It’s taught me to be more compassionate. As a person who is South Asian, understanding the challenges immigrants have and those who English isn’t their first language… Seeing the struggles my parents went through in the workforce, and the experiences I went through coming into the school system here that was predominately white at the time, helped shape me from that perspective
Growing up in an Asian family I think has affected my leadership style because I’ve basically worked my whole career with a sense of community and team
I would say a sense of humor… you have to have a sense of humor
I’ve had to work 10 times harder to get to where I am… It makes me resilient, it makes me tenacious in the sense that I don’t give up. I’ve had to learn how to use my voice and a lot of people I think are quite complacent… It’s hard to say whether this is fully due to me being queer or trans, but being in these communities really makes me think a lot more about that stuff
When you go through something really difficult, it can harden you or it can soften you and help you understand humanity in a different way. I’m really lucky that I’ve been able to process things and I think it helps me understand the value of diversity
I think a lot of queer people have to be overeducated to make it far… But then when we talk to others, people get lost in our academic talk. So it’s about ‘how can we put things in a way that somebody who doesn’t have as much dedication [to these issues] understand it?’ So being able to break down ideas in a really simple way
Ability to stop and listen, and the ability to connect with people emotionally. That’s something that comes from being queer. Like when we meet each other, what’s the first thing we do? We talk about our coming out story. We crave that emotional connection. So I’m able to connect with them emotionally and in a way that they may not be used to
I think being able to empathize or imagining or picturing other people’s situation, whether that is visible or not visible, I think that type of experience and skills make me a better leader”
I think when you’re part of a minority group and you’ve had to question yourself and who you are to understand who you are… That introspection. That process has really helped me know myself a lot better and know my limits, respect them better. And respect others as well, the limits of others and their comfort levels, their opinions, their differences