Authenticity, Community & Pride: Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month At Stanford GSB

Around one-fifth of America’s population growth is attributed to Asian American Pacific Islanders. Between 2010 and 2019, the AAPI demographic grew by 25.5%, the fastest-growing minority in the country.

According to research by Goldman Sachs, between 2003 and 2019 the AAPI community drove 22% of employment growth “despite accounting for just 6% of the population.” It has been estimated that Asian Americans have driven more than 23% of U.S. private-sector growth during this period, resulting in a GDP growth contribution of $1.5 trillion.

“There’s this phrase that’s been thrown around about the Asian community being model immigrants; people that do their job and do it well,” says Nabeel Momin, Stanford Graduate School of Business Class of 2023 MBA. “But it goes beyond that. Asian culture isn’t just a silent contributor to society, and AAPI Heritage Month is about celebrating all of their contributions – regardless of how big or small.”

16% OF MBA STUDENTS AT STANFORD IDENTIFY AS ASIAN

In business education, AAPI and international Asian students comprise the largest minority group at most of the top-25 business schools in Poets&Quants’ latest ranking. One of the biggest population of Asian students is Stanford’s, where about 16% of MBA students identify as Asian according to U.S. News & World Report data.

P&Q spoke with four GSB students, members of the Asian Business Student Association and the newly launched South Asian Business Association, to learn more about how the GSB is celebrating their culture, what AAPI Heritage Month means to them, and how the GSB is commemorating it.

To recognize contributions by the AAPI community, the GSB highlights AAPI students on social media channels. “I absolutely love this month because it’s a way to give visibility to people that come from these backgrounds,” says Momin. “This isn’t only important for current students, but also for potential applicants to see that they can belong here.”

“That’s what was important to me when I applied,” Momin says. “I remember going on Stanford’s Instagram and seeing posts where Asian students were highlighted. I felt like I would belong — that I wouldn’t be an outsider at the GSB.”

To further foster community, ABSA and SABSA host fireside chats with AAPI business leaders to talk about their experience of what it’s like to break through tech or other industries as an AAPI member, as well as community dinners and potlucks that celebrate each AAPI members’ culture. “The entire class is invited to the dinners, and they’re just a blast,” says Momin.

MEET NABEEL MOMIN: ‘IT’S ABOUT BEING VULNERABLE & ACCEPTING WHO I AM’

Nabeel Momin was born in Mumbai, India. Early in his childhood, his family moved to Toronto, Canada, in search of better opportunities. Five years later, his parents picked up and moved again — this time near Houston, Texas.

In high school, despite being surrounded by many people that looked like him, Momin says that there was a part of him that wanted to assimilate to American culture. “I wanted to look American,” he shares, “and I wanted to somehow balance this dual identity of being Indian and American.”

“As I grew older, I thought of myself as more American than Indian,” continues Momin. “But once I came to the GSB, I started leaning into the other side of me; how I’m actually Indian first and then American. I began to see that it’s possible to balance the two sides instead of trying to assimilate into one culture; both of them play a role, and it’s about being vulnerable and accepting who I am.”

Momin was eager to carve his own path after a few years working at Shell. He felt that GSB was his next step. For him, AAPI Heritage Month is an opportunity to share the diversity of AAPI culture. “It’s also an opportunity to talk about the successes and accomplishments that the community in the U.S. has made, but also the challenges that many of us face,” he says.

MEET PAUL MATTHEW YAP: ‘I ACTUALLY HAVE A VOICE & SOMETHING TO CONTRIBUTE IN THE CLASSROOM’

Raised in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, Paul Matthew Yap, Class of 2024, arrived in the U.S. “with two suitcases and a dream.”

As one of the first hires in BCG’s office in the Philippines, he spent four years working in consumer tech in Southeast Asia. He noticed that many founders and entrepreneurs coming to the Philippines were from the U.S. and Europe. “They brought in best-in-class practices, and a lot of them didn’t look like me,” continues Yap. “I said, ‘I’m going to pack my bag and go to Silicon Valley, learn some best practices, and see what I can take back to my side of the world.”

When he first arrived in the US, he described himself as being worried about fitting in. “I questioned where my identity fit into this broader picture, and whether it actually mattered,” he explains. “For me, what really helped me fit in was the people at Stanford — and not just those within ABSA and SABSA, but also my classmates and professors.”

Soon, Yap realized that he had a lot to contribute to class discussions. “People in class were willing to listen to me,” says Yap. “That’s when a light switched on; it’s not just about me assimilating here. I actually have a voice and something to contribute in the classroom.”

To him, AAPI month represents family. Confronted with loneliness and the feeling of being “a fish out of water” when he first landed in America eight months ago, he found a sense of community at ABSA, where he is now the co-president. Like Momin, celebrating the diversity within the AAPI community — and finding common ground — is a key part of this month. “There are folks from East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, locals, and other international students at ABSA, but somehow we feel very connected; they’re like my chosen family,” he shares.

MEET ANISHA MUDALIAR: ‘AUTHENTICITY IS ABOUT BEING ABLE TO SHOW UP AS YOUR FULL SELF’

Born and raised in San Diego, Anisha Mudaliar, Class of 2023, is the daughter of Indian immigrants. Throughout her childhood, she took annual trips to India to visit her extended family and learned classical Indian Bharatanatyam dance.

“Asian culture can embrace so much of what’s modern about the world today, and at the same time continue to maintain and pass on these traditions that are thousands of years old,” says Mudaliar. “Those two things can coexist, and that’s important to me in the way I embrace being American, Indian, and Asian.”

She knew she wanted to deepen her career in social impact, and many of her mentors had been to the GSB. “I knew that coming here would help to propel my impact career and develop me into the best leader that I could be.”

To Mudaliar, AAPI Heritage Month is about making space to share how AAPI members’ experiences, identities, and perspectives have influenced who they are and what they bring to the world. “It’s about recognizing the contributions of these large groups of diverse people — and all the unique and beautiful cultural identities that exist within that group,” she says.

It’s also an opportunity to show up authentically — which, to her, means being her full self and creating a space where others can be their full selves, too. “It’s important to me to talk about my identities at the GSB — as a woman, as a South Asian American, and as a daughter of immigrants,” she explains. “I think this month and other heritage months are really good opportunities to remember and reflect on how we can create space where people feel comfortable showing up as their full selves.”

MEET KATHY DONG: ‘IT’S IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE WORLD’

Kathy Dong, Class of 2023, was born in the U.S., but spent her first two years with her grandparents in Beijing, China. From then on, she spent every summer connecting with her culture in Beijing.

Passionate about the intersection of business and design, Dong came to the GSB to learn how to integrate these two sides of herself in a career. For Dong, AAPI Heritage Month is a chance to celebrate not only the diversity of the AAPI community, but also their shared values and experiences. One of these values is community. “The sense of community and focus on ‘we,’ not ‘I,’ can feel in conflict with Western identity,” she explains.

Dong is most proud of the diversity and vibrancy within AAPI culture. But much of this vibrancy has been overshadowed by the escalation of Asian hate crimes over the past couple of years. Dong believes that it’s more important than ever before for folks to gain a deeper understanding of each other’s cultures, backgrounds, and identities. “Just a couple days ago, my brother texted me saying he had racial slurs thrown at him,” she explains. “These issues are top of mind for so many people, so it’s important to understand what’s happening in the world and what experiences people are living through.”

‘I HOPE FOLKS WILL RECOGNIZE HOW DIVERSE THE POPULATION IS THAT EXISTS UNDER THE AAPI UMBRELLA’

Like all diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, the work exists beyond AAPI heritage month. In each conversation with these four GSB students, they emphasized their desire for people to recognize the diversity within the AAPI community — hoping that people will understand that it’s a diverse group of people made up of rich cultural and historical experiences.

“Sometimes I get bucketed into being from Southeast Asia,” says Yap, “but within Southeast Asia are Thais, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese, and more.”

“I hope folks will recognize how diverse the population is that exists under the AAPI umbrella,” says Mudaliar. “And I hope they can give space for the celebration of all those different identities.”

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