As an Asian American and child of immigrants, I have wrestled with the tension between our country’s stated values of equity and the reality of how our society treats people who are different differently.

While working in Chicago’s city government, I got to peek behind the curtain of how decisions are made, but I also saw how we create barriers to people - especially young people from marginalized communities - to affect change, further cementing inequity. Since then, it has been my mission to change this.