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Behind Asian Student Achievement’s (ASA) speaking engagements, newsletter, and current success is the foundational work of Buo Charoenwong, one of the first interns to ever join ASA. As a Third Culture Kid and a dedicated member and president of Miami University’s Asian American Association, Buo knew she loved building communities where Asians and Asian Americans could embrace their multiple identities. To Buo, ASA was the perfect blend of Asian community and professional development. After a personal invitation from Shane Carlin, founder and CEO of ASA, she joined the then-two-person-team and laid the foundations of what the organization is today. 

Born in Memphis, Tennessee to Thai parents, Buo spent most of her formative years in Singapore—a vibrant hub often described as the melting pot of Southeast Asia. At home, she spoke Thai and English, while Mandarin became her everyday language for navigating life outside, especially in markets and food stalls.

After graduating from her high school, Singapore American School, Buo moved back to the US in 2013 to study accountancy and business analytics at Miami University, a mid-sized Midwestern college, in Oxford, Ohio. While Singapore granted Buo the solidarity of an Asian community and identity, in the US, she was distinctly part of the racial minority. In the early months of her freshman year, Buo experienced significant culture shock, making it challenging to find a sense of belonging or community. Her classmates couldn’t fathom that she could be from a foreign country and speak fluent English, nor could she get used to the cursory pleasantries of Americans. 

It was around this point in time that Buo rediscovered the concept of a Third Culture Kid  (TCK), an identity that she knew of while in Singapore but started to truly identify with at Miami University. The term was coined by sociologists John and Ruth Hill Useem: a Third Culture Kid is a “person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents’ culture, frequently building relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any” (Pollock & Rekan). After spending so much of her life feeling untethered, Buo found solace and community in the notion that one doesn’t need to belong to any one country in particular, that her identity could be in the “in between.” 

“If people are asking me where I’m from I usually say, ‘I’m Thai, but I grew up in Singapore–I’m a Third Culture Kid,’” Buo said. This newfound identity fueled her desire to find a community at Miami University, where her TCK status didn’t make her the odd one out.  

It was that revelation that led Buo to seek out Miami University’s Asian American Association (AAA). At AAA, Buo was able to connect with others on a more personal level. As a club member, Buo attended meetings and events that taught her how to advocate for both herself and her community. “AAA was a place where I could truly be authentic,” she said.  “It was really important to me.”

During Buo’s sophomore year, AAA held an alumni speaking event where Shane Carlin, Founder and CEO of Asian Student Achievement (ASA), spoke about microaggressions against Asian Americans and the ways they could speak up for themselves. As an executive member in only her second year of membership, Shane’s speech resonated with Buo and she found herself thinking more and more about what she could do for AAA, how she could bring more opportunities to their members, and how to prepare them to face a workplace in which they were the minority. 

“Growing up in Singapore, I tended to be a bit more timid,” Buo said. “I grew up in a more homogenous society, where there are more Asians than non-Asians. It was through Shane’s speaking event that I got to learn more about how I need to just go for it, [to] just speak up. It doesn’t matter if what I share may not resonate with others, but at least I’m also sharing a different perspective. What is important is that my perspective could touch someone else, at least one other.”

Driven by her devotion to AAA, Buo climbed the ranks and became President of AAA for her senior year.  “She’s one of the most impressive people I know,” said Amelia Hoover, Asian Student Achievement’s current Operations Manager and Buo’s fellow AAA member.  “I still remember when Buo ran for President of AAA. She didn’t even have anyone running against her, but she still dressed up and gave a speech–she went above and beyond, and always has.”

The summer before her last year at Miami University, Buo reconnected with Shane, hoping to invite him back to AAA to coach the members on educational and vocational soft skills. “I wanted to search for ways we can advocate for students and our community,” she said, “how we can inspire and develop the professional development of our community members. There are all sorts of soft skills that are not necessarily taught in college courses, so I thought our students would be really interested.” 

They met up in Chicago for lunch, and to Buo’s surprise, Shane offered her the opportunity to be one of ASA’s first interns. From her perspective, the missions of ASA and AAA were very complementary, so she jumped at the chance to further AAA’s mission and her own professional development. She joined in 2016 as an Operations Intern, working with Shane and one other Finance Intern to build the foundations of ASA.

“I was very fortunate to have Buo as our first intern,” Shane said. “She set the standard for future interns and gave our team and myself the opportunity to supervise a talented young woman who I knew would go very far.”

Buo’s work at ASA spanned a wide range of responsibilities, including networking, communications, and project management. She created a database of Asian American-affiliated organizations and associations ASA could collaborate with, built the job board currently on the website, and wrote the newsletter templates still used for monthly newsletters in the years following her departure. She also flexed her advertising and promotions muscles to share ASA with the world. 

“I am not, and was not, a self-promoter,” Buo said. “I’m really shy at heart,, so learning how to speak for and be a representative of ASA while still at Miami was a great learning experience.”

Eight years later, Buo is impressed at how much ASA has changed since her time. “The website is so much more polished than when I was working on it,” she said, “the job board is up, there’s more interns, and ASA has reached so many more students. It’s cool to think that some of what I did had some impact on the things ASA can do now.”  

The greatest skill she took away from her ASA internship was the ability to write timely, concise communications, which carried into her first job in the audit department of Ernst & Young and propelled her to make the jump to be an Experience Designer at the EY wavespace. 

“I think it’s really important to be able to write communications well. It’s something that’s always needed when you’re reaching out to clients or managers or your manager’s partners and contacts,” Buo said. “Sometimes it comes naturally to others, sometimes it might take time to draft, but that was a really good skill for me as I entered my professional career.”

To young professionals still in college or stepping into the workforce, Buo advises everyone to take every opportunity, even if it’s risky. “Just try. Go for it, even if it’s daunting or you’re anxious about it,” she said. “It’s better to take risks now when you’re early in your career and you have smaller stakes.”

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References

Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds, revised edition (David C. Pollock & Ruth E. Van Rekan)

Buo’s Linkedin

Emily Mun Interview w/ Buo Charoenwong

Kaylin Lebo Interview w/ Buo Charoenwong

Amelia Hoover

Shane Carlin