(calm music) - Hello!

(both laugh) How are you?

- Good, it's so good to see you.

Ooh, and it smells so great in here.

Oh, good.

- Well, I don't remember when I first met you, Meaghan, but I do remember when I first saw you, and I think I was a senior in high school at Okemos High School.

And because Okemos High School was in the East Lansing area.

I always went to Michigan State to kinda, you know, check out what was going on.

And I had some friends that said, "Hey, Brenda, check out the Asian Pacific American Student Organization.

We have this general body meeting where people come gather.

It's very social, there's often food, drinks."

And I said, "You know, you had me at food, but I'll show up."

(laughs) And I remember it was in this room actually, that I saw you.

- So, I met you at APASO's pageant, which is the Asian Pacific American Student Organization.

I was the advisor.

And that event was an opportunity for students within APASO and their affiliate organizations to just celebrate Asian American identity through awareness, through talent.

And I saw you- - I think I was representing the Chinese Student Coalition.

- Oh, really?

- Yeah, I'm part Chinese, part Vietnamese.

- I didn't know that.

Oh my God.

- Look, I was like, "However I can get into this pageant.

However they'll take me, sign me up."

(laughs) - So, and you ended up winning?

- Yes.

- Which is exciting.

- Honestly remarkable.

I don't know how I did it.

I think I always thought that I had to be Asian or that I had to be American.

I don't think I ever realized that I could be both.

And for the first time in my life, when I went to Michigan State University and saw you and people from this Asian Pacific American community, I thought, "Oh my gosh, I'm not alone, and we can be cool.

We can be kings and queens in this pageant, and rock on."

Like, "I wanna be a part of that."

- So, what drew you to APASO and what made you, more importantly, stay with APARO Because you were an E-board member for several years.

- I think freshman year I was an affiliate, so just a member attending Asian Pacific American Student Organization events.

And I thought, "Wow, this is really cool."

Like, "I want to build a home here."

And a lot of the people that I've met, like, I want to be in touch with them, I wanna be around them.

"This is great."

I think that was also around the time when I was really establishing who I was as a person, my identity as an Asian-American, as a college student, as the daughter of, you know, my parents, and as a college, all the things.

And I thought, "How can I get more involved in an advocacy way, but also in a programming way too?

Because if I don't serve on the board, you know, how are we gonna make change?

How am I gonna make change?"

So I started as secretary my sophomore year, and that was really fun.

And I thought, "Wow, this is truly a way to make change."

- But I remember what was so unique about you.

You were doing things to advocate for women.

- [Brenda] Yes.

- And what made you lead to do programming around sexual assault awareness?

- Yeah.

- I think that that is something that I won't forget.

And then you also part of the Women's Advisory Board.

- Yes.

- Yes.

- It was the first year that MSU was requiring incoming freshmen to take the sexual assault relationship violence prevention class.

And they were looking for peer educators, is what they called them.

I grew up, you know, with sexual abuse, and I knew a lot of people who had been sexually abused.

And I think it's a very taboo topic to talk about, not only in general, but in the Asian American community.

And I'm passionate about this.

Like, I have this opportunity to connect with other students who, you know, might be going through the same things as me, and now I get to help them know that they're not alone.

And I thought that that was so important, and I really wanted to de-stigmatize that in the Asian American community here, because it's a tough topic to talk about, period.

So, woman empowerment was super important to me.

My mom is a strong, beautiful, independent woman.

She inspires me every day.

That's why I wanted to, you know, share my story and also advocate and get into activism, not only for communities of color, but also for survivors.

- Yeah.

Well, I loved how your programming supported the Asian American community, but it was also topics that were very universal.

It was really important and very eye-opening when you did that.