Tell us a bit about your own AAPI heritage.
My mother is American, and my father was Japanese. I was born and raised in Tokyo as one of six kids in a bi-racial family. We grew up speaking Japanese with our grandparents but English at home and at the international school we attended. Both my parents were consummate volunteers alongside many other accomplishments, my father started an outreach food program for homeless populations, and my mother at 85 still delivers food every week to individuals at 4:30 in the morning! My dad also assisted the Asian Rural Institute, which brings scholars together to learn about sustainable organic farming practices. When I call my mom weekly, she tells me about her daily sweeping of the road in front of her home, (including her neighbor’s areas), and her hobby/mission of taking a bag out to her local park to make sure it stays weed-free. She was a daughter of an amateur rose hybridizer who was a founding member of the Rose Hybridizer’s Associa