Colon Cancer Australia

gautam raghavan:good morning! audience:good morning! gautam raghavan:all right. well, thank youall for being here. i'm sure it's much betterto be in here than in the heat outside. my name is gautam raghavan. i work here in the whitehouse in the office of public engagement as a liaison tothe lgbt and aapi communities.

so lots of lettersand alphabets there. the office of public engagement,for those of you who are not familiar with what we do,we are essentially the front door to the white house. so our job is to engagecommunities and community leaders across america in thework of the federal government, the work of the white house,and really have a conversation with all of you and peopleacross the country about what we're doing and what we can dobetter and how you can be a part

of that process. so this is, this event is verymuch a part of what we do in ope, which is bringing incommunity leaders and folks from all over the country to talkabout their experiences and the work that we're doing here. so thank you for being here. and i really want to thankecaasu for their leadership and hard work in puttingthis event together. so please join me in givingthem a strong round of applause.

(applause) melinda, michelle and nicole --i don't think you're all here. some of you are. and i think michelle is waitingoutside for folks who are at the gate. but thank you all for yourhelp in putting this together, your leadership and everythingyou do everyday on behalf of aapi students everywhere. so we're excited tohave you all here.

i thought it would beinteresting to let you know a little bit about who's in theroom right now and folks who will be in here shortly. we have students from thefollowing states -- and hold your applause. i know people like to dothe shout-out state thingy. california, connecticut,delaware, florida, georgia, hawaii, illinois, kansas,massachusetts, maryland, minnesota, north carolina,nebraska, new jersey, new york,

ohio, pennsylvania, southcarolina, texas, utah, virginia, washington state, my homestate, and wisconsin. did i miss any states? audience member:iowa. gautam raghavan:iowa. there we go! well, good tohave you here, iowa. so congratulations toall of you for being here. and i do mean congratulations,because its's quite a feat that

you're here. i know that you all have busythings going on this summer, whether it's summer internshipsor community service or classes your friends and family. thank you for being here andtaking the time to come to our nation's capital to do this. and i apologizeagain for the heat. i just want to take a moment toframe the purpose of this event. what this is about is engagingemerging leaders from all over

the country about thework that we're doing and, more importantly, empowering youto take action once you go home. we don't want this justto be us talking to you. we want this to be the firstin a series of conversations. and we want you to use thisopportunity to, you know, learn some lessons or pick up afew tips and tricks and go back home to your colleges orcommunities and take action. so you'll hear this morningfrom a panel of federal leaders as well as a panelof student leaders.

and that's intentional becausewe want this to be an exchange of ideas and experiences. and then this afternoon, you'llhave the chance to participate in a couple of workshops onvarious different issues. so we want to hear from you. we want to hear aboutnot just the challenges and obstacles you face. but we also want to hear aboutwhere you've been successful. so we want to hear about yourbest practices, lessons learned,

you know, things that you canshare with other people in this room because they're probablygoing to want to hear from you. so i have a couple of quick asksfor you before we turn it over to our keynote speaker. first is we're going to pass outan engagement survey to all of you either later thismorning or this afternoon. and we would ask youto fill that out. each of you representshundreds or, in some cases, thousands of people whocan't be here today.

and so we need your helpidentifying those key community leaders and ensuring thatthey're a part of our process and our outreach as well. the second is we want you totell people you were here. and for those of you who arewatching live out there in, you know, cyberspace, we wantyou to tweet about being here. we want you to blog about this. we want you to usethe hashtag whaapi. i think ecaasu's tag isecaasu, so that should be easy.

and the white house oneis just the white house. and then i think chris and johnwill both tell you what their twitter handles are as well. and for those of you whoare watching live at home, you can also tweet yourquestions and we'll try to get to those later today. and then most importantly,we want you to identify one thing that you can docoming out of this event. and then we want youto commit to doing it.

whether it's writing a blogpost or writing an op-ed or organizing a group of studentsat your campus or hosting a round table with a member ofthe administration who's coming through town, we want you toreally take advantage of those opportunities and be apart of our conversation. last, before turningit over to chris, i just want to share one ofmy favorite quotes which is, if you don't havea seat at the table, you're probably on the menu.

and i say that to drive home theimportance of participating in decision making processes. so, you know, we need you inthe room when these decisions are being made. we need you totell your stories, to address your perspective. and i know that because thisis a room full of leaders, we don't justwant you at the table. we want you running the meeting.

so please use this day to startthat process or to continue it. and without further adieu,i would like to turn it over to our keynote speaker, chris lu,who is assistant to the president, cabinet secretary,and co-chair of the white house initiative on aapis. so please give hima round of applause. chris lu:thank you, gautam. and welcome all ofyou to the white house. i have to say, afterthree and a half years,

it never getstiring, saying that. i also want to thank all ofthe people who are out watching in cyberspace. first of all, thank you togautam and jason who i think is back there. they are really thedynamic force behind our aapi outreach efforts. and they bring such great energyand enthusiasm to this effort. them on our team.

i also find it funny to talkto a group of aapi young people because at heart i stillsort of think of myself as a young person. although my wife reminded methis morning that at 46 i'm probably not thatyoung any more. but i still remember verydistinctly the first time i ever came into this building. and it was in 1985. and i was invited toan event just like this,

an outreach effort that washappening -- and now it's going to sound like ancienthistory -- during the reagan administration. (laughter) i was asophomore in college. i know. i might as well have just saidthe washington administration or the jefferson administration. and i was invited to a sessionof senior reagan administration officials just like whatwe're having here today.

and president reagan stopped by. and i don't remembercandidly what anybody said, but i remember a really dramaticimpact it had on me and just hearing about importantpeople discussing the issues of the day. and it really energized me andmotivated me to want to pursue a career in public service. so i have to sayback at that point, i'm fairly sure i would not haveimagined standing in front of a

similar crowd 25some years later, giving kind of asimilar presentation. let me tell you a little bitabout what i do here and some of focusing on forthe aapi community. as gautam mentioned,i wear two different hats in the administration. my day job is helping to managethe cabinet for the president. and my night and evening job isserving as the co-chair of the white house initiativeon asian americans.

my wonderful co-chairis arne duncan, our secretary of education. and both of these jobs reallyhave the same essential mission which is to ensure that ourfederal government works as efficiently and aseffectively for our customers. and that's all of you,the american people. and in order to find out whatissues our customers want us to work on, we are outcrisscrossing the country, talking to groups like yourself.

and that's why over the pastthree, three and a half years, not only myself but thecommissioners and the staff of the white house initiative havegone to more than 50 cities and they've talkedto more than 25,000 people around the country. and this face-to-face dialogueis really just one of the ways that we're trying toengage in with all of you. we have a great facebook page. we have a wonderful website.

we obviously areon twitter as well. and i always laugh a littlebit when i talk about twitter because i can now sort of sayhashtag and not chuckle that i have no idea what hashtag means. but six months ago wheni did a session just like this for anothergroup of aapi youths, that morning literally mystaff set up my twitter handle. and i now know whata twitter handle is. and at the end of mytalk, i said, hey,

i've got this twitter handle nowand i challenge all of you to get me to 100 followers. and that group basically did it. so i checked this morning. i'm up to about 1300 now, whichis pretty good in six months. so i'm going to challengeall of you to get me to 1400. and not only the folks in thisroom but the folks watching in cyber space. you can follow me on twitterat chrislu44, c-h-r-i-s-l-u 44.

i'm always a little hesitantto do that because what ends up happening is that like halfthe room starts tweeting about, you know, some ridiculous thingthat i said or questioning one of the facts i gave. so feel free to do that. and if you have questions,i'll try to answer them after the fact. chrislu44. and as gautam said, we're usingthe hashtag aapiwh which you

should use if you'retweeting here or at home. but as i said, wetravel around the country. and one of the reasons we travelaround the country is that it's important to hear from peopleabout the issues that are on their minds. you know, i think back about asession that we did recently in atlanta a couple months back. and we holdthese regional forums. and we were down inatlanta for folks down

in the southeast region. and in this audienceof 400 people, we had this amazingdiversity of people. we had recent immigrants frombhutan who didn't speak english. we had upper middleclass college students. we had advocates who had beenspending their entire lives trying to help our community. we had small business ownerswho had basically run everything from nail salons tohigh-tech businesses.

and we had people that literallyhad traveled hundreds of miles by bus to tell us their storiesfrom places like mississippi and louisiana and florida. and with each of thesestories that came out, in each of these conversations,there was one constant theme, which is that people wereconcerned about whether the american dream was stillpossible for all of them. and all of youknow this as well. whether you're arecent immigrant,

whether your parentswere immigrants, whether your grandparentsare immigrants, you know that there's abasic promise in america, that if you work hard, you cando well enough to buy a home, send your kids to college,save for your retirement. and these days, unfortunately,that dream is out of reach for far too many people. and as all of you know, somehave done very well during the most recent economic downturn.

but the vastmajority of americans, the vast majority of peoplein our community haven't done as well. and what they've continued tofind is that their paychecks keep staying the same andyet their costs keep going up. so that's why thepresident, president obama, and the entire administrationhas made it our mission to try to restore the middle class. and that's not onlyjust asian americans.

that's all americans. and that's a challenge since weare now only just beginning to emerge from really thegreatest downturn since the great depression. but let me talk to you about acouple of things that we've done over the past threeand a half years. first of all, we havecreated 4.5 million jobs, 4.4 million jobs to be preciseover the past 28 months. american manufacturing iscreated jobs for the first

time since the late 1990s. because of the actionsof the president, the american auto industryis now growing again. we've taken unprecedentedsteps to help small businesses, including providing 18 taxcuts to small business owners, including 1.5 million smallbusinesses that are owned by asian americans. on the healthcare front, thepresident has passed a historic health reform bill that willnot only provide insurance to 30

million americans but just asimportantly provide important protections to hundreds ofmillions of others who already have health insurance. bit about thathealthcare law. for instance, the new healthcarelaw eliminates lifetime coverage, limits on coverage,for 105 million americans, including five and ahalf million aapis. last year, the law provided54 million americans, including 2.7 millionasian americans,

with some kind ofpreventive service, something like a flu shot,a mammogram, a pap smear, a colon cancer screening. and for all of you, theyoung adults in the room, the law allows you to stayon your parent's insurance. and that's a pretty big deal. that will end up helping 97,000asian americans because of this one provision. in the area of higher education,we've taken historic steps to

help make college areality for everybody, helping to fulfill really oneof those fundamental dreams that all of our parents have whichis to gain a hire education. in fact, later today, thepresident will be signing a bill in the east room of the whitehouse that will effectively prevent your student loaninterest rates from doubling. and had that not occurred,that would have cost you an additional $1,000 a year. that's a significant stepto help young people like

yourselves afford college. so this administration reallyhas made an unprecedented commitment in so many waysto the aapi community. but the president has also madeclear to us that nobody should be invisible totheir government. and that's one of the reasonswhy we go out and we talk to so many different groups. and that's also criticalbecause, as all of you know, notwithstanding some of therecent studies that have come

out showing about howgreat our community is, our community is not amonolithic one as well. there are people that are doingvery well and then there are people who arenot doing as well. let me just read you acouple of the statistics. one out of every six asianamericans lack health insurance. and they sufferdisproportionately from diseases like hepatitis b. we have some of thehighest rates of poverty

in our community. 38% of hmong, 30% of cambodiansare living in poverty. even among chinese americans whowe normally think of as a more affluent group, when you lookat places like new york's chinatown, 35% of thechildren live in poverty. in the area of education,we have children of opportunity, and we have children of need. obviously, many of you are goingto some of the best schools we have in the country.

but you also know that amonglarge parts of our community, higher education is nota reality for many people. for instance, amongsoutheast asian americans, the high schooldropout rate is 40%. 40% for laotians and cambodians. i mean that's staggering. so i would put the president'srecord on aapi issues against any administration. yet at the end of the day,all of us know that government

can't be the answerto all of our problems. the problems are just tooextensive and government's resources are too scarce. and that's why, in the end,gatherings like this are so important and why it wasimportant for me to come here to talk to all of youbecause, as all of us know, change just doesn'thappen here in washington. it has to happenaround the country. you know, all of you alreadyknow that because you're working

in your high schools. you're working in your colleges. you're working in yourneighborhoods to improve the lives of thepeople that live there. and that's importantbecause far too off, we in washingtonsimply see statistics. all of you around thecountry are seeing people. you're seeing problems. and you're looking for thosecreative solutions to how to

help solve those problems. so i want to encourage all ofyou to learn more about our community, not only those partsof the community that are doing well but those parts thataren't doing as well. i also hope you'll learn aboutsome of the things that we are doing in the administrationto help the aapi community. and i also want you to be veryhonest and very candid and very vocal about what we are notdoing as well as we could be doing or things that weought to be focusing on.

and that's why what gautamtalked about, the engagement, is so critical. we need to hear from all ofyou about what we should be doing better. and finally andmost importantly, i want to encourage all of youto consider spending some time in public service. and it doesn't have to be yourentire career as i've done. whether it's simply volunteeringin your neighborhood,

learning about the issues, beingengaged in civic activities. i've worked in the federalgovernment for about 17 years right now. and i can think ofno more noble cause. and i hope that if i come backto the white house 25 years from now, one of you is standingup on stage giving kind of a similar presentation. and in my heart of hearts, i'llstill think i'm a young aapi person 25 years from now.

so i'm expecting greatthings from all of you. i know i'm going to be talkingto some of you later in the day. and as i said, i look forwardto reading your tweets and your questions online. and i hope you enjoythe rest of your day. so thank you very much. so just a couple ofquick housekeeping notes. one is, for those of you who atsome point want to step outside, please make sure you don't leavethe complex because if you leave

the complex andturn in your badge, you won't be ableto get new one. so please don't leavethe white house complex. the other thing is please stayhydrated because it's really hot outside. and apparently, there havebeen a couple incidents of people fainting. so i'll just put that out there. so with that, i'm going to turnit over to jason tengco from the

white house initiative on aapiswho has really been instrumental in helping to put this eventtogether -- so thank you jason -- who will come up here andintroduce our next panel. jason tengco:how is everyonedoing this morning? good? all right. great. so good morning again everyone. welcome again tothe white house.

for those of you who don't knowme, my name is jason tengco. i'm the advisor on publicengagement with the white house initiative on aapis, asianamericans and pacific islanders. and i also serve as theinitiative's liaison to the office of public engagementhere at the white house. so as you all know,i worked with you all to get in. so i'm glad thatyou all are here. before we begin, i actuallywanted to do a quick roll call of who's in the room.

so how many are currentcollege students right now? current college students? okay. so that's mostpeople in the room. are there anyhigh school students? awesome. so we have a couple. recent graduates? any recent graduates?

so mostly collegestudents, recent graduates. so before i introduce today'sdistinguished panelists, i actually wanted to talkbriefly about the title of our panel, breakingthe bamboo ceiling. so despite aapis being thefastest growing ethnic group in the nation, we're stillunderrepresented in many areas of society. as we all may already know,aapis are often subject to stereotypes of themodel minority myth,

seen as being quiet,obedient, subservient, rather than speaking up, takingrisks, or being aggressive. so these perceptions, combinedwith cultural barriers, can sometimes impede on ourprogression up the social ladder, thus making it moredifficult for our community to attain seniormanagement positions. so that's where the termbreaking the bamboo ceiling comes from. we may even sometimes feel likewe have to work twice as hard or

constantly prove ourselves justin order to get to where others are on the ladder. despite these challenges, weshould also be proud of those who have either defied the oddsor challenged these stereotypes to get to where they are today. so i'm honored to be joinedby three trail blazers in the federal government in the aapisand the obama administration. and i can say with confidencethat each of them has definitely contributed to helpbreaking the bamboo ceiling.

so you all have their bios. so i don't want torepeat that information. but i would like to ask themto just introduce themselves, take one to two minutes to talkabout their current position, what they do, what theiragency does, you know, basically answering the mostfrequently asked question in washington, so, what do you do? georgia yuan:everybody'spointing to me to start, so i guess i'll start.

i'm georgia yuan, deputy undersecretary at the department of education. and many of the things thatchris just talked about that are related to education are withinthe policy areas that i work on. i do all of the policy forhigher education and help with the under secretary to definethose policy areas as well as help oversee federal studentfinancial aid which maybe many of you are recipients of. so we are responsible for notonly getting that aid into your

hands so that you can go toschool but also ensuring that the schools that receive the aidfrom you are doing well by you and also ensuring theintegrity of that program. we also are workingwith aanapisis, the asian american nativeamerican pacific islander serving institutions. the aanapisis are institutionsthat have at least 10% of their student populationsidentified as asian american. and we have programs thatgo specifically to those

institutions to help them serveyou better as institutions of higher education. chris mentioned also thatsecretary duncan is a cochair of the white house initiativeon asian americans and pacific islanders. and that's a reallyimportant part of the mission of our agency. we house all of the whitehouse initiatives for minority students and minority people.

and that's a really importantpart of what we do in the under secretary's office. so that's basically what i do. thomas phan:my name is thomas phan. i'm a senior career executivemember of the federal service. i work for the office of scienceas a director for office of business policy andoperations in 2009. recently i serve as senioradvisor for office of scientific and technical information.

the mission of the energydepartment is to ensure america's security andprosperity by addressing it's energy, environmental andnuclear challenge, also, true transformative scienceand technology solution. i'm also serving as a whitehouse initiative interagency working group designee,also serving as the executive director for asian americangovernment executives network. our goal is to promoteexpanding support, federal career memberfrom gs 13, 14,

15 and raising them to steppingup to become a senior leader in the federal government,to break the bamboo ceiling. i also serve in the localcommunity as an advisor for the ig community in(inaudible) county. ana ma:thank you. good morning, everybody. i'm ana ma and i serve as thechief of staff for the secretary of labor at thedepartment of labor. and basically, my job is, assome folks would say it's the

number 3 person at thedepartment handling about 17,000 employees which basically,at the department of labor, we oversee kind ofyour working career. we have offices, you know,basically employment and training, which kind of putstogether the training programs and administer, you know,various employment programs, along with retirement,along with, you know, making sure that anorganization such as osha, which oversees making surethat your workplace is safe,

which is really important. and also, you know,making sure that, overall, we're there at everystep of your career. and more or less, i kind ofjoke that i do whatever chris tells me to do. (laughter) jason tengco:so as you can see, clearly we have reallydistinguished aapi senior officials in the obamaadministration here with

us today. but i was wondering if you allcould actually share your story of how you got to where you are,you know what sparked your interest in federal serviceand also what were some of the obstacles that you hadto overcome along the way. georgia yuan:i'll start again. i think it's really interestingto start a panel like this by using the phrase breakingthe bamboo ceiling. i think as a very young person,i had the great fortune,

as a high school student,to be encouraged to do a senior project on womenas asian americans. this was in the dark ages,in the 70's, in the early 70's. and one of the things thatsparked my interest then, it was sort of almost-- this is pre-ms. magazine. there's two stereotypes thati think women grow up with. you know, one is that we'rereally bad at science and math and that, you know, we're reallygood communicators and we should

follow certain career paths. and then as asian americans, yousort of get hit by the opposite kind of stereotype. and i had a real curiosity atthe ripe age of 17 to ask the question, you know, how dothese stereotypes really, when they're embodiedin one person, how do they guide your career,how do they guide your thinking, what you feel confidentabout doing and not doing? and that theme seemed tojust carry me through a lot

of interests. i was really fortunate tohave teachers and professors throughout my academiclife who encouraged me. so my first career wasreally as a geologist. i went all the way tograduate school as a geologist and then switched careersand became a lawyer. and through all of that, i thinkit always was there was somebody ahead of me sort of whose pathi could understand and see, sometimes asian american women,sometimes not and also what i

would call now, in today'sparlance, a sponsor, not just a mentor, but someonewho actually could see me for what i was doing and couldhelp me, lift me up and say, you know, you really oughtto look at this opportunity or that opportunity. even going to law schoolfrom a career in geology, people often sayhow did that happen. and, you know, part of it was ibecame place bound after i got married, but a friend of minejust said you would really be

interested in the law. i think there's -- i knowthere's a law school down the road, i know theassistant dean, you know, let me make an appointmentfor you just to go find out if that's something you want to do. so, you know,fast forward 25 years, i was a general counsel attwo institutions of higher education, and the obamaadministration came in and, again, a colleague who was closeto the transition team said,

gee, you know, they're lookingfor someone who does higher ed law, that's obviously you,and let me put your name in. and now i'm here, and i spenttwo years at the department as deputy general counsel doingall the higher education pieces, and this year becamedeputy undersecretary. so it's a combination of neveractually recognizing that there was a ceiling, always havingpeople above that ceiling to say, you know, reachingdown, reaching out, and saying i want to help youbecause i think you could go

places and maybe you don'tsee this for yourself, but i see it for you. and it's alsoresponding to that. you know, it's risky. i've moved my family back andforth across the country three times at periods whenmost people would not do it. you know, i had a son who was ateenager at the time, and also, you know, just people don'tmove that late in their lives. and we just always viewedit as the next opportunity.

so i guess that's -- i feellike i ended up here not, not because i hadseen this path always, but because i responded to otherpeople seeing a path and also because it was, it's always beenfascinating and interesting, and i have to say every movei've made has been really interesting and something thati never will regret doing. thomas phan:great. thank you very much. as you know, my name thomasphan, and let me share,

when chris mentioned abouthe feel old in front of you, i feel even older,but my heart has, my age has stoppedcounting when i'm 21. (laughter) and at home rightnow, you know, we have twins, one boy, one girl, and wifealways say you make me feel like i have triplets, you know. (laughter) you know, i only playwith them and i forgot that i, i always think i'm 13,you know, teenager. and it is my honor and veryemotional for me right now to

stand in front of you to sharewith you the importance of engaging and go out and speakup and serve in community. let me share you quickly mystory because i can tell my story day after dayafter day, many day. (laughter) but i join, i wasborn in vietnam and i joined the republic of vietnam asa young officer in 1972, when i graduate highschool, as a high schooler. most of my friend getdrafted to the military. i didn't get draftedbecause two things.

i get admitted to the universitywhere also my father is, you know, highlevel in government, but in the end i decided to jointhe military because all of my friends go, so i go. (laughter) and also they sayit's cool when you become a young officer, you know. a lot of girlslike you, so they say. (laughter) so anyway. but i make that decision, imake that decision, and in 1972,

make long story short,i go to the war, i get wounded a couple oftime, get survived many times, miraculously, i couldn'tbelieve i still survive today. make one quick event,like one time i step on mine with my radio and my sergeant,and we know we die on that day, and we count 1, 2,3, jump backward. and all i do remember mymom say when you at the last minute of your life,just look up the sky and pray. and that's what idid i say save me.

and suddenly -- (laughter) wehear a loud explosion and my radio man get cut in half, mysergeant lost two arm and one leg, and i stay in the swamp inthe middle of the night and i learned that ididn't get any injury. and i survived miraculously. i got captured in1975 when the war is over, and i was in the communistprisoner of war -- they call it a reeducation camp orconcentration camp in the jungle for five years.

i can't tell you allof the detail right now, but i get tortured, i getbeat up and get executing, tried to escape many time. i survived a couple timesand very hungry all of the time. eat everything movein the jungle, you know. and i escaped and i survivedin 1980 from the camp, go to saigon, find outthat my mom, my sister, everybody become homeless,sleep on the street. and my mom say i cannot liveher, so i go to united states.

she say you have to go to unitedstates to start your life again. and fortunately, i know a couplepeople to organize the escape, i joined them. i go to one of the navy base, ifamiliar when i was in the army, we stole a coast guard boat --the communist coast guard boat, not the united --(laughter) and we travel, we take 58 villagers with us,traveling across the pacific ocean for 17 days. five days the engineexplode, the food run out,

we have 12 days no food,we eat live sushi every day -- (laughter) you know,and we drink rainwater. we survived miraculouslyon that ordeal, too, we get pirated three time, theyraped young girl in our boat, they tried to killa couple people. i have to stand up asa leader, begging them, and they almost killed me, too. but we got rescued by unitednations ship after 17 days, when we know that that'sthe last day of our life.

and we go to the u.s. delegation refugee camp. in the refugee camp i tell you,when you learn something on the job really save you goto united states faster. it's one funnystory i never forgot, is when i was in the army i workwith all of the g.i., you know, american soldiers, and allof them back then they have transistor radio, you know, aradio transistor, a small radio, so i listened to all of the rockmusic and i remembered them all.

i didn't know what it mean. when i in the refugeecamp i sit in the hammock, i lay in the hammock andi sing every day, you know, "first time i ever saw yourface" by roberta flack, "don't let me down," "sugar,sugar" -- (laughter) "let it be," and i haveno clue what it mean. and one of the u.s. officers came to me,wow, your english so good. and i nod my head, i didn'tknow what he asking me about.

(laughter) and he said do youwant to become the interpreter? i say, yes, i am. (laughter) so i -- due to theresult of my interpretation, many, many family want to goto united states go to canada. or many people want to go tocanada end up in australia, so i make a lot of assumptions. (laughter) but i enteredthe united states in 1981, i tell you. and i start my lifefrom scratch here.

my memory lose everything. i lost a lot ofmy memory, and the high school didn't accept me,the university didn't accept me, they say yourenglish is terrible. (laughter) i failed my test ofenglish for foreign language a zillion times,and nobody wanted me. so i actually, i worked as a --at nighttime as an assembler, you know, be on theline now from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and i volunteeredto clean the lab at george

mason, and thenfinally the dean, the chair for the electricalengineering school at george mason say what you doing here. i say i want to go touniversity, nobody accept me. he say well you asian,you must be good at math and science, you know. (laughter) but i tell you,i never believe one day i become engineer. i grow up cleric, i likepoems, i like literature,

i want to become a businessman,political science, a lawyer, and he say, well,take one class. if you pass, i letyou enter the school. and i miserable for thatelectric circuit number one. and my friend readone chapter one hour, run around to her friends. i read one chapterthree day, four day. i have a big dictionary. but i graduated as an engineerat high school and i joined

johns hopkins as my masterdegree in engineering, and i work my way up. i joined the government,my heart call me for a life of service, so i joinedthe government in 1990, and i never regret since. and i move my way up to become,break the bamboo ceiling, like you say. if you see in thegovernment aapi, a lot of gs-13 and then a bigdrop because of where you change

between the technologiststo become supervisor, management, supervisory. because there's a lot of peoplenot willing to pass that nudge or push from 13 tobecome 14 supervisor. and then from 14 to15 it go up very high, and then from 15 up it dropagain because not a lot of support or encouragement foryou to become senior executive. so too many years,make long story short, in my 12 years as a gs-15 idetermined to want to become

senior executive not becauseof title, not because of money, because i want to show that if iget out from concentration camp, if i lost my memory, if i haveto start my life from scratch and i can become a leader,all of you can become a leader. and how many of you hereborn in here in united states? raise your hand. see, 90 percent of you born inhere and you have that luxury, you have that, the power whatyou learn in this country, but also you have the traitof your country, of asians,

you have to combine east andwest together and you become great leader out there. so let's see what i --(laughter) i think i run out of time right here,but i mean, yeah. so that's where the -- one thingi have for you is very clear. the most important iwant to mention today, the intelligence youcan learn from school, but in today's environment whenyou live in the culture of today many things surround you,you have to do everything

at the same time,the concurrent engineering or concurrent solution. what i mean iswhile you go to school, pursue your intelligentcareer, you're to become iq, you have to alsostart learning how, building your characterto become a good leader. you have to learn to becomeemotionally intelligent, how to work with people,how to deal with people. but also you have to travelinto your heart to start

understanding your strength andyour weakness, your strength, and you have to understandhow to combine all those three together. to become a good leader,you have knowledge, you have emotional intelligence,you understand people, how to work with people, butalso you strong in your heart. the most traveled road,the long road is from your head to your heart. so i am encouraging youbuilding your integrity,

building your principles. have a golden rule andcare for other people. starting right now, when youin college or when you in high school, go to your localcommunity and offer your service, offer your help,and i think that's important. ana ma:wow, thank you thomas,that's great, and georgia. (applause) like themajority of you, i was actually the first oneborn in the u.s., and coming

from immigrant parentswho had basically, who were small business owners,so my parents were small business owners, my grandparentswere small business owners, so was my great grandfather wasthe first one to come to this continent, and they ended upsettling in mexico, actually, the first 12 years of mylife i ended up being there. then -- even thoughi was born in the u.s. and then later on i startedjunior high, high school, college, you know, thoseformative years in the u.s.,

speaking a different language,speaking -- different culture, and definitelyquite a trying time, but at the sametime a challenge. and what i need toknow is i saw, you know, in high school youget involved in crowds, and i had an incredibleopportunity to basically complain about thefood at the cafeteria. who remembers that? it's awful.

so that's how i kind of gotinvolved in student government and running for officeand, you know, thinking, i can make a difference,which you can. i ended up not winning,i ended up losing by ten votes. i'm actually extremelygrateful for that, because then i was appointedto basically represent the high school at theschool board meetings. and i got to meet a futurecongressman there who become kind of that anchor for me, thatperson that basically was always

on the lookout for you. he ended up actually after thatyear that we served together, ended up going to the universityas an assistant dean for latino affairs, and at that pointit was my freshman year, so the only soul that iknew at college was, you know, that gentleman. he ended up being eventuallya member of congress, and i ended up getting involvedin politics, which is, you know, an odd career in a way for --especially an immigrant family,

because, you know, obviouslyour parents were always, like, concerned about, you know,making sure you had health care and making sureyou had a steady job. and i ended up doing a lotof the grassroots organizing, which it's an incredible,incredible experience back, in my home state. so needless to say i've been inwashington about 15 years now, a fast 15 years, basicallystarting out from the gs-9 level, which, you know,it's basically special assistant

to somebody somebody somebody. it's an incredible positionthat you learn so much about, you know, how government works. and eventually moving up so ihad the privilege of serving in this administration as chief ofstaff to two different cabinet agencies, and each oneof them unique, you know, from the small businessside, you know, hearing my family's concernsabout small business, you know, they kind of had my ear, andthen now working for america's

workers, which is where istarted first back 15 years ago. so for me, having an opportunityto work for secretary solis, who cares so much about,i mean, all workers, obviously, but especiallycoming from east la. she cares about, you know,making sure that the youth and minority communities, et cetera,get as much opportunities as possible. so for me kind of breaking thebamboo ceiling has been about opportunity, about being seen byothers as somebody capable of,

you know, basically managingand capable of communicating and delivering. and that has beenkind of the bottom line. it's, you know, hopefullywe'll discuss later on about strategies, but working forthis administration has been an incredible opportunity,and not only -- it's been a handful and a trying coupleof years, and, you know, we are doing our best to makesure that we advance, you know, and get everybody advancingas much as possible.

jason tengco:so i actually justwanted to ask one more question, then i wanted to openit up to you all for q&a and just really havethis as a dialogue. but thomas, you actuallyhit on this earlier, and you all clearly haveincredible stories of how you got to where you are today. what other advice do youhave for a lot of the college students in the crowd, a lot ofrecent graduates who are at the crossroads and might be worriedabout choosing what they want

to do next? and they might feel conflictedabout what they should do instead of what they wantto do based on, you know, what your parents think, whatyou think your major should be, maybe about the fiscalimplications of your decisions, the economy, you know,you're worried about what should be on your resumã©. so what other advicedo you have for the youth, young aapi leaders in theearly stages of their career?

thomas phan:well, what i haveis follow your heart, your passion. and my wife would say don'ttell your daughter like that, you know. (laughter) but it's true,you have to follow your heart. and i told her that. i stand behind you. importance is in your careerright now if you can't define, you don't know what iwould like to do it's okay,

don't worry about that. engage in community,because the community, the people are going to defineyou, not you define people. and don't worry aboutthe management skill, worry about how ican have a caring heart. and suddenly, one day you'llwake up, you'll say, wow, i've become a good leader. the leader's character is notlike in the book tell you 1, 2, 3, you have to do this orthat, that's an important book,

teach you all of the parametersto become good leader. but the leader alsofrom within, inside. and i go backward, you know. back then i really wantto become political science, social science, journalismor computer or -- i mean or engineer -- lawyer,but nobody accept me. but now i look back, i learnedthat if i started more in the beginning as a liberalstudy, political science, when you end up youunderstand more how to

serve in community more. and when you get a job, yougo back to graduate school, now you know exactly whatyou want to learn and what you want to study. rather than i start in engineerfirst and i'm struggling. and i only speakfor myself right now. but if you have your heartin science, that's different. if you have your -- sayi want to become scientist, that's important in society, weneed those scientists as well.

but if you don't know thatyet, don't let bother you. engage immediately,concurrently. i speak earlier thatconcurrently while you go to school, reach out. even you reach out to thehigh school and go to visit high school, form agroup together, college, go to talk to those young highschool and share with them your dream, your vision, and let themengage with college activity. so i think that's important.

georgia yuan:i was going to addto that, so, thomas, you have a great,compelling story. and the follow your heart piecei think is something parents tell children, hopefully, and ithink it's, i think it's right. but i also think that we forgetsometimes when we're following our hearts that every, everyperson you interact with, every job you have, no matterhow closely related it feels to something you care about,is something that helps you become who you are,and also demonstrates

to others who you are. so being who you are,real in every situation, i think is very importantbecause every person you meet is someone who may come backto you in another form later in your life. i mean, the number of times ithink as we go through our lives -- and i think all of usare demonstrating, you know, you don't startwhere you end, right? people look at someone who'sachieved something that they

think they wantto be, and it looks, they think it's a straight line. there are no straightlines, especially now. i think people changejobs very frequently, they change interests, changedisciplinary interests, go back to school. some of you maybe are already inthe second school that you were in -- you're not in thesame school you started in. and i think it's everybody youmeet along the way, you know,

even when you're cleaninglabs and you meet, you know, a professor in the middleof the night who happens to be there late. that one interactioncan change your life. so it's important to be whoyou are and to remember that in every job you have,you have the opportunity to lift your community. it isn't just the jobs that sayi'm a community activist or i'm working with asianamerican alliance xyz,

every interaction youhave, there's a mirror. people are seeing you forwhat you are projecting, and for many of us they see anasian american first or they see an asian first. and i think whatever people,whatever stereotype they attach to that, at some level you own,you really can't take it off. you're not going to take thatoff like your coat at the door and hang it up. so you are us, we are you.

it's important that we are thebest we can be for each other, as well as for ourselves and forour children and our parents. and i know that's a veryasianesque kind of concept, but i do thinkit's what we have, and that's really importantbecause, you know, there's leadership andthere's leadership styles, but we bring a tremendousamount to leadership through our culture. we bring a leadershipof collaboration,

we bring a leadership oflistening before speaking. i mean, how many times have youbeen accused of being the quiet one, and it's not justbecause you're not speaking, it's because you're listening. listening is a really importantskill that a lot of people have to learn, and you mayhave learned it at home, and fortunate for you. and so we bring a lot to thetable that is highly valued in the workplaceand in our society.

and we just have forgotten tolabel it sometimes and forgotten where it comes from. and i think, so it's just veryimportant that no matter where you end up, if you're followingyour heart and you're being who you are and you're rememberingeverything that you know about your culture and what's beenimparted to you from family and friends, it will carry you far. ana ma:i definitelybelieve that, you know, along with my two panelistshere, it's something about,

you know, following yourpassions and following -- along with your passions, findingthose challenges and learning from those situations. and more than anything else,it's, again, it's the listening, it's the understanding. and i think also at the sametime speaking up and getting your voice heard. and i've beenextremely fortunate, and i think all of us have beenin meeting that 1, 2, 3, 8,

12 people that have beeninstrumental in lifting you up and then you,you pay it forward. and we've been fortunateto be able to do that, too. so i, you know, i was,i was trying to get into that demonstration back in 2008,once senator obama became president elect,and it was about, you know, basically knowing that oneperson who was basically looking out for you, and being able tosay, you know, you can do this. and i'm like, get out ofhere, you know, really?

and definitely, it was alot of prodding that evening. and i eventually said, fine,you know, here's my resumã©, let's give it a go. and i was extremely fortunateto meet the person that was nominated for the small businessadministration who became an incredible influence for me,and we were able to work really well together for over 30 monthsbefore i came over to labor. and i think that that'ssomething that you kind of keep with you, and i had many ofthose situations in my previous

career -- in my career whereit's all about, you know, it's not only whatyou know, what you learn, it's also who you know and whohas been influencing you and who has talked to youand who have you met. and so i definitelythink that, you know, one of the best sayingshas been, you know, if you can't say something niceabout somebody don't say it at all, that usuallyis true to itself. but hopefully we cangive you more advice,

as jason leads ushere on the panel. thomas phan:may i add onething very importantly, or i can talk with allof you forever, i mean, because when i seeyou i see myself. like i say, the day i enteredto the concentration camp i'm 21 years and myyouth stopped there. i lost all of my youth. but now when i came to thiscountry my youth revived because you had a reason for me tomove on and to move up and

to speak up. so one thing i want to addreal quick is very important. you live in afast-paced world today. you've got to havetime for yourself. at the end of the day, please,spend your time in a quiet when your siblings go to sleep,when your parents go to sleep, just quiet, find a place whereyou call it your dating place. sit in there and just quiet andlisten to your heart 15 minutes, five minutes, ten minutes, youamazing how it happen next day.

you reach out, youbecome wiser, you become, have more energy to move on. so don't move without stop,reflect, and referral to yourself. very important. and the second thing i want topush real hard is be transformed but not to conform, to conformto the standards of this world, because you are the leader. conformity make you becometimid and move back because

of embarrassment. i have people think this aboutme, especially in high school, especially in college. when people do somethingyou want to do different, be transformed. if you know something right,stand up and do it anyway, even you know youwill be ridiculed at. but that's okay, becauseyou know you stand up for the right thing.

so important, don'tconform to something you know that's not right. be transformed. you should be a catalystfor the changing world, rather than be conform to theworld right now we don't care for each other, with everything. so that's important. jason tengco:so let's open it up to some questions for the audience.

so if you all couldjust raise your hand, say your name, affiliation. please keep yourquestions concise. our board members fromecaasu will hand you the mic. and for those of youwatching at home, hi. (laughter) you can tweet yourquestions to our twitter handles @whitehouseaapi@ecaasu and ourhashtag aapi, whaapiwhitehouse. so with that are there anyquestions in the audience? i think we have -- and make surethe mic is on and you speak into

the microphone. domingo juan:can you hear me? jason tengco:great. domingo juan:hi. domingo juan fromsan jose, california. i'm an intern forcongressman mike honda. speaking forseveral noncitizens, as you can see wehave the pink badges, we obviously have legalbarriers like voting.

what can noncitizens doother than naturalization? do you have any advice forus to be part of the political process as noncitizenaliens of this country? ana ma:domingo, again,you work for a great congressman, actually. i love congressman honda. jason tengco:i used to work forcongressman honda, too. great guy. ana ma:see, there'sa big fan base here.

hello, congressman honda. so i think that nothing preventsyou from getting involved in the political process. there's nothing wrongabout going to a political headquarters and being able tosay i care about this candidate, let me go and knockon some doors, let me go and helpyou form policy. let me go and just help you out. you know, that's -- ithink eventually, well,

we'd love to see how you canget you involved and get you legalized andnaturalized, et cetera. but in the meantime, though,nothing stops you from getting involved and beingable to, again, help out and voice your opinion. i think that's thecorrect way to put it. i'm looking at counsel here. georgia yuan:i mean,i think you're right. you know, maybe the onething you can't do is vote,

but there's so much else. i mean, what is politics, whatis being involved other than helping people understand --understanding education about what is going on is veryimportant, and i think that's a, you know, one person at a time,one conversation at a time sometimes, and sometimes hearingfrom people who are not citizens is maybe some of the mostimportant information we can have, the perspectiveswe can have. and thanks forwanting to be involved.

juan domingo:thank you. ana ma:absolutely. jason tengco:questions? ana ma:let's not be shy. jason tengco:don't be shy. yep. i think we have aquestion over here. audience member:hi, everyone. my name is lawrence, i attendthe university of pennsylvania,

and i'm affiliatedwith apa's and capal. my question is about mentorship. mentorship has been acommon thread in all of your stories it seems. how do you put yourself in aposition to find those people that can help influence you andput you on the path to where you want to be, what can you do toput yourself into that situation to find those people? thank you.

georgia yuan:so i would say, you know,it's i think, you know, in the old days, we used tothink of it as luck or as, you know, someone -- you justhappen to be in the right place at the right time. and i think -- i think nowmany, many more people, and i think the threeof us are examples, understand the role ofmentorship and what i would call sponsorship, which is beyondjust being a sounding board for you, but also really helpingyou by opening doors or

connecting you. and the so-called informationalinterview is a really common tool now, and i -- you know,a week doesn't go by when i don't have somebody who i'mtalking to that i've never met before that i meet in anaudience like this or meet at another speaking engagementwho will reach out and say, you know, you said somethingreally interesting, could i talk to you, i'minterested in something else, you know, that you said.

and so i think, youknow, it's asking. you'd be -- i hope you'll bevery pleasantly surprised when you ask, so many peoplewill respond positively, because i think we all recognizethe value of helping everyone, whether it's a nextgeneration person or someone, as thomas said, who isreinventing themselves later in life, i think we allunderstand the value of that. and part of the value of a grouplike this is so that you get to know each other as well, becauseyou can also help each other

through your own connections. but it's asking, and it'sso much simpler than you -- you might think. thomas phan:may i add into that isto look for mentor is very important, and tofind one is very easy. you know, first is startingwith a handshake, go everywhere, and if you see (indiscernible)a senior official or anyone in that crowd,don't hesitate, you move to the top line andjust handshake and introduce

yourself and then mayi have your phone, and then you call them. the second start with a phonecall saying can you become my mentor. georgia yuan:thomas alreadydid this to me, so. thomas phan:and that's how to start. you know, like many years agowhen i was still a gs13, 14, i go to an event and i seesecretary mineta only far away, he's a key note speaker,and people say he very busy,

you can't go up there,and i go around the line and i just shake hand andasking him become my mentor. so just start with your,you know, engagement, very important. and then looking for the mentorwho different in the background with you, because they cancomplement and can counseling, because the mentor isa teacher, is a guide, also is a counselor andchallenger, and as he say, also you mention in your careerhow you grow in your career

based on who you know, butmost importantly who know you. you might know a lot of people,but the people who know you, they know your character,they know your commitment, they know your principle,you don't have to asking, when the time come,they will mention your name and they will drop your name,and then that is it, your career change right there. so important, introduce yourselfand who know you and act professional, act integrity,act just be yourself,

and don't worry to sellyourself, people will know you. so that's whati'd add on to that. ana ma:and, hey, lawrence,you belong to capal, and it's a greatorganization where, you know, especially based here in d.c.,i used to be one of the board members, and again,i had somebody who, you know, was a mentor of mine,somebody who i looked up to, somebody who wouldopen doors for me. it's -- again, you can't beshy, you really have to do that

seeking out yourself. and as thomas said,somebody who's different, somebody who's doingsomething different, it could be an incrediblebeneficial for both of you, actually for thementor and the mentee. but getting involvedin organizations, getting involved at theleadership level also, i mean, it just gives you more andmore opportunities to meet a lot more people.

you know, you don't come to d.c. without a business card,that's the thought, because you're alwayshanding it out. and that's definitely a plus. jason tengco:so i actually wanted totake a question from twitter. so we have ben feng 93. ben from nyc wanted to ask, howcan we get api youth to be less apathetic and more engaged oncampus and in our communities. so how do we -- howdo we engage, you know,

more of the api apathetic youth? ana ma:well, i thinkone of the -- you know, technology is anincredible tool. technology i thinkhelps us reach out. thanks, ben, for the question. and it starts with you, itstarts with people right here in this room basically can help andreach out to ten other people and talk to them aboutexperiences such as this, i think that the more and morefolks will reach out through

summits like this helpsbasically get to folks who are apathetic. i mean, my -- mybrother, he's apolitical, yet at the same time, though,he knows how important because of my work it is to payattention once in a while, and so he'll go into twitter,he'll go into, you know, my facebook pagewhere i post stuff, and he kind of gets informed. now, you know, he doesn't justlook at mine and just blindly

follow me, he definitelychallenges me. he's an engineer working at adefense contractor, you know, he is back home inarizona, far away, yet at the same timethough, locally, and if you guys havefollowed your politics, the news in arizona,it's an incredibly hot state, and not only the weather. but there's a lot ofissues going on there. and so we have quite a dialogue.

i think it kind of helps ifyou guys kind of help us out to spread the word out. but again, the key is getting --hitting that issue where youth, apathetic api youthare concerned about. and you know, so you need tohelp us define what that also may be, but i think the firstthing that we're all worried about is jobs and wherewe're going in the future. and i think that's somethingthat definitely you can check us out at dol.gov and we can talkabout the jobs of the future,

the jobs that we are looking at,the trends that we see in trying to help you in your careers asyou're shaping your education. so i definitely encourage youto check our websites out, and at the same timehelp us spread the word. gorgia yuan:so, you know, implicitin the question i think is that getting involved hassomething to do with fighting discrimination orself-identifying as asian american or thinking of usas a group that needs to band together to do something.

and it's going to soundvery old fashioned, but i think -- i think there'sa level of consciousness raising that happens whileyou're in college. there's a -- you know, whereveryou were in your identity journey, it's probably going tobe more intensified while you're in college. and lucky if it is, because it'sharder actually i think when you get out of college to findpeople who will enter into that discussion with you.

and so i don't know if it reallymotivates young people anymore to get involved. i certainly know from anothergeneration that that's what drew us in was the opportunity toreally talk to others who are experiencing life, becauseracially we experience life in many of the same ways,and it's as i said earlier, it's not something youcan take off at the door. and i think aspeople, as each of us, no matter where we are inour careers or our lives,

recognizes that it is a bondingand it is helpful as you grow in your careers, in yourlives, in your character, to have that outside yourfamily to really talk about, and that's, you know, maybethat's the core of the question is how do you get people tobe less apathetic about their own identities or abouthow they walk through life. and i don't knowthat you can rush it, but i do think if you as a groupof activists yourselves are already on a pathand it's attractive,

that people see the value,you will attract people. so it's maybe less aboutencouraging others so much as setting a standard that itbecomes attractive to others. and also i think each of ushas to be open to entering that conversation ata different point. you know, you can be 40 andstarting to enter into your own identity questions. you can put it off for apretty long time and not really confront it, and i think we haveto be gracious enough to be open

to people who are coming to itlater or earlier than we did. because i think that's alsosomething that happens to people as they get shut out, they marrypeople who don't look like us, they adopt childrenwho don't look like us, and then our communitystarts to shut them out, and that's not -- that'salso not what we want to be. thomas phan:let me add on to that, that how to engage the other apiif they less civically engaged. i think hereis the asian culture,

you need to activate. what i mean is you have passion,you have enthusiasm what you do, and that's very contagious. so when you see those people,they don't -- not engaged or involved maybe becausethey don't know what existing out there. you need to expose them andinvite them, but, however, don't preaching them, don't tryto talk everything you know. when you come to people, peoplethey only like it when you're

asking for theiropinion and for advice. so that's wherethe humility come in, where the humble come in. you write it and you come, yousay i know this, i know that, and you talk ten minuteabout what you know, what you have been doing. you just approach them, youasking them are you doing this and this coming with -- havevery important meeting and i know that you're very good atthis and i met you and i see you

before, would you please comewith me to this and render your opinion or do someassessment and share with me what you think. people, they love itwhen you give them a role and you make them feelimportant, and they will come, they'll pay attentionto everything, and they come back andthey share back to you. and in no time, they getcontagious what you're doing and they will become right on yourside where not even you tried to

drag them with you. so starting with that,asking people advice. and building trust to people. to work with people, the firstthing you have to building trust, you have to letpeople know, you know, that they can trust you, thatthey come to you with no harm, you have no harm for them. how to do that withthree -- three -- for me, three simple step tobuilding trust with anyone

you don't know yet. at first is makepeople feel important, and i just talked about that. the second thing, make peoplefeel good about themselves and value their thought, and ijust mentioned about that, too, that asking their opinion,asking their advice. and then the third thing isit creates success for them, that means you have to step downand willing to let them step up to the podium, willing to letthem step up and recognize them,

and when you do thatwith that individual, they will feel soclose and so trust to you, and now you getan another friend, you get anotheractivist with you. so that's what i have. so why don't we take acouple more questions from the audience. i think i saw a hand inthe back, in the very back, the girl with theglasses right there.

audience member:hi, my name is annie, i'm a recent graduate ofcolumbia and a new teacher in chicago. i had a question aboutdiscrimination in the workplace, especially where you all work. how has -- of course you'reall asian americans standing in front of me, and i wonder howdiscrimination plays a role in either your current work or yourpast work as a person in public service and howyou dealt with that.

i feel like there's notnecessarily overt discrimination in a lot of workplaces,but there's a lot of stereotypes that play into our work,and i was wondering about that. ana ma:well, working at thedepartment of labor, we definitely takediscrimination in the workplace as one of our top issues. and on a personalexperience, you know, obviously it's -- sometimesit is felt, sometimes it's not. i think that, you know,having secretary solis,

the first latino cabinet member,has helped a lot in the culture throughout, notonly our department, but also throughoutthe federal agency. i think this administration hasdefinitely put in, you know, basically has had quite a numberof folks in high level positions where, you know, it's allabout learning curves and understanding each other. we at the department,even educating folks within is a step-by-step process, and ithink that definitely it's a

trying period, but we can justmove forward and educate folks. and i think that is key. and recognizing what thesigns are, it's important. thomas phan:i do want to add alittle bit from my own experience is nowaday, it's muchless you see the evidence or the clearly of the discrimination. however, there's subliminal,it's feel it, you feel it there, but you can't explain it. you know, example, like wheni go to interview for a job,

many time i want to becomesenior level manager, i always -- out of250 applicants or 180, i only do the two finalists,only the second two finalists. and when i walk out of the room,whoever the second or the first walk out behind me andwhen i tell my wife, she say, you're not going to get thatjob, because the comfort factor. if that person is tall,caucasian and young, and you have an aging asian,you know, and, you know, short, it's not about discrimination,it's about the comfort factor.

they feel comfortable to pickthat person because the index factor make themfeel more comfortable. that's about it. so that how i feel. and i keep go back and keepgo back until i get it. and don't let me tell you orwhen you go to -- when i accept the job as an ses as well,you go the conference room, there is a gentleman, he talland he is one of my assistant and he's caucasian,he walk in the room,

people think that is thenew director, they say, wow, when six feet tall walk in andcaucasian, that's the leader, hmm, that's the leader. when you walk in, theysay not a leader, right? but you don't have ituntil you prove it. they have it until they lose it. so be yourself. you be yourself. and in the table, i'mlistening, in the meeting table,

i don't talk right away, ilistening to everybody say, and then at the end, i putin my statement or my vision, what i think we should do, andpeople say, where you get that? they always asking,a lot of people say they may not ask that question,but then they say, that's great, but where you get that? but finally they respectyou with your vision, your knowledgeand you be yourself. so don't let that shy you,put your idea on the table and

people start amazingthat what you think. i tell them, youknow, i speak english, might have a foreign accent, buti tell you in english, you know, and i can smile and laughin english, i told them that, so they laugh, but-- but be yourself, that's importantand don't be shy. gorgia yuan:i was just goingto say, you know, we don't talk aboutdiscrimination that much anymore, because i do thinkthere's a sense that we've come

a long way. but i can't agree more withthomas that it's, you know, discrimination is reallyabout perceptions, and the stereotype which soundslike not such a bad thing is actually a bad thing. and i think, you know,on an individual level, it's -- it's not justbeing who you are, but actually talking topeople about who you are. it's the relationshipsyou build.

i always say, you know,even someone who honestly is prejudiced against people on thebasis of race makes exceptions. right? they always say, well, i have ablank friend, right, whatever, fill in the blank,i have a friend. and it's true, right? they found a person who isactually of that race that they like, they respect,but it's an exception. it's not the whole -- they don'tmake the stereotype to the whole

race, like, oh, maybe myassumptions are wrong because i actually know this person ofthat race and they're fabulous. so, you know, we have awhole set of stereotypes which is confusing. and asian american asa category, you know, has changed a great deal overthe last 20 years as immigration has changed a great deal. and many of you i'msuspecting maybe are biracial, you have friends who arebiracial or you are -- you're an

adoptee and the rest ofyour family isn't asian, and so we are complicated now. we're not -- you know,even among ourselves, we're no longer a stereotype. and we have to helptell that story, and that's how you breakdown true prejudice and discrimination, it's --unfortunately it's sort of one by one, but it's -- theimportance of being who you are is also communicating that topeople that you think maybe are

making assumptions,not even about you, you might be their exception,but it's about the other people who look like you,and it's speaking up. and, you know, in my earlyyear, it was -- it was actually calling out people when theywould tell sexist or racist jokes, you know, we had to learnto do that to say, you know, i won't stand for that, i mean,it's just -- i'm not going to laugh with everybody else. and now, hopefully,we're well beyond that.

but there are timeswhen that's the analogy, someone will say something, dosomething, display an attitude. and i do think we all have aresponsibility to break that down, even if it hasn't costsomeone a job at the moment, it can later on. so let's take one more question. someone from this side. right here. audience member:hi there, my name is coco,

i'm from california stateuniversity in north ridge. and i'm currentlyaffiliated with myself. this question is particularlyfor the women on the panel. georgie you kind oftalked about this a little bit, but how do you deal withthe issue of being a woman, especially an asian americanwoman dealing with the workforce that, you know, they pride orvalue a lot of confidence and aggressiveness, but as a woman,you're seen as being too much of a ball buster, to be honest,and they can also be

really negative. so how do you deal with beingaggressive and confident and self assured of yourself andgoing out there without being seen as a negative factor? ana ma:i think it's about howyou communicate with folks. you can seem strong,yet at the same time kind. i think it's -- it has kind ofa -- the way you talk to folks, the way you deal with notonly the upper echelons, but also the lower echelons.

it's about the everyday kind-- you know, acts of kindness, i think, also. it kind of tells of who you are. but you know, yes, most ofthe time there is a stereotype, i think, and you try notnecessarily to fight it, i think, you know, it'sabout your leadership style. and i've been able tokind of lead by example, and being able to say, you know,being able to manage folks and talk to individuals withstraightforwardness,

i think that helps. and that's kind of understandingwhat your reputation is, you know, in talking to folks. georgia yuan:yeah, i guess iwould say, you know, it's not buying intoa stereotype, right? i mean, anyone who would saythat just because you're an assertive woman,that's a negative quality. and i'll use the term assertiveas opposed to aggressive, because i think anyone whois aggressive, man or woman,

and truly aggressive in asetting is probably doing something that's going toaffect their careers negatively. but if you turn thatword into being assertive, when you have somethingimportant to say or you're -- it depends whether you're outsideyour positional power or not. positional power has a lot to dowith how assertive or aggressive one can be. and i have to say i've had thegreat fortune of always having some fairly significantpositional power in most of my

jobs, but i thinkeven without it, it's important to -- to knowwhen it's the right thing to assert authority and whenit's not the right thing. and that has a lotto do with context. but if you feel -- i would sayif you have felt mislabeled or you feel that there's a buzzaround you which is mislabeling, no matter who you are,man or woman, asian or not, i think in the workplace, it'sreally important to understand that perception andto deal with it,

to either ensure that you're notdoing what people are labeling as such if youdon't think you are, or correcting a behavior if youthink -- because i do think the overly aggressive, you know,so-called ball busting behavior is behavior which will notactually stand you well in the workplace over the long term. jason tengco:thank you for that question. so i just wanted to end bysaying thank you again to our panelists, but also, you know,a lot of people say that the

youth are the future,you hear it a lot, that we're the next generation. but we also need to realizethat we're the present, too. so what final advice doyou have, closing remarks? if you could take about30 seconds to a minute, what final advice do you havefor the youth as they go through today's summit, theytalk about, you know, within our different workshopsbullying, higher education, careers in thefederal government.

as we conclude today and asyou all go back into your communities, campuses, whatfinal advice do you have for them as they continue toadvocate on behalf of the needs of the api community? ana ma:well, i would sayjust follow your passions, find something that you'repassionate about, that issue, that topic, and run with it. and i think that hasserved a lot of us well. and let me tell you,there's never a boring day.

thomas phan:i have a real quick iscontinue to learning and to frame yourself to become avirtuous and integrity leader, because that's a very importantcharacter in today marketplace, today environment, we needto have more virtuous leader. and a virtuous leader cansum up in (indiscernible) and you earn it and you grow itto your tribulation and task. life is being tasked,you will being tasked, and you will go to upand down your life, but you will become a strongleader where character is

prudence, to life youwill earn the prudence, and second is always have aheart of justice, being fair, being care for other people. the third is courage,you have to be courage, don't (indiscernible)have to go out there and stand up and move forward. and the last is self control. if you look intotheir leadership, they fail just because theylack of one of those four.

prudent, justice,courage, and self control. so that's what i have you have,and try to building of that in your career, in your life,and when you become a leader, people will see youthrough that your action. georgia yuan:thomas is a hard act to follow. i would say don't let yourselfget boxed in to someone else's definition of you. i know especially at this pointin your life you've had a lot of parental influence, other adultinfluence, mentors, you know,

thesis advisors,everyone has a view of you, and now is actually your time tofigure out what is your view of yourself and what is it that youstand for that you want to be. so, you know, listen hard towhat other people say to you, especially people whoknew you as children, because they probablyknow the purest you there is. and -- but also thinkin terms of, you know, what is it that i want, anddon't let yourself get boxed in or guilted into something.

find that passion, i think we'veall said that in different ways, it is your -- it's yourlife's energy to use and you only get it once. jason tengco:so let's give another roundof applause to our panelists. so thank you all forsharing your stories. clearly you have incrediblestories for helping us continue to break the bamboo ceiling. and we're excited for, you know,the next three of you all one day to be here on this paneltalking about your experiences.