He said that "my parents wanted me to be a doctor I think I'm something even better: I'm a teacher.
Because I can change the world!" One of the issues I've seen over the years is just the
lack of diversity amongst the staff. There doesn't seem to be that many -- there hadn't seemed to be
that many -- in the biology field or the history fields or the administrative fields. But that
probably reflects the population in general. There doesn't seem to have been that many Asians
visiting National Parks. I would go to National parks during my summer, and I would very often be
the only Asian. Even when I went to a place like Yosemite, which is in California... which is in
Northern California. Literally three hours away from San Francisco. Three hours from Sacramento,
which there's lots of Asians there. And ony six hours from Los Angeles, lots of Asians there. And
I didn't see that many Asians. But over the years I've seen more and more. And I think it's funny
that once I became a ranger in the late 90s and started working more full-time, I would encounter
some of the same visitors at several of the different parks. I remember one family
that came and encountered me at Yosemite National Park. We had a nice conversation
they were noting that "Oh! You're the only -- you're the first Asian ranger we've met!"
and lo and behold they encountered me at Yellowstone so they were surprised. And then a
few years later they encountered me at Canyonlands and once again they they were surprised. So
I had mentioned that I'm not that concerned that I'm the only Asian. I know what I'm getting... I
knew what I was getting myself into. But I love exploring. I love exploring the country. I love
meeting new people. So it doesn't bother me as an individual that I'm only Asian.
In fact here at Agate Fossil Beds I think I'm in the whole county of Sioux county which has
about 1,200 residents, I think I'm the only Asian person in this county. But what what bothers me
is hearing about all the anti-Asian sentiments that are going on in the country. I have not
experienced that here in this county but I hear of all the hatred in some of the metropolitan
areas in California. It's just astounding considering how multicultural California has been
for forever. And so it is disturbing. So that's why I'm really happy that the park service has
organized an Asian American / Pacific Islander employee resource group. And
it's opened my eyes too, because I didn't realize that in today's generation there's all these
different rangers across all different disciplines: administrative, biology,
natural resources, history, management... and it actually feels very good that there are all
these Asians. Whether they're Indian, Filipino, Japanese, Thai... it just runs the gamut. And
it's very comforting, and it's very heartening. Because it it means that there are other people
who look like me who care. What I learned in school was to change that model... from
change it from the melting pot to a bowl of salsa. You have the tomato chunks, you have the jalapeno
chunks, you have the onion chunks, you have the cilantro, you have the lemon juice. You
could still recognize it and you can say "yeah, I love each of those items." But when you meld them
all together, you let it sit overnight... it's a wonderful melange of flavors and experiences. We
are after a career and we want to do what we want to do. We're not going to let ethnicity and race
be obstacles. Employees that I've worked with, interns I've had? Yeah, they don't see
race as an issue. They don't necessarily see it as an obstacle to anything. So I think it's
a better world, and I'm glad to be in it. And I'm glad to to see it. And I certainly want to
help in any way, to push forward with encouraging people of different ethnicities to consider
-- first of all visiting national parks -- but then also working for the National Park Service.