Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month with the stories of student-athletes

During May, the NCAA is celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by recognizing student-athletes of Asian and Pacific Islander descent.

A resource guide for member schools and conferences comes from the NCAA office of inclusion and the Asian American Foundation. The guide offers ideas in three categories — Celebrate, Combat Hate and Come Together — to support AAPI Heritage Month.

“Share someone’s story” and “reach out to your classmates and neighbors” are two suggestions for ways to celebrate the month and learn more about the individuals.

According to the NCAA demographic database, there were 9,821 Asian and 1,774 Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander student-athletes in 2020-21 throughout all three divisions. 

We spoke to the following student-athletes from across the country to discuss their heritage and what they appreciate about AAPI Heritage Month:

• Malia Aleaga, volleyball, Western Washington, Japanese and Samoan descent.
• Keli'iokalani Kamelamela-Duddoit, golf, Hawaii Pacific, Hawaiian descent.
• Brandi Leong, softball, Hawaii Pacific, Japanese and Samoan descent.
• Chad Nguyen, tennis, St. Mary’s (Texas), Vietnamese descent.
• Sufiyan Sarguroh, cross country, Adelphi, Indian descent.
• Hannah Trinh, golf, Adelphi, Filipino and Vietnamese descent.

How do you celebrate your heritage and culture?

Malia Aleaga: When we celebrate for both sides, it really has to do with food. Asian food and Samoan food is so delicious. And food brings everybody together.

For Samoan food, there’s this dessert called panipopo. It’s like coconut-filled bread. It’s really good. I would highly recommend it. Then there’s kalua pig, lomi salmon and we’re a huge seafood family. If there’s fish, crab or oysters, that will be annihilated in minutes.

For my Japanese side, I love mochi (sweet rice cakes). I’ve been obsessed with it since I was little, and my nana would always make fried mochi. My papa is a tako diver, which means octopus in Japanese. He would go dive and clean it all at his house. He has so many ways to prepare it. He can fry it, steam it. He’s an octopus master. 

Keli’iokalani Kamelamela-Dudoit: My grandmother is a practitioner and does native Hawaiian healing. She’s the life of our family and keeps everyone glued together. Our family lives on a homestead, and we grow noni. It helps with a lot of joint problems. I’ve learned how to use the leaves and the fruit for healing. Say you have a bruise or you hurt your ankle, you can wrap noni around the area, and it will take out all of the fluid so it’ll feel better or speed up the healing process.

That’s about as native Hawaiian as you can get. There’s a different avenue that each family member can take. For example, my uncle does clothing. He owns a T-shirt company that focuses on native Hawaiian art and designs. It gets people connected in a modern way. 

Sufiyan Sarguroh: I’m Muslim, and throughout the year there are different types of practices we do. Every day we pray, but there’s one month called Ramadan. It’s a time of the year where we fast and give sacrifices. During this month, Muslims are trying to be grateful for what they have, so we give up things that we desire the most and show God we can sacrifice the things we love. 

It definitely brings me closer to my culture, my religion and God. It builds my spiritual being. That means a lot to me because it’s something I carry with me through the year and something I do to make myself a better person and to help others out. 

What conversations have you had with your teammates, coaches and classmates about your heritage?

Brandi Leong: Here in Hawaii, it’s easier to talk about, and people are lot more open to it because a lot of us come from different backgrounds. At Hawaii Pacific, we usually have team dinners after practice at our field. Sometimes my mom will make traditional side dishes, and I’ll bring it so everybody can try it at least. Usually they are open to trying her food. It’s cool being able to share and have them experience it, too.

Chad Nguyen: The thing about being an Asian American in general is sometimes for non-Asians, it’s hard to distinguish what kind of Asian you are. I’ve had people ask me what kind of Asian am I and where my parents are from. I tell them we are Vietnamese and we came to America through immigration because of the Vietnam War. It’s been a normal talking point. I’m not ashamed and think very highly of my background and my parents’ background. I talk very openly about what happened and why we are here today.

Sarguroh: It’s definitely a learning opportunity for them. I love talking about it with them because they always seem very interested in it. It’s something that means a lot to me, as it shows me they care and it gives me a chance to teach them. 

During the month of Ramadan, my friends always ask me why we do it and how does it feel. Knowing that they haven’t known much about it in the past gives me the chance to teach them about it and get a better understanding of me as well.

How does your heritage intersect with your other identities as an individual, a student-athlete and more?

Hannah Trinh: There are a lot of parts of my heritage that intersect with those identities. I’m a golfer here at Adelphi and a nursing major, so part of my culture is taking advantage of opportunities that are given or put in front of me. Then really taking it to the end through hard work and perseverance, that’s really important in my culture. On the golf course if I’m having a bad day, it doesn’t matter. I can’t throw it away. I have to grind it out. No quitting or anything, that’s not how I was raised. 

Family is really important in most cultures, but definitely in Asian cultures. Even though golf is more of an individual sport, I’m still on a golf team here with a bunch of other girls. Regardless of how my day went and how I’m feeling about my round, I’m always sure to be there for my teammates, however they are feeling.

Aleaga: I think it’s really fun to meet other people and inform them about different identities they probably don’t know or know of. Nobody has probably ever met a Japanese Samoan. It’s not as common. Every time I tell somebody, they go, “Oh, that’s a new one.” I like informing them about who I am. Sometimes it’s not even telling them, it’s interacting with the person. 

Leong: Both sides of my family moved here to create a better life. They had to restart with nothing. I feel like they really had to work to get what they had, and that work ethic was passed down from generation to generation. That really helped me in school and in softball. I work hard for what I want and do not expect things to be given to me.

Kamelamela-Dudoit: My heritage and identity never really separates. It’s always together being a student-athlete and native Hawaiian.

Growing up, those traits, you learn that they never leave you. If I was in, say, Texas, it would never change who I am. I always have those values with me, and my family would make sure I always kept them.

Nguyen: It does intersect. Asians in general are pretty driven and that helps me because my father and mother didn’t have much coming here. They had to work really hard to get where they are today to help set up my sister and I so that we were able to have a good childhood growing up and not struggle for anything. I look to them and learn that you have to work hard for everything in life. I try to look back at my parents and how much they struggled living here in the United States pretty young. 

For me as a student, I try my best to use the opportunity that I have to further my education, do well in classes and learn as much as I can. Plus with my passion for the tennis court, I try not to take any practice or match for granted and enjoy what I have. I try to push hard every day to do my best and improve.

Sarguroh: On the religion side of things, being a student-athlete as a Muslim is something that makes me a stronger athlete and person. My religion talks about when things go wrong, you shouldn’t give up. You should keep going. That’s something that plays a big role in being an athlete. 

On the culture side of things, it’s shaped me in that I have a voice that I can give to others. Going to the mosque and inspiring other kids is something that means a lot to me because I want kids to do something that they love the most.