Stephanie Zhang, co-founder of APIDAA

Wow, Emory has been a whirlwind of experiences. If you asked me as a freshman, “What do you think you’ll look like graduating college?” a picture of my current self would not appear. 

I came into Emory with one goal: have plans after graduation that would make my parents proud. Whether it be a prestigious law school or well-paying job, I was going to put effort into planning meticulously for the future. As soon as course registration started, I knew this dream would not become reality. While I was supposed to enroll in pre-BBA classes, what immediately caught my eye was a history course about radicals and revolutionaries of the Caribbean. This course fulfilled me in ways my intro courses in Economics did not. I was soon looking for similar classes about race, class, gender, and identity: classes that felt enriching and substantive. In my first three years at Emory, the majority of classes on my schedule were not “major-related.” In my last year at Emory, I was taking general education requirement classes people advised for freshmen, as I had only filled my schedule with courses I found personally interesting.

Unfortunately, my extracurriculars took a similar turn. I originally thought I would try to be less activist-y than I was in high school — maybe infiltrate a business school club, try out economic research or join a pre-law society. I was interested in joining a program with a pipeline to something secure and profitable. Instead, I started hanging out with the sophomores (21C) that comprised Asian American Pacific-Islander Student Activists (now APIDAA). They helped me recognize my passion for community advocacy, and we created the current Asian Student Center, developed the assistant director position in the Office for Racial and Cultural Engagement to support Asian American students and highlighted Asian American student needs on campus. My work-study job at the Center for Women was another space where I committed myself to something I genuinely liked doing. Working with amazing supervisors and student staff, making lots of crafts and building feminist programs for young girls were meaningful experiences I would not have had anywhere else. 

In my four years at Emory, I fully embraced my interests that I was told would only survive as hobbies. While I skewed far from my pre-professional plans which, had they been successful, would have put me on track to be the dream daughter of Asian immigrant parents, I was able to do intentional work that has changed me profoundly.  I now know that the pre-professional plans I felt obligated to accomplish were created from my fear of an uncertain future. Coping with this lack of stability can be challenging, but I am a firm believer that you should live to work, not work to live. By doing things that felt authentic to me, I am able to graduate with a better understanding of who I am, how I want to exist in the world and the legacy I want to leave behind. 

Stephanie Zhang is from Johns Creek, Georgia. She is a philosophy and economics double major. She co-founded Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Activists and served as a co-chief of staff. She was also a student staff worker at the Center for Women at Emory. She is the winner of the Marion Brittain Award, a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow and a National Newman Civic Fellow. After graduation, she will be going on a cross-country roadtrip with her cat.