don't have to search or wait for the next big thing it's being brought
us and not just to us but to our families and family and friends it's very enlightening
so sorry I'm trying to go off of my notes so yes just I guess the gap we're bridging
the gap of us and them and it's very very exciting and I'm so grateful to be part of
it and see it like in the works so I'm gonna end this story my presentation with the story
of the one person who never really gave up on me I was just just a pain in her butt like
I just challenged everything she told me she wanted me to stay close after I graduated
I went super far she told me she I asked she asked me when I was little what I wanted to
do and I said I want to help people and that nearly gave her a heart attack because that
was not comfortable enough as a job I work for the government mom so but my fondest memory
of my mom is of her sweeping the house every morning at 7 o'clock like every morning was
like it was like clockwork and she's not little stitious she's like superstitious so she starts
from the back of the house and she sweeps with her feathery broom you guys know what
I'm talking about and as she makes her way towards the front she wakes us up you know
either for school or if it's Saturday we get to watch cartoons but um so she's waking us
up and I remember thinking like why is she doing this is this is this expected of me
because I don't want to do this so I was I always like question her like man like my
mom this is a hard life I had I kind of don't want to do this not I'm not signed up for
it and you know 20 plus years later I I have my own place and I'm cleaning and then I find
myself doing exactly what my mother is doing sweet from the back of the house towards the
front shooing you know like all the all the the trash is towards the front of the door
and I'm shooing away the bad stuff and welcoming the good juju right so I'm doing that and
I and it's funny I'm proud when I do it and why am I proud sweeping my house and I guess
for once I I felt like really close to my mom and close to my culture and my family
and being Asian and American at the same time so thank you for listening thank you Pauline
that was fantastic yeah I Marie Kondo in my closet it's just a disaster right now I need
to get rid of so many things oh right so next up we have Son Lam he's a management analyst
at the Economic Development Agency welcome Son hey my name is Son people always ask me
hey where are you from I'm always like I'm from New Jersey no where are you from Piscataway
New Jersey no where you from what do you want my home address I once met someone we said
their ancestors came from came to America on the Mayflower I was like wow we're the
same your family came to America on a boat my family came to America on a boat your family
ran away from oppression my family ran away from oppression but actually this is a picture
of my my friend he got rescued out of South China Sea from the USS Ranger 138 lives were
rescued unfortunately a hundred thirty-seven lives were survived I came to America on a
747 on Pan Am probably most likely too that's because my mom worked for the CIA in Saigon
so when I say I'm gonna tell my mom you better be scared so she was the OG tiger mom before
there were OG Tiger moms I remember sitting in a parent-teacher conference and she would
say if he's bad you hit him say what? if he's good you hit him what? that's uh that's a
she grew up in a Catholic school so oh good morning sister Keith good morning yes
so we came to America on 747 we arrived at Camp Pendleton it's a Marine Corps Base in
Southern California and and they said hey who wants to go to New Jersey all the Vietnamese
who are smart said oh no San Diego it's nice and warm we stay here but not my parents where's
New Jersey it's over there okay yeah we go we go to New Jersey where it's nice and cold
oh we love the four seasons while I'm shoveling 100 foot snow out of the driveway so we're
ended up being the only Vietnamese family in Piscataway New Jersey then we discovered
there was another Vietnamese family and then we were one of two Vietnamese families in
Piscataway New Jersey it kind of weird because they had our family there's one boy and two
girls and their family was one boy and two girls and there was a lot of other coincidence
but that's another story and I remember friends during Thanksgiving would say oh we had turkey
for Thanksgiving and it was awesome it was juicy we had a pumpkin pie and yams and all
this stuff what did you have I actually had Pho but if I said that they d be like what
the fuu.. is that? so I'm like yeah of course I had turkey it was awesome had turkey and
yam and all that stuff too and then on Sunday they like oh because everybody's Italian in
New Jersey on Sunday they had pasta from scratch my mom made pasta from scratch isn't that
the best does your mom make pasta from scratch like pasta from scratch the heck is that still
had Pho on Sunday now I grew up you know they have food channel and you can see what pasta
from scratch truly was and how hard it is I'm like your mom didn't make pasta from scratch
not after making turkey on Thursday and making pasta on Sunday no way you didn t make no
pasta from scratch this is what your pasta from scratch was (jar pops open sound) hear
that jar that lid opening from that jar of Ragu that means it's from scratch but in New
Jersey there's only one Asian grocery store where I grew up it was an hour away so if
you wanted something making Pho actually we it was really from scratch because even go
to the A&P; that's grocery store where I grew up they didn't have things like bone beef
or oxtail you go there okay where's the bone where's the oxtail oxtail get out of here
there's no oxtail you didn't have sriracha sauce you're gonna get all that stuff at Harris
Teeter now but back then there was no H Mart or Super Mercado on every corner so I remember
growing up it they would make Pho it would take days and you could smell it and you'd
be hungry all the time but it was good eating because after it was done it was like you
eat PHO for a whole week cause they made a big bowl so that's my short presentation thank
you oh if my friends can make pasta from opening a can of Ragu I can make Pho from scratch
as well Thank You Son so much all right I'm sorry
okay next up we have Jawad Syedaim he works for the Office of Civil Rights he is a senior
data analyst he has over 14 years of service in the US federal government he's also a veteran
of the US Navy where he served for 6 years I could read more but I'm gonna let you tell
your story welcome Jawad Good afternoon everyone my name is Jawad Syedain and at one point
I was a high school dropout what I was born and raised in Karachi Pakistan Karachi is
one of the largest cities in the world with the estimated population of 17 million people
I grew up in one of the most violent areas of Karachi called Golimar and if I tell you
the meaning of Golimar are you like well that's ironic because Golimar literally means Goli
is bullet and Mar means fire so figure we also used to have like power outages pretty
much every day in summer time for water we used to had like a water tanker and a tube
well because we didn't get the you know the the fresh water clean water you get here also
like we would have shortage of food supplies and gasoline so this is what I'm trying to
say is I grew up in a hard place growing up like many of the Pakistanis I wanted to be
a medical doctor like most of my cousin's are in the mid 90s my father lost his job
in the in Karachi so he decided to move back to the US he came to US in the 1970s he got
his master's in pharmacy got married had my older brother and sisters born here and then
he decided to move back to Pakistan to take care of his older parents and it's very common
in Asian culture for children to take care of their older parents and that's one of the
values I admire in Pakistani culture that the joint family system and I also want to
take care of my parents when my father retires I mean why not we'll have a reliable trustworthy
babysitter I can enjoy my mom's cooking and also I can claim my parents on as dependent
on my taxes other cultural values and qualities instilled
in me are stereotypical Asian hard work we all heard about nine nine six work policy
in China work from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. six days a week that similar thing in Pakistan
my dad used to come home like around right before dinner he would eat dinner go to sleep
yes pretty much every day also staying humble and not complaining and these are the part
of immigrant mentality you know which which I attribute my success to saying yes to opportunities
and you know success will come I feel very lucky to be in the United States because here
hard work pays off with great determination consistency towards a particular goal you'll
attain success so if you are wondering how how did I high school dropout has currently
has two masters degrees currently enrolled in a doctorate program has six professional
certificates well I came to US when I was 13 and I struggled with with in school because
of language barrier changing culture and a different educational system after I dropped
out of high school I joined the US Navy after completing my initial training I start attending
college classes after after work and eventually I accumulated enough semester hours to get
enrolled into the undergraduate program they didn't check my high school diploma so during
the military I had to put my education on hold in 2005 I deployed to Iraq but even there
I continued with my studies I studied for my advancement got promotion promoted to NCO
and also I studied for the warfare specialist devices this medal you wear but after I came
back I enrolled back into college classes I I was working from 7:00 to 4:30 I'll get
off work eat dinner and then go to school attend classes from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. every
day so that was my life on weekdays and on weekends I would take classes from 8:30 to
4 o'clock and because of that hard work working full-time attending classes I was able to
attain my bachelor's degree in with honors in two and a half years after after I separated
from the military I used my GI Bill got into MBA program once I finished that and then
I pursued my second master's in information technology because I'm you know my Asian I
have to get into IT what I wanted to basically mention here was when you say yes to opportunities
it opens door for other opportunities and brings a success but year and a half ago our
office formulated SEPM special emphasis program committee and that's where I met Xiobing and
with Xiobing and Laura we started the AAPI group and last year we organized a very successful
event had the similar attendance and this year we you know the attendence see here but
with that with saying yes to that group I learned about ARGEN program I didn't know
about ARGEN before and recently long story short I got accepted into ARGEN SES CDP program
and again it's because I'm say yes to that opportunity met some people who introduced
me to ARGEN I applied and got accepted so that's my story thank you very much thank
you so much know we've heard about representation matters they saying yes to opportunities and
even being given opportunities matters so I ll sum this up when we're done but I'm just
so in awe of all of you presenters already and now last but certainly not least our last
presenter of the day her name is Suchira Pande she's a PhD she works as a patent business
analyst of the office of patent information at USPTO and just FYI she told me to say that
she aspires to be a senior executive service member so just FYI namaste welcome to all
of you welcome to all of you my name is Suchira it's a name that was coined by my father it's
composed of two words Suchi and Rah Suchi is a Sanskrit word which means purity Rah
means to bring so my name is one who brings purity I was born in Mathura some of you may
know it's the same town where five thousand years ago Krishna was born we share some similarities
in our life paths both of us were born in Mathura Krishna grew up in Gokul another town
on banks of river Yamuna went to the western part of the country and formed a new city
Bakara and settled there well I was born in Mathura and then I grew up in New Delhi another
city on the banks of river Yamuna and then I traveled all the way west and here I am
in east coast of United States so how did I get here from New Delhi it all started with
a life-changing moment I was a teenager hot summer months we are in the terrace of our
prefabricated apartment building and my father asked me Suchira what are you doing to prepare
for your upcoming exam pitagee that's the word we used in Hindi for your father I asked
my mother for six rupees I wanted to buy a manual which I could use to practice for this
upcoming exam she didn't have six rupees to spare for a manual which would be used just
for one month and I understand you really want to study and prepare for that exam yes
Father I do alright then here take six rupees go get yourself the manual and prepare to
put it in perspective that six rupees at that time was a whole lot of money for our family
in terms of the equivalent it was fifteen cents but for a family where my father was
the only breadwinner he worked he was also a civil servant worked for Information and
Broadcasting ministry in New Delhi we had eight members of family in our home four children
two parents my paternal grandmother and her older sister who was a child widow and we
did not have money to spend on luxuries such as books which were going to be used only
for one month means we always got our regular textbooks we never bought them from the people
who were in the senior class you already talked to them when the school year is done can I
have your books and the value of that six rupees fifteen cents is that we had a school
trip to go and see Taj Mahal in Agra one of the eight wonders of the world the cost was
two rupees five cents and I was told we don't have two rupees to spend on just going and
seeing a tomb of a dead Queen so I was really touched that I was given this opportunity
I practiced believe me I practiced that is the workbook from front to back many times
over aced the written exam aced the interview and got National Science Talent scholarship
this single event that happened opened the door into the world of science for me not
only did I complete my bachelors in botany honors went on to do a masters in cytogenetics
but more importantly it allowed me the freedom and the power to travel as a single teenage
girl within the country because NCERT was supporting the summer school where I could
go stay for one month in the University hostel work with the graduate students on a research
project while I was still an undergraduate and not only that I got an opportunity to
then write up a paper present my own findings in actually a scientific Congress in Indian
Institute of Technology and this was like wow I could see I would not have been allowed
to go as a single young female to any of these places if it were not for this opportunity
which obviously everybody in the family recognized was something really great so science has
been my ticket and passport for travel in the country and then I aspired to do PhD in
molecular genetics a discipline that was not available in India at that time I wanted to
do that so I applied to three continents now this is where you know you never know because
I can only do my part but rest what the universe is going to do so I don't want to waste time
applied to three continents get accepted and then decide the school that's giving you money
from day one because I had learned I was not going to be putting any more burden on anybody
if I had any say in the matter come to University of Alberta in Canada do a PhD I came to US
as a postdoc in Yale University and I realize the opportunities in terms of research R
that is there in this country is amazing and to top it all my professors from the master's
program when I was looking for jobs as a postdoc they told me look we've trained you now go
use that training and I said but I'm looking for jobs here they said right now we don't
want you to come back to India I said why so is it because right now you will come back
and either you'll be constantly fighting with your supervisors or you'll say well I don't
get full credit so I'm not going to do any work we've trained you well you have the potential
go use it go wherever in the world and get a job but you're not getting you're not coming
back here not that we don't have the jobs for you but we want you to build on what we've
given you and that was the journey that took me to work in a biotech company in France
and then as a visiting professor I came to NIH and that's when I decided okay I want
to stay here because I had experience being that interesting foreigner in France it's
like no I cannot see myself staying here for the rest of my life having done everything
on my own this was not something unusual I decided to apply for my own green card as
an exceptional scientist and then once I got naturalized coming from a family of public
servants I wanted to come back and work for the federal government started as a contractor
in NOAA then got the opportunity to work at USPTO which is where I'm still there so if
it was not for that investment and it's not just the money investment the opportunity
the belief and the trust that was given to me as a teenage girl by my father I would
not be standing before you today I see there is a big push right now for encouraging girls
to go into the field of science and I stand here before you to this Commerce community
I would like to be the ambassador for our department to give aspirations hopes and direction
to these young women to believe in themselves and to know that here if they believe in themselves
and in the and they truly believe in the motto of the country In God We Trust they can achieve
whatever they want and carve out a destiny for themselves that will be their unique trail
thank you Wow stay here thank you so much I know we are out of time and please stay
on the stage - Suchira stay on the stage I'm gonna ask the rest of the presenters to please
come on stage as well we really want to thank you for the time and effort that you spent
on these presentations and I've heard a lot you know you you finish your presentations
to share with opportunity belief trust support so many key words right and thank you everyone
for your presentations unfortunately we don't have time for Q&A; but we will be mingling
please if you guys want to ask them any questions and in the back I really want to make sure
that everybody knows that the American Asian Pacific Advancement Society has Imperial Chinese
desserts and you won't will not be able to find them anywhere in the world well anywhere
in the United States but here and in Beijing these are they come from the Ching dynasty
in China and they are favorites of the Emperor and Empress of China please go in the back
talk to Erin and talk to Michael talk to Andy the chefs and please grab a couple of those
so thank you so much please give them a round of applause we have a couple of all right
and because I'm the photographer I'm going to step down now and take pictures Deputy
Undersecretary Sarah please you can join us and enjoy the desserts in the back everybody
take pictures with them as well thank you everyone you have surveys please fill them
On Tuesday, May 21, 2019 the DOC's Office of Civil Rights hosted a storytelling showcase, #ThisIsMyStory, at the Commerce Research Library in honor of the 2019 Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Moderated by Senior Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Specialist, Cristina Bartolomei, the TED-talk-like event provided a forum for AAPI individuals and AAPI advocates to speak about their experiences with the community. The Deputy Under Secretary for International Trade, Sarah E. Kemp, opened the event by speaking about her professional and personal experience with the Asian community, having lived in several Asian countries throughout her lifetime.
Five DOC employees from various bureaus were also given the opportunity to share stories on identity, inclusion, culture, and more. The employees were Dr. Lisa Ng, Mechanical Engineer, Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology; Pauline Truong, Conference Coordinator, Public Affairs Office, National Institute of Standards and Technology; Son Lam, Management Analyst, Economic Development Agency, Jawad Syedain, Senior Data Analyst, Office of Civil Rights, Office of the Secretary; and Dr. Suchira Pande, Patent Business Analyst, Office of Patent Information Management, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Please enjoy the recording above and explore images from the event by accessing this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/171603259@N03/40944357403/in/album-72157708725788774/