“Boys are insensitive!” Elisabeth Y., 15, declares. I met with a group of girls from Chinese American Student Exposure (CASE) to discuss the college admissions process, but the conversation started off slowly, with only one of the girls, Lu Z., a 17-year-old senior, having a plan: To go to college close to home and become a veterinarian.

We all have different goals. No matter if you want to go to med school or write the next great American novel, there’s one thing we can agree on: High school helps define our aspirations by shaping our personal and professional growth. Success in high school is also crucial for receiving admissions from universities, and the college admissions process can be daunting. How much easier would it be if we had some support from students who had already gone through the high school experience and could help point us in …

Looking back on the past four months I’ve spent studying abroad in Beijing, I realize that I’ve come a long way from the fish out of water I was back in February. Toward the end of my time abroad, I was carrying out conversations in Mandarin with locals every day, talking about everything from the weather to the IMF chief’s scandal (a taxi driver brought that one up). I memorized all 14 stops on line 10 of the subway from my apartment to the …

What does a pageant winner do after the curtains close? I had the lucky opportunity to sit down with Christine Dai, the winner of the Miss Taiwan World Pageant 2008, and ask her about life after the crown. We covered everything from her parents to what motivates her at the gym everyday (steak!).
How did you hear about the Miss Taiwan World Pageant?
I first heard about it when I volunteered in a Los Angeles River clean up. Volunteering has always been a big part of my life. People there encouraged …

One afternoon while passing time in between my college classes, I came across a colorful stack of magazine pamphlets. Curious, I picked up a copy and was both surprised and delighted to find that it was a student publication focused on issues affecting the Asian Pacific American community.
The USC magazine, called Bamboo Offshoot, is one of a handful of other Asian American student publications that have emerged on college campuses in the U.S., such as UC Berkeley’s hardboiled, Dartmouth College’s Main Street and NYU’s blog Generasian among others. A recent article from Diverse Education highlights …