OCA-UPS Gold Mountain Scholarship College Recipients
2024 Scholars
Kelly Huang
Kelly Huang is a rising senior at Stony Brook University, double majoring in Applied Mathematics and Statistics along with Economics. Born and raised in New York City, Kelly is a first-generation college student and the child of immigrant parents from China. She has a deep passion for data analytics and finance, with a strong commitment to advancing these industries. Kelly is dedicated to promoting diversity and equity in the workplace, particularly in fields where women and minorities are underrepresented. She is an active member of the Women in Business organization at her college and a program scholar for Girls Who Invest, both of which support the inclusion of women and minorities in business and investment sectors. Her passion for environmental conservation led her to work with the Wildlife Conservation Society, where she contributed to various initiatives. On campus, Kelly is involved in multiple organizations and is a University Scholar, participating in a close-knit community of peers with shared interests and goals. She also works with Campus Residences to connect students with management and volunteers as a Teaching Assistant for statistics courses. In her professional career, Kelly has gained valuable internship experience in commercial real estate, supply chain management, and corporate finance. She has worked with companies such as L’Oreal, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Chase, where she has honed her skills and clarified her career aspirations. Currently, she is interning as a Global Commercial and Investment Bank Controllers intern at JP Morgan Chase, eager to deepen her understanding of the banking industry. She looks forward to leveraging her skills and passion to drive positive change and innovation in her future career. She is also interested in studying towards her Masters in Business Administration in the future after gaining more experience in the field.
Brosnan Ika
Born and raised in Salt Lake valley Brosnan plans to graduate from the University of Utah this coming Spring with his undergrad in Film & Media with an emphasis in Animation. Brosnan of Tongan descent and his roots in the Beehive state run deep as he has tapped into both his local and cultural communities within Utah. Having adopted the work ethic and values of his parents as a first generation student/citizen, he firmly believes in action and dedicating time and effort to accomplish change. Having graduated from Salt Lake Community College has allowed him to foster connections and community with AANHPI student organizations, local community partners, and first generation college students.
As he strives to further his own education and career goals, he carries a heart of gratitude towards those who have afforded him the opportunity to do so and seeks to repay the sentiment. Brosnan hopes to work within the animation industry, pursue teaching in higher education as a professor, and provide support and opportunities to the next generation of students in the future.
Ying Li
Aurora Li is a New York University rising senior and the first person in his family to set his sights on becoming a social changemaker through entrepreneurship, specialising in affirmative and equal education. He is a first-generation student with dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. He feels a strong will to be a leader and serve the public.
As a young community leader, Aurora has built on prior community service activities to organise his neighbourhood, currently reaching out to more residents from social media, tutoring low-income high school students in STEM fields through the America Reads and Counts programme at New York University, and referencing local residents to financial and educational resources. Upon graduation, Aurora’s initial plan is a public administration and service fellowship in which he will study different community education models and work with innovative, policy-driven education programmes.
Thy Nguyen
Originally from Saigon, Vietnam, Thy Nguyen (she/her/hers) is a rising senior studying nursing at the University of Washington - Seattle Campus. With experiences working at a nursing home and doing clinical rotations at the University of Washington Medical Center, she is enriched with various healthcare settings and is able to adapt to each unit quickly. Within the University of Washington School of Nursing, Thy involves herself in multiple clubs in relation to the establishment. She serves as a Social Media and Marketing Officer of the Future Nurses Club that helps maintain the club’s activities on social media and spreads awareness of the club to pre-nursing students. She also plans a week-long summer camp for disadvantaged high school students interested in nursing.
Outside of academics, Thy is deeply involved in the Van Hanh Vietnamese Buddhist Youth Association where she works directly with young kids and teaches them about Vietnamese culture through Vietnamese lessons and cultural dances as a senior leader in training. Prior to her leadership position, she participated in Vietnamese Spelling Bee and Knowledge Bowl at Tet In Seattle. She also enjoys playing tennis, watching movies, traveling, and spending quality time with her friends and family in her free time.
With the knowledge and skills that Thy will have obtained from her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, along with her great understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Thy aspires to not only become a nurse but also be able to provide culturally competent care to many patient populations.
2023 Scholars
Sora Heo
Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Sora Heo is a rising senior studying International Relations with specific concentrations in Foreign Policy/Security Studies and Asia in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. On campus, she co-leads the International Affairs Association, helps manage the International Relations Review, conducts research on economic integration in East Africa with grants from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and the Center for Innovation in Social Science, oversees marketing for ARISE (Assisting Refugees through Initiative, Service, and Education), and welcomes first-years as a College of Arts & Sciences Dean Host. Her professional experiences include internships with her local congressman, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), and the U.S. Department of State, among others. By way of her passion for increasing civic engagement, she has staffed multiple progressive campaigns across the nation: Katie Porter and Christina Hale’s congressional campaigns, Andrew Yang for Mayor, and Tricia Shimamura for NYC Council, where she has worked on voter outreach, voter protection, and policy. In the future, Sora aspires to work as a foreign policy analyst while remaining active in immigrant and refugee justice causes.
Anthony Hu
Anthony Hu is studying for his Bachelor of Arts in international affairs at George Washington University. Previously, Anthony worked with the U.S. Departments of Justice and State, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Albright Stonebridge Group, and currently at the Peace Palace Library. He has studied abroad in France, Senegal, and Egypt, and hopes to pursue a graduate degree in international affairs or law to work in public service. Anthony grew up in Los Angeles, California, and was born to Taiwanese immigrants to the U.S.
Christina Pham
Christina Pham is a first-generation, community college transfer undergraduate student who is aspiring to be an entrepreneur. She is working toward becoming the first in her family to graduate from college and is majoring in Business Administration at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She is passionate about being a public servant and leader. As a growing leader, she has practiced serving others by participating in multiple activities to uplift her community, such as tutoring underserved high school students in STEM, connecting community members with financial and educational resources, and managing social media accounts to maximize community engagement.
Christina has also been a leader in the Foothill-DeAnza Community College District’s only undocumented students resource center. She led the design and implementation of the district’s first STEM resource program for undocumented and underserved students to increase STEM access. She also started the college’s STEM division’s first biweekly newsletter informing over 27,000 students about STEM resources.
Her short-term goals after graduation include learning about different ways that communities receive education and working on educational policy and innovation, especially in climate literacy. Having served at local nonprofits, she has nurtured a commitment to uplifting communities. After graduation, she plans to pursue a joint MBA and MA in regional studies to learn how to tailor organizations and products to different cultures.
Yoo Ra Sung
Yoo Ra Sung is a Korean American first generation college student at Stanford University, entering her final year of undergraduate studies. At Stanford, she is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations and History, as well as a coterminal Master of Arts degree in Public Policy. She is an active member of the Society for International Affairs at Stanford (SIAS), through which she has run the Stanford Model UN Conference (SMUNC) as Director General, and is currently a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Stanford Journal of International Affairs (SJIA). Yoo Ra is also a Center for Teaching and Learning Language Conversation Partner (CTL LCP) in Korean, and has been involved in research on data privacy legislation in China with the Hoover Institution.
Yoo Ra is passionate about the intersection of international affairs, gender policy, and U.S.-East Asia affairs. For the past two summers, she has worked at the Department of State in Washington D.C., in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, as well as the Bureau of Democracy, Labor, and Human Rights as a U.S. Foreign Service Internship Program (USFSIP) Intern. This upcoming summer, Yoo Ra will be interning in the Public Affairs Office at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore and participating in the Bing Overseas Studies Program Global Seminar at Oxford University. In the fall, she will return to Stanford for her final year of college and hopes to pursue a career in government in the future.
2022 Scholars
Lady Dorothy Elli
Lady Elli is a first-generation college student at the University of Arizona and a first generation immigrant from the Philippines. She is a third-year undergraduate studying Public Health with an emphasis in Global Health and Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Among her fellow undergraduates, Lady Elli is known for her involvement in numerous organizations that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
During her term as the vice president of the Filipino American Student Association (FASA) from Academic Year 2020-2021, she introduced and promoted DEI initiatives in the organization through workshops like the Black and Asian American Allyship conversation and #StopAsianHate talk. Because of her work, she was granted the Emerging Student Leader Award by the Asian Pacific American Student Affairs cultural center during her second year at the University of Arizona.
Currently, as a third-year student, she serves as the president of the Pan Asian Council, the first officially recognized Asian Pacific American and Desi American (APIDA) coalition at her campus. During her term, she has advocated for more support towards cultural and resource centers on campus, and she also spearheaded the APIDA Heritage Week Celebration.
During her terms as a Senator-At-Large from the years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 at the University of Arizona, she was able to create resolutions regarding anti-sexual harassment trainings and initiatives as well as the promotion of the land acknowledgment within club constitutions. She is an Access, Wellness, and Relational Determinants of Student Success (AWARDSS) research fellow, a peer mentor for Arizona’s Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholar (TRiO ASEMS) program, and an undergraduate teaching assistant for SAS 100, a MATH 100 success course.
After college, Lady hopes to pursue a JD/MPH joint degree program to advocate for international human rights and serve marginalized communities that have been neglected in terms of receiving basic needs and healthcare.
Xanthia Lam
Xanthia Lam (they/them) is a rising senior at UC Berkeley studying Cognitive Science. As a first-generation college student, child of disabled immigrants, and queer woman from East Oakland, Xanthia is dedicated to improving the quality of life for marginalized communities.
Xanthia is interested in the intersection of politics, healthcare, and community health. Growing up, Xanthia loved helping take care of their parents and talking to people. They love listening to people’s stories and learning more about the world around them. They are passionate about making systemic change and giving people spaces to tell their stories. This is why Xanthia has been an active member in a variety of community projects including being a participant in the Asian Pacific Youth Leadership Project, being a participant and the Disability Caucus facilitator at the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Association 2018 Summer Conference, interning for Oakland City Council, and being a founding board member of Oakland Unified School District’s Gender Sexuality Alliance Student Advisory Board.
For the summer of 2022, they are doing an internship with Health Career Connections and the Alameda County Department of Public Health. Now, Xanthia will soon be applying for MPH programs specializing in Health Policy in hopes that the skills they will learn will help them on their journey to change current systems which produce and sustain violence against vulnerable communities.
Xuan “Lance” Li
Lance Li (He/Him/His) is a rising senior at Georgetown University, majoring in Biology with concentration in BMCDB (biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. He was born in Fujian, China and immigrated to New York City at eight. His experience growing below the poverty his whole life has taught him the privileges of higher education, the need to amplify marginalized voices against social/political/economic oppression, and the miraculous opportunities the scientific method and intellectual curiosity uphold for social advancements.
On-campus, Lance has an upperclassmen mentor for the Georgetown Scholars Program, a university initiative to assist in the flourishing of First-Generation or Low-Income students, and the Asian American Student Association. On the academic spectrum, Lance has also been a Teaching Assistance to several upper-division biology course labs. To expand his understanding of current social justice issues, he has previously worked with the Center of Social Justice, Teaching, and Services in establishing and leading a spring break immersion trip for Georgetown Students in learning about the revolution of Food Justice in the DC area from the federal, judicial, and local levels. Currently Lance is working with ASBMB (American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) in acquiring skills to communicate with all levels of the US government and learning about ways academic society advises the federal government on science policy issues. He is particularly interested in advocating to increase funding for basic and translational research.
In the future, Lance is interested in obtaining a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology to study metabolic pathways. He is currently interested in learning about environmental stress factors’s prevalence in increasing cellular organelle damage that could induce an individual’s risk for cancer or metabolic diseases like diabetes. The field currently holds limited knowledge of the mechanism, origin, and treatment of these diseases. The medical diagnosis and treatments are further disproportionately impacting underserved communities in our society. In preparing himself for a career in Chemical Biology, Lance has previously worked on a glycolytic energetic output project at UC Berkeley and examined the genetic origin of Acute Myeloid Leukemia at Harvard Stem Cell Institute. His senior thesis research project with the Georgetown University Medical Center is to examine alteration on energy metabolism pathways in skeletal muscle in relation to microgravity analog and space radiation.
Peter Pham
Peter Pham (he/him) is a senior at the University of California, Berkeley. He is majoring in Public Health and Molecular Environmental Biology with a concentration in Environmental Health. He is the son of working class immigrants and learned the value of hard work and community throughout his life. These experiences shape his motivations to serve his communities and others like it across the country.
As a student, he researches LongCOVID. He previously conducted a regional surveillance study of COVID-19, and the data was shared with public health departments to inform the public health response to the pandemic’s evolving conditions. He has also worked on Pfizer’s pediatric vaccine trial, which contributed to the US Food and Drug Administration to grant Emergency Use Authorization for children 5 to 11 years of age. He has been able to complement his clinical research work with patient-facing experience as a medical interpreter and COVID-19 testing and vaccine distribution volunteer.
Outside of medicine, Peter has served as a redistricting commissioner for his county, drawing new electoral boundaries for one of the most populous and most diverse counties in the country. He serves on citizens advisory commissions for his regional transportation and public park agencies. He engages in the youth climate movement to pass climate action at the municipal, county, and state levels, and is a board member of a youth-led nonprofit focused on empowering and organizing young people to fight climate change.
In his free time, Peter enjoys baking with new recipes, going down rabbit holes on Wikipedia, and learning languages.
2021 Scholars
RIMPAL BAJWA
Rimpal Bajwa (she/her) is a rising senior at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She will be majoring in Culture and Politics with a concentration in International Law and Civil Rights and double minoring in Spanish and Justice and Peace Studies. Born into a Punjabi family in Washington, she has worked hard to keep in touch with her culture and faith while also navigating her place in society as a first generation Punjabi-American.
Upon coming to Georgetown University, she established a Sikh Student Association on campus to help create a space for Sikh-Americans to find community. She continued her work with the Sikh community by getting involved with United Sikh Movement as the first coordinator on the East Coast, helping the organization expand their outreach to Sikh students. She aspires to become an international human rights lawyer one day to continue using her voice to advocate for her community and marginalized communities around the world.
KIMBERLY CANG
Kimberly Cang (she/her) is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill majoring in Chemistry and Sociology with a minor in Neuroscience. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts but spent most of her life in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. As a child of Cambodian refugees, Kimberly is extremely proud of her Teochew Chinese and Khmer culture which galvanized her interest in Southeast Asian American rights and AAPI advocacy in general.
On campus, Kimberly has served as the Service Chair and Political Chair of the UNC Asian American Students Association and is also a sister of Kappa Phi Lambda. With this, she strives to use her platform to provide a safe space for APIDA students to come together and learn from each other. In 2019, she was an OCA Census Ambassador and worked closely with North Carolina Asian Americans Together (NCAAT) to bring Get Out to Vote and Census initiatives to her local Chapel Hill community.
During the school year, Kimberly is a part of the Bonner Leader Program and works at Compass Center for Women and Families, a non-profit that supports victims of domestic violence in the surrounding county. Kimberly combines this experience with her work at Refugee Community Partnership to analyze the impact of gender-based violence on the surrounding Burmese community.
In the future, Kimberly plans to work with low-income and minority communities in the clinical and health policy field to provide more accessible health care to all. In her free time, she loves to journal, explore new boba shops, binge Marvel movies, and go to concerts!
AMINA KHALIQUE
Amina Khalique (she/her) is a senior at Wayne State University and a lifelong Detroiter. She is majoring in Political Science with a concentration in Public Policy and minoring in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies.
As a daughter of immigrants, Amina grew up in poverty for the majority of her life, and that experience, along with her intersectional identities as a Muslim woman of color, radicalized and shaped her passion for social justice, community organizing, and policy advocacy. In high school, she became involved in community organizing and advocacy and actively participated in youth organizing spaces. Within these spaces, she became empowered and inspired by young leaders and activists to create change within her own community. Since then, Amina has committed to fighting for marginalized and underrepresented communities and advocating for social justice issues.
On-campus, Amina has served as a Democracy Fellow for Campus Vote Project, an Organizing Fellow for the Michigan Student Power Network, and the Campus Lead Organizer for the Equality Votes Campaign. She is currently serving students as a Student Senator for Wayne State's Student Senate, where she advocates for student needs and aims to expand student services and financial resources. She also serves as the Director of Policy and Advocacy for Detroit Period Project, where she fights for menstrual equity in Detroit, Michigan, and beyond. Her involvement on campus has led her to meaningfully serve Wayne State students and the local Detroit community.
Aside from her work on campus, Amina is currently a Policy and Research Associate with We the People Michigan, where she conducts policy research on the existing housing crisis in Michigan.
In her free time, Amina enjoys reading, baking, and recharging near large bodies of water!
CELIA LE
Celia Bùi Lê (she/her) is a fourth-year at Columbia University hailing from Vietnam and Mississippi. She is double-majoring in East Asian Languages & Cultures and Linguistics. Born and raised in Saigon, Vietnam, she is passionate about storytelling and representation of marginalized groups, focusing on intergenerational trauma and intersectional Asian identities like sexuality, gender, class, and Indigeneity. At the Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s Tibetan Studies Department, she serves as a Research Assistant and a Copy Editor for the Waxing Moon Journal of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies. As the Vietnamese Translator for The Southeast Asian Diaspora Project, she works on creating new Vietnamese language centering on abolition in the wake of racial uprisings to familiarize Southeast Asian American diaspora with social justice. She is also the Graphic Designer and Translator for the Family Acceptance Project’s Asian/Pacific Languages Expansion, an initiative that works to prevent health and mental health risks for LGBTQ children and youth, and many other language justice projects. Celia is also an alumna of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice’s Youth Leadership Summit for Spring 2021.
On campus, she is the Visuals Team Leader of Columbia Int-Fic, creating global empathy through interactive fiction during COVID-19. In New York City, Celia works as a Poll Worker and volunteers for Gender Conference NYC and NewFest, a Queer film festival. Previously, she has been a Featured Artist at the International Human Rights Art Festival for her art on the Indigenous Degar Peoples of Vietnam.
This summer, Celia will be working on an independent project about the Vietnamese American diaspora portraiture and visual culture as well as on misinformation and language injustice that Vietnamese Americans face. During her free time, she loves to read, draw, and make pandan cakes.
2020 Scholars
WASIQ JAVED
Wasiq Javed, on stage known as WiseIQ, is a spoken word artist, community organizer, and senior Honors Political Science student with a minor in Leadership Studies at the University of Houston (UH). Born and raised in Houston, Texas to Pakistani immigrants, Wasiq is passionate about increasing Muslim involvement in public service and civic engagement to add a growing voice to the American civic and political discourse. He has previously organized campaigns, protests, and education events across numerous social issues and founded a youth civic-engagement organization at his high school, Lakes for Lives.
Wasiq is a former member of the Mayor’s Commission Against Gun Violence and Senator in the Student Government Association at UH. He has previously interned with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Raj Salhotra Campaign for Houston City Council, and Battleground Texas. As a public speaker, Wasiq fundraises for humanitarian causes, emcees community events, and delivers sermons in the Houston Muslim community.
Moreover, his talents in spoken word poetry have allowed him to compete with the UH CoogSlam Poetry Team, placing 4th in the nation at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational Tournament (CUPSI). His poetry has been featured on television, radio, and in the Houston Chronicle.
Wasiq is a Phi Beta Kappa Public Service Scholar, Islamic Scholarship Fund Recipient, Truman Finalist, and former Critical Language Scholarship recipient, where he studied Urdu abroad in Lucknow, India. Wasiq was selected to be a 2021 Hobby Fellow, where he will be interning in the Texas Capitol during the legislative session. He intends to pursue a JD degree and concentrate in civil rights law to prepare him for a career as a public interest lawyer in advocating for and mobilizing marginalized populations.
SHUNING “SUNNIE” LIU
Sunnie Liu is a senior at Yale College double majoring in History and Studio Art and an MPH candidate at the Yale School of Public Health. She was born in Suzhou, China and grew up in Houston, Texas among fellow recent immigrants. As a rare student of color on full financial aid at a Texas private prep school, she witnessed firsthand the systemic inequities between her classmates and her own community. Since then, she has dedicated her life to the fight for racial, health, and economic justice.
On campus, she is the Co-Chair of the Immigrant History Project, the Political Action and Education Co-Coordinator for the Asian American Cultural Center, and an immigration and housing policy researcher for the Yale Law School’s Lowenstein Human Rights Project and Roosevelt Institute respectively. She also served as the Head Student Curator for the Yale Center for British Art and as the former Co-President of both Asian American Health Advocates and Mental Health Educators. Beyond Yale, she has co-founded The WeChat Project, a publication battling misinformation and bringing progressive perspectives to the Chinese diaspora; interned for the Museum of Chinese in America, DiverseWorks, and Sri Preston Kulkarni’s Campaign for Congress; and created artwork and design recognized by the Robert Reed, Scholastic, and Lohmann Awards.
In her free time, you can find her reading everything from graphic novels to dense nonfiction, binge-listening to podcasts, (re)watching cartoons and movies, museum hopping, and ranting about why Houston has the best food and the best people.
VY TRAN
Vy Tran (she/her/her) is a senior at Yale University studying Ethnicity, Race & Migration. From Houston, TX and having grown up also in Miami, FL, Vy has always thought about race and positionality, and what effective Asian American solidarity with other BIPOC communities looks like. Vy is the Lead Organizer of a youth-led, grassroots organization called Students for Educational Justice in New Haven, CT, where she engages New Haven young people in BIPOC-grounded political education as well as youth organizing. On campus, Vy is the political lead of the Vietnamese Students' Association, and co-leads the political action and education team of the Asian American Cultural Center. Her political role models include Grace Lee Boggs, Pauli Murray, and Tarika Lewis. In her free time, Vy loves running, photography, and watercolor painting.
JULIA ZHONG
Julia Zhong is a senior at Emory University majoring in Neuroscience & Behavioral Biology and minoring in Sociology. Originally from New York City, she is a second-generation Chinese American passionate about increasing mental health awareness and resources for the Asian-American community. Julia is interested in how identity and culture influence one's mental health and hopes to pursue a career as a clinical psychologist.
Julia's path in advocacy began through co-creating Emory's Asian Pacific-Islander Desi American Activists, a student organization focused on addressing APIDA political identity and education and advocating for an Asian Student Space and Asian American Studies major. She has also served as a civic engagement intern with NAKASEC VA to promote voter engagement for the 2020 election and has previously interned at the A/PI Domestic Violence Resource Project through OCA's 2019 summer internship program, creating content on social justice and gender-based violence for workshops and events.
On campus, Julia serves as a resident advisor, conducts research on the neural mechanisms underlying Autism Spectrum Disorder in infants, and serves as the musical director for various musical theater shows. In her free time, she enjoys playing different instruments, singing along to musical soundtracks, trying new recipes, and drawing. Julia is incredibly honored and grateful to be a recipient of this scholarship and is excited to continue pursuing her path in mental health and APIDA studies and advocacy.