“And the title of Miss Teen Vietnam California 2019 goes to… Anna Duong!” I stood stunned, never did I expect to win a title at my first pageant. When I was young, my grandparents and family always joked of me winning a Vietnamese pageant because I would always sing and dance to Vietnamese music. When I saw an advertisement for a local Vietnamese pageant, I signed up to revisit my ethnicity and make my family’s idea come true. Growing up, I was raised by my Vietnamese grandparents who taught me the Vietnamese language and cultural foods, arts, music and more. As I entered school, I lost touch with some of my own heritage as I assimilated into elementary school. My family feared this and so insisted I enroll into weekly Sunday school to learn how to read and write in Vietnamese and hear stories of Vietnamese history not traditionally taught in school. Although I resisted the classes at the time for taking up my weekends, I quickly learned the value of it when I entered high school and realized many of my AAPI peers were not as involved in their cultural heritage. From there, I expanded my involvement in the AAPI community, specifically my Vietnamese community, by continuing Vietnamese language lessons at my high school and joining the school’s Vietnamese student Association. Being involved in my school’s Vietnamese Student Association (VSA), I ran for a board position which allowed me to understand more about the values and fine arts of my culture. I embraced different aspects of Vietnamese traditions, such as dancing, in order to immerse myself into the community. In this club, I recognized the beauty of being an AAPI community member as more than just learning our own blood but preserving and embracing cultural arts and lessons that our ancestors carried when they immigrated. I was moved to be more active in AAPI culture so others recognized the unique beauties of their culture also. Learning more about my culture allowed me to feel more confident representing my community and advocating for the preservation of Vietnamese culture. I began mobilizing my VSA peers to join me in volunteer efforts with my pageant organization, bridging the cultural gap that existed in my community between youth and adults. I involved myself more in our pageant’s projects, bringing in new perspectives that were untraditional, such as making social media campaigns to connect to younger audiences. Through communicating with school organizations and community members, I assisted in developing a strong Vietnamese community that bridged AAPI members to their cultural ancestors by hosting Lunar New Year events, acting as a spokesperson for Vietnamese teens, and deliberately planning AAPI awareness events with leaders in their respective fields. Since my crowning in 2019, San Jose has developed and built new Vietnamese American cultural centers and hosted events for Vietnamese elderly in the community. I believe my position in my Vietnamese community over the years has represented the key traits in HRCap. Through this journey, I dove deeper into my identity, exploring how a Vietnamese-American upbringing has given me a blend of both cultures. At Brown, I continue representing my AAPI community and encompassing the HRCAP values by empowering my school’s Vietnamese community in a place that is predominately non-Asian. I look forward to implementing new skills from my education to further develop the community and heritage.