With the help of fellow freshman Students of Color Alliance members Jasmine Aung and Clara Gosewehr, Tegan Hahn worked Tuesday morning during fifth period to install flags in the main hallway ceiling as part of SOCA’s celebration of Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Both Hahn and Aung hope that the heritage month gives the McCallum campus a chance to better understand and appreciate the cultural perspective of Asian-American students on campus.

Hahn said it’s been an adjustment for her coming to McCallum from Canyon Vista Middle School, a Round Rock ISD school in north Austin. Like Westwood High School into which it feeds, Asian-American and Pacific Islanders are the largest demographic group at the school.

“I grew up surrounded by people who are similar to me,” Hahn said. “I’m Indian and Chinese, a quarter Indian, a quarter Chinese and half white, because my dad is white, but I grew up kind of in the split down the middle because [the school] was like half white and half Asian, and so I was kind of on both sides. …  It kind of felt like a tug of war sometimes.”

Since she came to McCallum, however, Hahn said she only has one other student in her classes—Aung—who is Asian-American.

Aung’s parents are from Myanmar, but her nationality is Malaysian. She’s been a U.S. citizen since elementary school.

“When I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I remember going into the capitol.” Aung said. “I didn’t have to take the test, but my parents did, and it actually took me a year after they took the test for me to get my citizenship.”

Unlike Hahn, Aung did not go to a middle school with a large Asian-American population. 

“When I was growing up, I really denied my culture because I hated the fact that I was different from everyone else because everyone was either white or Hispanic at my school,” she said. “I always had to switch between being my culture at home and then being how everyone else is [at school], so I would fit in. … There were barely any Asians at my school, at my middle school, and even still now.”

She even changed her first name to Jasmine at school in order to fit in.

“My first name isn’t Jasmine; it’s Naw,” Aung said. “I just go by Jasmine because it’s easier for people to understand. [In middle school], I would be so ashamed because Naw is like ‘Nah, man,’ and people would make that joke all the time, and I’d get so annoyed, and so embarrassed when substitutes would say my name.”

That all changed, however, after a trip to her home country.

“It wasn’t until I actually visited Myanmar that I was able to start speaking in my language again and taking in my culture,” Aung said. “Now I’m not ashamed of it, I’m like, ‘I’m Jasmine Aung.’ I’m proud of it now, but it just took me a while, and I know a lot of people who experience the same thing.”

Immediately after Aung shared that story, Hahn said she could relate to that experience.

“[My mom] lived in Malaysia her whole [childhood], and she’s lived here ever since she was 19, and she met my dad, had a family,” Hahn said. “She kind of pushed her culture down, so she could be accepted in college and stuff like that, so she unwillingly passed that on to me.” 

Because she was trying to fit in, Hahn said, her mom didn’t share her culture much with her. The two now are working hard to make up for lost time.

“We’re trying to connect with our culture and celebrate Indian holidays and stuff like that,” Hahn said.

If you talk with Hahn and Aung even for a few minutes, you understand how and why bringing their culture out in the open on campus is an important goal. And it’s SOCA’s central mission on campus for all cultures.

SOCA adviser Tonya Moore pointed out that Gosewehr understands this objective from a unique perspective because she is white and because most of her friends at Mac are students of color.

“I like to celebrate culture a lot, so I just kind of ended up joining SOCA,” Gosewehr said. “I really love it. I go to every meeting.”

All three students and Moore said one way that all students can support students from diverse backgrounds is to join SOCA and become active members.

Another is to participate in the activities that SOCA is sponsoring this month to celebrate Asian-American and Pacific Islander Month.

Hahn and Aung said that they started observing the heritage month by sharing stories and food and traditional clothing with other SOCA members because they were unsure how people would react and because cultural awareness is a complicated issue to communicate in the compressed time that remains at school with finals so close on the horizon.

On Thursday, SOCA will host a whole-campus event for Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by selling goodie bags at lunch filled with authentic Asian snacks, so students can literally get a taste of Asian culture. The snacks will range in price from $1 to $2.