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Jane Cui
West Roxbury, MA
Boston Latin School

Extracurricular activities: Track, Tennis, Concert Choir, Cultural Oriental Dance, Tenacity Summer Tennis Program, English Tutor, Boston Latin Library Aide
Hobbies: Tennis, running, singing, dancing
Country of Origin: China, Japan

What are your future goals?

"To major in art history in college and to learn as much as I can about something I truly enjoy and find a job that I love."

What does it mean to be a YLP Scholar?

"When you were a stressed high school junior, didn’t you wish that you had a mentor to guide you? This program can provide one, and better prepare a teenager by teaching her to organize her time. While mentorship and learning are both nice, what I truly hope to gain from YLP is leadership. To me leadership is crucial, and YLP can help me with public speaking, organization, and leadership."

Chau Duong
Dorchester, MA
Boston Latin Academy

Extracurricular activities: Vietnamese American Civic Association Peer Leader, Close to Home Volunteer, Boston Latin Academy Multicultural Night, Junior Achievement
Hobbies: Writing, tutoring, spending time with my friends and family
Country of Origin: Vietnam

What are your future goals?

"To become a pharmacist, pediatrician, or English teacher."

What does it mean to be a YLP Scholar?

"ASPIRE’s Youth Leadership Program will help me achieve my future goals by having many leaders guiding and showing me what leadership is through my last high school years, and I believe that leadership will take me not just through high school or college, but through life as well. Being around leaders will help me not with just how to be a leader and achieve my goals but to get adapted to the environment of leadership qualities. In life we need leadership to take us anywhere we want, because in today’s world we want leaders, not followers."

Christine Khamphilavanh
Lowell, MA
Lowell High School

Extracurricular activities: Jump on In Referee, Wang Middle School Volunteer
Hobbies: Writing, spending time with family and friends
Country of Origin: Laos

What are your future goals?

"To become a real estate investor. I want to one day have enough money to build houses in Laos for my mother’s family."

What does it mean to be a YLP Scholar?

"ASPIRE’s Youth Leadership Program will help me achieve my future goals because it will prepare me for college and give me the best help. It can help guide me toward college and help me focus on my goals."

Christina Inthirath
Lowell, MA
Lowell High School

Extracurricular activities: Science Club, Pep Club, Environmental Club, Women’s Club, Lowell Folk Fest, Girls Inc., Citizen Schools Tutoring
Hobbies: Tennis, dancing
Country of Origin: Laos

What are your future goals?

"To become a pediatrician or neurologist, to pay for my parents’ cost of living the rest of their lives, to support my grandmother and great-grandmother."

What does it mean to be a YLP Scholar?

"ASPIRE’s Youth Leadership Program will help me achieve my future goals because it will allow me to develop great leadership skills for if I one day decide to open my own business. It will give me hands-on training to meet important deadlines and learn how the “real world” works."

Xiaoli Mi
Brighton, MA
Boston Latin School

Extracurricular activities: Track and Field, Concert Choir, Science Olympiad, Student Council, School Newspaper
Hobbies: Piano, swimming, singing, ice skating
Country of Origin: China

What are your future goals?

"To become a successful, accomplished woman and to pursue a career as a doctor and scientist."

What does it mean to be a YLP Scholar?

"ASPIRE’s Youth Leadership Program will help me achieve my future goals, because it is a valuable opportunity for me to gain experience in leadership and career path development. Leadership is crucial to one’s success, because it is a fundamental skill that will be useful and beneficial throughout life. Being able to work with adult mentors and participate in the ASPIRE Advisory Group will enable me to gain important social experience that school cannot offer. Thus, I believe ASPIRE’s Youth Leadership Program is a valuable opportunity that will help me achieve my future goals."

Shixin Su
South Boston, MA
Josiah Quincy Upper School

Extracurricular activities: Chinese Culture Club, Maple Leaf Exchange Program, Volleyball
Hobbies: Violin, art
Country of Origin: Vietnam, China

What are your future goals?

"To graduate from college and become a pilot; to be free and fly like a bird with no regrets."

What does it mean to be a YLP Scholar?

"I think ASPIRE is all about helping young women understand their roles in society, to help them realize where they want to be standing in this community. This program will help me realize how to become an even stronger person. I want to become a more independent woman and that’s exactly what ASPIRE offers. ASPIRE can help me develop more independent skills in handling things, or even in public speaking skills. I have a feeling ASPIRE can help me in ways that I couldn’t even speak of, I just feel it."

Angela Truong
Boston, MA
John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science

Extracurricular activities: Upward Bound, Asian Culture Club, Asian Voices Workshop, Key Club, Peace on the Movement
Hobbies: Volleyball, tennis, reading, movies, hiking
Country of Origin: Vietnam, Cambodia

What are your future goals?

"To be successful in life and provide for my parents."

What does it mean to be a YLP Scholar?

"ASPIRE’s Youth Leadership Program will help me achieve my future goals by helping me develop my leadership skills and effective communication skills. These are the two important skills I need to excel in, because I plan to major in business. A strong, well-rounded person will do well in business."

Ying Wang
Boston, MA
Boston Latin School

Extracurricular activities: Diversity Café Club, Student Council, Concert Band, Business Society, Jazz Band, Asian Students in Action, School Newspaper, New England Aquarium Tour Guide
Hobbies: Trombone, tutoring, tae kwon do, soccer, art
Country of Origin: China

What are your future goals?

"To do something in this life that is worthwhile, to accomplish something that has never been done before, to take a job where I know I will be of service to others."

What does it mean to be a YLP Scholar?

"The theme of 'empowering Asian women' really appeals to me, since it would be able to help me in a lot of ways. For one thing, I have always had a confidence issue. I look at the ASPIRE program as an opportunity to learn how to get over my fear of speaking. I want to learn how to release that inhibition and how to speak my mind freely and openly. The type of values that ASPIRE bases its program on will no doubt be lessons that one will forever keep with them. I believe that the sort of things you learn as an ASPIRE participant will inevitably help that individual no matter what her set of goals are. From ASPIRE, I hope to gain a wealth of knowledge and forge lifelong connections."

Yan Zheng
Roxbury, MA
Josiah Quincy Upper School

Extracurricular activities: Outward Bound, Walk for Hunger, Junior Achievement, Boston Public Library Volunteer, Chinese Culture Club, Soccer, Softball
Hobbies: Violin, soccer, softball
Country of Origin: China

What are your future goals?

"To become a leader for my community and to stand up for my community."

What does it mean to be a YLP Scholar?

"I think the ASPIRE Youth Leadership Program is all about helping Asian American girls who have the potential to be leaders in the community and at the same time helping Asian American girls, like me, show that we are not quiet. I can be as strong as anyone else. Asian American girls can be active in the community too, they are not just housewives, they can do anything. It also provides hands-on leadership skills and experience, so it’s not just verbal training. We will actually be using the skills we learn. I know I have the potential to be a leader, and I know I will be a leader one day for my family and my community."

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