ASPIRING TALKS


 ASPIRING TALKS

Empowering Asian American females to come together and share experiences.

ASPIRING TALKS aims to provide a platform for our Asian community to share their stories, skills, and personal experiences with the community. The series encourages the community to connect with one another, continue to explore aspects of their identity, and have meaningful conversations in a safe and supportive environment.

Past Events

2022

Harnessing the Power of Storytelling with Cat Coley

In this ASPIRING TALKS session, business strategist, podcast host, speaker, and published writer Cat Coley speaks on her experience within the corporate world and how she pivoted to entrepreneurship. She uses her fall from grace as a platform to educate and inspire others on owning who you are and not being part of the background noise.


2021

Taking a Leap of Faith with Darlene Nguyen

In this session of ASPIRING TALKS, we learned more about Darlene’s path to advertising and data analytics, and how she has been able to continue pursuing her passion for dance despite having a full time job and career. Darlene also led audience members through a reflection session where we were able to think about our values, motivators, stressors, and what we need individually to be successful, in our own terms.


Key Takeaways

  • Identify a system that works for you by understanding your needs, values, motivators, limits, and stressors.
  • Trust in the groundwork you’ve built for yourself.
  • Lead with your aspirations and not your fears.


The Importance of Utilizing TikTok & IG Reels with Erden Weiner

This ASPIRING TALKS session featured Erden Weiner, digital content creator and business, Instagram, and TikTok coach. From the Q&A we learned about Erden's experience navigating her profession as an Asian American digital content creator and how she gave such intricate insight into what makes an IG or Tik Tok Reel successful. We were also given information on what Erden loves about her job and what she finds challenging.


Key Takeaways

  • Having a better understanding of how to navigate through the corporate world.
  • How to make effective TikTok, IG Reels, and captivating content.
  • Life can take you anywhere and sometimes, there's no definite path that awaits you!


Turning Struggle into Strength with Ssonia Ong

Key Takeaways

  • We are products of our childhood (parents, language, culture etc).
  • We each have a unique worldview that’s shaped by our upbringing and past experiences.
  • We are best equipped to manage our roles and relationships when we embrace our past, and acknowledge our strengths and shortcomings.


How to "Ask For More" ... And Actually Get It with Connie Wang

From the Q &A we learned about Connie's experience navigating her profession as an Asian American journalist and how she gave such bountiful advice on how to ask for more in the workspace. We were also given insight about what Connie loves about her job and what she finds challenging. 

 

 Key Takeaways:

  • Always find the courage to ask for more(i.e. a promotion/raise) in the workspace, even though you feel hesitant about your role as an employee.
  • Asking for more isn't for everyone! You don't have to spend your whole life trying to climb the corporate ladder. As long as you are a dedicated and valued worker, that's all that matters.
  • To be more convincing, know your leverage.


Cooking and Storytelling with Tuk Tuk Box

From the discussion, we learned about Christy's journey as a Asian American female business owner and how she has navigated the business world to found Tuk Tuk Box and a non-profit called Courageous Kitchen. Christy also guided us in cooking pad see ew, a delicious Thai dish that we hope (if you cooked along) you enjoyed. Finally, we ended with a surprise giveaway in which one of the attendees received a free Tuk Tuk Box snack box!

 

 Key Takeaways:

  • Understand the power of food and how sharing meals can tell one’s story
  • Being able to come together with an Asian American community can spread Asian Joy and bring hope amidst difficult times
  • How the sharing of Asian stories and meals can break down barriers and create everlasting bonds between people


Growing Up With Diversity with Jenny Trinh

From the discussion, we learned about Jenny's journey as a Vietnamese immigrant who grew up differently from her peers. Jenny also talked about the positive and negative effects of her immigrant experience on her education, career, and character.



Key Takeaways:

  • Your experiences deserve a voice of their own
  • Diversity gets people through the door but there's still a huge distance to the table
  • "You must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul" –Disney's Ratatouille


Writing Workshop with Eda Yu

Key Takeaways:

  • Understand the power of words and how broad the impact is.
  • Writing is more than communicating - from an essay title to the core idea of a multimedia project - your words can take an abstract concept and translate it into action.
  • Don't be afraid to put your work out there, no matter how vulnerable it may make you feel!


We encourage you to reach out to Eda on Instagram and Twitter (@edacyu), and to check out her website edacyu.com. Also, check out some of her articles including "Public Safety for Asian Americans Starts with Nurturing Our Communities" and "New York's Asian American creatives on the beauty and resilience of their community."

Finding Your Voice

From the Finding Your Voice Q&A, we learned about Shannon’s journey of finding her voice while being a naturally shy person. Shannon also takes us through her journey as a college student through her choice of major to internships and then to her professional careers, and the efforts she places in each setting to make her voice heard. 


 Key Takeaways:

  • Your voice is important!! It’s not bad to be quiet or shy. It’s more important that you use your voice to speak up when you want to speak up, and on things that matter to you.
  • If you’re passionate about something, don’t feel like you have to be afraid to bring it up to your coworkers, book club, friend group, families, etc. It can bring about important conversations and change.
  • Never doubt your capabilities. Once you learn you can do one thing, you’ll realize you can do anything.

Who Are You, Really?: Finding Identity Underneath External Expectations

From the Who Are You, Really?: Finding Identity Underneath External Expectations discussion, we learned about Marisa’s journey of overcoming her childhood trauma and how we can address our own inner critics. Marisa also talked about core values and participants were able to go into breakout rooms to participate in an intimate core-value exercise. 

 

 Key Takeaways:

  • Our core values are universal personal truths based upon what is intrinsically important to us within our human experience, our “life compass”.
  • When we know and honor these values, we are more likely to find life fulfilling and meaningful.
  • Limiting core beliefs are negative, self-critical truths we believe about ourselves.
  • “Observe your beliefs, don’t believe them.”

Sincerely, Saigon Social Worker

We’re excited to bring back our first ASPIRING TALKS event for 2021! Our first event was Sincerely, Saigon Social Worker with Mylinh Tran. From the Q&A, we learned about Mylinh’s experience navigating her profession as both a social worker and an Asian American woman. We were also given insight about what Mylinh loves about her job and what she finds challenging. 

 

Key Takeaways:  

  • Social workers have multiple positive roles in the community.
  • Social workers can be but are not limited to being therapists.
  • Social work is about balancing what your patient needs, not putting in more work than your patient is willing to, and remembering your own limits.

2020

College & Careers

Jessica Nguyen, founder of Project Voice, and Tiffany Chhuor, scholar at Girls Who Invest, provided their advice on navigating life and careers through social distancing based on their wide range of experiences. The main takeaways from this talk were:

  • Explore your interests - be open to change and new things
  • Build relationships and network - networking may connect you to unexpected opportunities, including to potential jobs and mentors. Build relationships that are beneficial to both parties:
  • Research is pivotal! Find information that allows you to personally connect with who you are meeting.
  • Don't have a mindset of earning an internship/job when meeting with someone. Networking should not be purely transactional; these individuals are people, too! 
  • Keep in touch through emails, calls, LinkedIn, or check-ins.
  • Practice self care. Reset your mind and distinguish your work life from home life. Keeping healthy mentally and physically is important to attaining goals.

College Preparation

Geared towards high school students and underclassmen, we sought advice from two experts on navigating the college process. We hear from Shu Yi Zhou, Cross-Disciplinary Program Manager at Yale, and Dr. Lindsay Kwok Hu, education consultant, with ASPIRE volunteer Julia Kim as the moderator. Attendees learned about a "growth mindset" as compared to traditional goals for academic and career success. Panelists also touched on internships and careers briefly.


It's worth noting the intimate feeling of support in this group. The topic was "preparing for college," but since the panelists were very vulnerable in sharing their personal experiences, in turn, attendees felt comfortable in asking questions about personal growth too--not just academic or career growth. By having a small group, the panelists took some time to connect a bit with students on an individual level.

Sharing Our Identities

In our second ASPIRING TALKS, we were able to discuss how we see our identities. In a freestyle discussion format, we explored the different ways to view ourselves: we each hold intersectional points with stories that one group understands though not every group, while also having something in common with everyone. This is a great time to reflect on ourselves, and hopefully we can learn something new each time.

Managing Boundaries

Our first ASPIRING TALKS session featured participants from across the U.S., discussing the creation of new boundaries for ourselves given all the changes to our lives. We had many great conversations, and it was especially meaningful to be able to connect with both new and familiar faces.


Some great ideas/reminders from this discussion were to:

  • pack up work/school supplies at the end of the day
  • carve time for yourself when others in the house are not awake
  • maintain connections with those who you may be socially distancing from, but are essential to your life
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