Introducing the 2021 OCA-UPS Gold Mountain Scholars
The 19 outstanding Asian American and Pacific Islander students are the first in their immediate families to attend college.
By Kent Tong, OCA Associate Manager of Programs
TODAY, OCA-ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN ADVOCATES is proud to announce the OCA-UPS Gold Mountain Scholars for the class of 2021! Sponsored by the UPS Foundation, these 19 outstanding Asian American and Pacific Islander students—15 graduating high school seniors, 4 rising college seniors—are the first in their immediate families to attend college.
The following four rising college seniors each received $2,500 to support their education:
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.
Learn more about this scholarship here.
The following 15 graduating high school seniors each received $2,000 to support their education:
Crystal Banh
Crystal Banh is a current first-year at Brown University from Morgan Hill, California. After taking a US history class in junior year, she felt connected and intrigued with the Asian-American history that was taught in the class. She intends to take Asian-American Studies courses in college and integrate it with psychology.
Through interning with 7 Cups, an online therapy site, and founding an Operation Smile club at her school, she developed her passion for eliminating the stigma against mental health and ending healthcare disparities across all communities. She plans to explore subjects, such as anthropology and Spanish, to achieve that goal. At Brown, she hopes to continue being a healthcare activist and will join Brown’s Queer People and Allies for the Advancement of Medicine (QPAAM). This scholarship has also allowed her to focus more of her time on Study Pals, a tutoring organization that will soon implement educating elementary and middle school students on being aware of their mental health.
In her free time, she enjoys playing field hockey, writing, making pottery, and discovering new TV shows!
Nina Dao
Nina Dao (she/her/hers) is an incoming freshman and Questbridge Scholar at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where she plans to major in biology and global health. She resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where she attended the Ocean Lakes High School Math and Science Academy. As the second-oldest daughter of two hard-working immigrants from Vietnam to whom she owes her success, she will be the first in the family to attend a four-year university.
Nina is an avid member of her community of Virginia Beach. She serves on the National Leadership Council for Operation Smile, the Mayor’s Youth Leaders in Action as President, and Student Government Vice President. She also enjoys volunteering for Kid2Kid for St. Mary’s Home for Disabled Children and at her church, Our Lady of Lavang Catholic Church, as a bible school teacher. She is an advocate for mental health and has started Dolphin’s Minds Matter, the first mental health club at her school. Nina strives to end the stigma of mental illness through her organizations by increasing mental health awareness and resources in her city, especially Asian American communities. Passionate about her Vietnamese heritage, she founded Voices for Vietnam, an organization aimed at voicing against social inequities in Vietnam, such as human rights, government corruption, health disparities, and unequal access to education. Nina hopes to continue spreading awareness about the AAPI culture and history at Duke University.
With these experiences, she developed an interest in actively helping others globally. Ultimately, Nina aspires to give back to her community and underrepresented populations by becoming a dentist for the medical non-profit organization, Operation Smile.
In her free time, you can find her collecting coins, exploring with her friends, gardening with her grandma, learning and cooking Vietnamese cuisine, especially phở!.
Jiepeng “Jackson” Deng
Jackson emigrated to the US from China at age nine. A lack of motivation at the beginning of high school resulted in failing grades until he sought extra support and developed his own inner drive to succeed. As his confidence grew, he joined the Youth Community Organization at Thurgood Marshall, becoming a Senior Building Leader, and began teaching workshops. His leadership roles prepared him to take bigger academic challenges and risks. That adamant kid who was set on doing things on his own learned that sometimes asking for support was not embarrassing and instead was instrumental to his improvement. In college, he wants to participate in a program to continue serving his community in hopes of opening his own non-profit in the future.
Abigail Eun
Abigail Eun is a rising freshman at Duke University. Though she is currently undecided in what she wants to study, she plans to major in Psychology, Political Science, Public Policy, or Sociology.
As a community activist, Eun is heavily involved in multiple community initiatives. She is president of BRIDGE, an educational program that helps middle and elementary students after school with homework, academic enrichment, and more. She also is a journalist for the Koreatown Storytelling Program, an oral historian for ‘OUR STORY’, and a council member for the Macarthur Park Youth Community Council.
Eun has interned with politicians Rishi Kumar and Grace Yoo, The Civics Center, the Young Storytellers, the Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund, and the Koreatown Youth and Community Center.
In her free time, Eun enjoys painting, playing the piano, collecting crystals, meditating, going on long drives, and exploring new places with her friends.
In the future, Eun hopes to be fluent in Spanish and American Sign Language and be a YA novel author.
Catherine Figiel
Talofa lava, my name is Catherine Elizabeth Seali’itu o le Malietoa and I am Samoan, part Cook island and Polish-American. I was born and raised in Samoa and moved to Utah in 2012. I am currently a scholar at Mana Academy Charter School and a concurrent enrollment student at Salt Lake Community College. Once I start college at the University of Utah I plan on majoring in International Studies, and minoring in business, and communications. I currently do not have any work experience, but I do plan on becoming a mentor at Mana Academy Charter school once I graduate high school at Mana Academy. By doing this I will be able to give back to my school and to all my teachers and mentors who have helped me in my journey up till now. A few of my interests are linguistics, community service, teaching, culture, dance, music, art, and rugby.
Nicole Lam
Nicole Lam is a senior at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA). This year, she will be attending Yale University as an applied mathematics major.
In her senior year, she was named a California Scholarship Federation South Central Seymour Award recipient, Equitable Excellence Scholar, National Merit Scholarship Finalist, USC Trustee Scholar with a full-tuition scholarship, UC Berkeley’s Regent and Chancellor’s Scholar, and more.
Nicole is a competitive concert pianist and opera singer. Though she is a mathematics major, she still plans to continue studying piano with professors at Yale. She has won first prize at the Houston International Music Competition, Steinway Junior Piano Competition Regionals, Southwestern Youth Music Festival, MTAC VOCE Competition Senior Ensemble, Lansum International Music Competition, Dan Stover Music Competition, and was named a Spotlight Classical Instrumentalist Semifinalist in 2021.
Outside of music, Nicole is the founder of her own nonprofit organization, Love Through Music, which spreads music with meaning to the community to support childhood education in Nepal. Through her organization, she has hosted over 50 concerts with 300+ student performers at local retirement homes and hospitals. Remotely through zoom, she has taught music fundamentals to 100 Nepalese orphans, and has also traveled in person to Kathmandu, Nepal annually to donate school supplies and rebuild school buildings.
In her free time, Nicole loves to visualize music through colors, arrange choral music, discover new multivariable calculus concepts, crochet bucket hats, and bake from scratch.
Tiffany Le
Tiffany Le is an incoming freshman at UC Berkeley planning to major in Public Health. She was born and raised in Oakland, CA by her Vietnamese immigrant parents and grandparents. She is very grateful for growing up in a diverse community, and she aspires to bridge the divide between patients’ cultural values and hospital practices through nursing.
During her sophomore year in high school, she did a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) internship where she was able to shadow healthcare professionals (nurses, doctors, social workers, etc.) throughout the department. What stood out to her most were the nurses; she admired how they provided personalized treatment and formed a bond with the patients. She was empowered by this experience to pursue a career in nursing.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, she continued to make a positive impact on patients by folding origami cranes for them and providing instructions on how to fold them. Her determination to bring patients and their families hope and healing during these challenging times resulted in Sutter Health writing an article about her project and sharing her story on their social media pages during National Volunteer Week of 2021.
She is also very passionate about her heritage and helped organize her school’s first Asian Cultural Assembly in the past 30 years. Regardless of the setbacks caused by the pandemic, she worked diligently to get other students involved, and teachers also began to help out once they saw how dedicated the students were. Tiffany is motivated to promote Asian awareness and become a nurse to provide high-quality, culturally and socially competent nursing.
Cindy Lei
Cindy Lei is a rising freshman at Princeton University studying the History of Science. She is a first-generation Chinese-American student from Los Angeles, California. Her parents are both immigrants from Taishan, China with only a middle school education. Surrounded by many cousins, aunts, and uncles speaking different dialects, Cindy grew up understanding Taishanese, Cantonese, and Mandarin.
As a result of her family not speaking English or understanding the American education system, Cindy was left to find support elsewhere and navigate it on her own. She filled out the forms to attend a magnet middle school and high school herself and continued to self-advocate at every
turn in high school. In high school, she had the opportunity to participate in MathILy-Er, Questbridge, and Thrive Scholars (formerly known as SCS Noonan Scholars).
Cindy is an active member of her local Chinatown community and is a gentrification and affordable housing activist. Having seen first-hand how neighborhoods can change and negatively impact residents, she understands the importance of holding developers accountable and policies that ensure low-income residents also benefit from development.
She hopes for a future career as a science communicator to raise awareness of the importance of science literacy in a world increasingly dependent on technology and science. As it is, current levels of trust in science and the way the media reports on science frustrates her. Cindy hopes to change the current public understanding of science to be more accurate. In particular, she hopes she can share her passion for the things she learns with the masses and her perspective on the nature of science.
Celina Mac
My name is Celina Mac , and I am from the San Francisco Bay Area. I am Chinese American and the first in my family to attend college. Next fall I will be attending UC Berkeley as an intended public health major. However, I plan to double major in business or data science and minor in a language or education.
Some of my hobbies include going backpacking, cooking, and working with children. Backpacking is one of my favorite ways of disconnecting from a busy city like San Francisco. In the mornings, seeing the fog in the mountains while the steam of my hot coffee touches my nose is like nature’s version of an outdoor facial. I see cooking as a way to express my creativity rather than a chore. My favorite dishes to make are those that you can put your own spin into like tacos, spring rolls, and soups. I also enjoy working as a teacher’s assistant and am currently an intern for my school district working at a local after school program. I have also worked as a Nutrition Outreach Worker promoting healthy eating to my peers and promoting the use of the three bin system.
At school, I am part of a unique pathway at my school called Green Academy which is a curriculum that specializes in green technology and engineering while also providing opportunities to save and learn about our environment. Through Green Academy I am able to do my part in advocating for climate change action and speaking out against fast fashion. Clothing pollution is a huge matter on my radar, especially on how poorly they treat their garment workers in unthinkable working conditions. I hope to connect with more people in college who have the proper resources and work directly with organizations to create change. I consider myself a social butterfly and I can’t wait to see where that takes me!
Eh Ler Moo
I was born in 2002, in a refugee camp located at the borders of Thailand and Myanmar. My family came to the US as refugees in 2008. Growing up, as a first generation immigrant I aided my parents with government papers and listened obediently to my parents. I got good grades and helped around my community in any way I could. When I turned 16, I got my first job in order to help my low income family and save for college. Because of the hours I worked, I did not get involved in school much. I’ve been working part-time and going to school full time ever since, while maintaining a 3.9 GPA at Logan High School. I took several college classes, not only to gain college credit but to explore what I was already interested in. I gained an interest in mental health and becoming a psychologist in middle school. I saw friends who struggled with mental illnesses but could not get help because they did not feel welcomed and could not afford it. This led to my desire to be a psychologist, and focus especially on mental health in low income and immigrant families. Coming from that community, my goal is to bring more attention to the lack of mental health awareness and resources into it.
Sandtelle Nguyen
Sandtelle is an incoming freshman at California State University, Fullerton majoring in Business Administration with an emphasis on Marketing and Information Systems. As a first-generation Vietnamese-American student from Little Saigon, Sandtelle aims to utilize her business degree to serve underprivileged communities within California and uplift AAPI voices.
At her high school, Sandtelle is known for being a self-proclaimed ‘Business Geek’. Sandtelle is a member of her school’s award-winning DECA program, where she has won several accolades and awards in various local and state competitions. In her free time, Sandtelle enjoys researching business analytics, practicing her public speaking skills, and helping her parents read stock charts. She is currently the Founder/President of her school’s Friday Night Live program, in addition to serving on her school’s LGBTQ+ leadership cohort.
When she’s not busy indulging in her numerous individual endeavors, Sandtelle enjoys hiking at her local trails, eating out with friends and family, and immersing herself in the beauty of nature. Overall, she is so grateful for the OCA foundation for her scholarship and the opportunity to further advance her college education.
Heyu “Julia” Sun
Julia Sun is a rising freshman at Cornell University from suburban Chicago. At Cornell, she is intending to major in chemical engineering and to minor in food science and business. She immigrated from China when she was nine. In high school, she founded a nonprofit organization called First Gen Support that empowers thousands of first-generation, low-income, and immigrant students to pursue higher education. She also pursued STEM competitions and research. Inspired by her passion for social justice work and her high school STEM extracurriculars, she aspires to pursue entrepreneurship and engineering to develop sustainable foods to alleviate food insecurity.
Sanjna Tailor
Hello, my name is Sanjna Tailor, and I am a soon-to-be freshman at the University of California Los Angeles. Born in Chicago, I moved to Las Vegas at the age of 11. I am the only daughter of my small immigrant family from Gujarat, India. At school, I am a proud member of the International Baccalaureate program and the vice president of the Literature Appreciation Society.
At university, I will be studying Linguistics and Computer Science. These two fields have always played a big role my entire life. Since I am the only one in my family with a formal education, I have the great responsibility of acting as a translator and a personal IT assistant! Coming from a low-income background, I understand the difficulties many first and second-generation low-income immigrants face when it comes to successfully navigating life in a city that doesn’t speak their language. Through college and beyond, I hope to work towards a change and help close this language gap between all peoples.
Outside of school, I love to work with my community, may it be volunteering for the City of Henderson or tutoring local high school students in math. I am also very close with the Indian community in Las Vegas. I have trained in Indian classical vocal and harmonium performance and am always excited to perform at cultural events!
Choua Thao
Choua Thao is the name of a Hmong girl who fled Thailand in 2005 just at the age of 2 with her family from a closing refugee camp called Tham Krabok. Arriving in the US, her family found themselves in a low-income neighborhood in Stockton, California, and have remained there ever since.
From a young age, Choua was told to pursue her education. Not only did she do so, but she also grew a passion for it. With this passion in mind, Choua will soon be graduating with her Associate in Arts from Stockton Early College Academy where she dual-attended San Joaquin Delta College. College courses had opened her eyes to the extensive information she could obtain from attending higher education. She plans to attend Sacramento State majoring in either health science or architecture.
In high school, Choua rediscovered her culture through taking part in school cultural clubs and classes, performing Hmong dances, and making an effort to relearn her language. In the process, she discovered her talent and love for art, trying many different mediums from clay to oil paint. While art and Hmong culture remain a big part of Choua, her education continues to empower her by providing her the resources to develop her knowledge of the two. When she is not preoccupied with school, Choua enjoys looking after her 3 younger brothers, and many nieces and nephews. She hopes to be a future role model for them.
As Choua Thao continues to grow, one thing she keeps in mind is the importance of her name. While Choua Thao may be a common Hmong name, when she writes it down on her work, whether it be school or art pieces, she carries the responsibility and holds into account the effort she put in.
Diamond Thlang
The son of two Khmer refugees, Diamond Thlang has grown up in the Saint Paul-Minneapolis Metropolitan area in Minnesota. His identity as a first-generation, low-income student has propelled him to continuously seek ways to uplift and empower other FGLI students.
In addition to FGLI empowerment, Diamond Thlang has passions that lie in education, youth voice, and STEM. In education, he has been extensively involved in successful efforts to incorporate a high school ethnic studies curriculum in his school district. In the umbrella of youth voice, he serves on city and regional boards like the St. Paul Youth Commission and the Student Engagement and Advancement Board to implement long-term strategies that give youth increased agency in policy and decision-making. Lastly, in STEM, he has conducted research through ACS Project SEED at the University of Minnesota on bromodomain inhibitors as therapeutic targets.
In his free time, he enjoys watching documentaries and foreign language tv shows on Netflix, jogging and weightlifting, trying out new foods, baking, learning new languages, and having late-night conversations with his friends.
He will attend Stanford University in the fall and will double major in Data Science and Sociology to synthesize his academic and intellectual interests in educational equity work, technology, social good, and mathematics. His career goal in the future is to work in the educational technology or policy field and serve as a Senior Data Scientist or an Education Research Director. Beyond career goals, Diamond hopes to someday launch an organization that focuses on spotlighting the needs of Southeast Asian American students, travel the world and see its many wonders, and cultivate a positive, meaningful legacy that will outlast his lifetime.
