In 2020, siblings Will Hsu ’98 and Angie Hsu ’96 established the Scott J.J. Hsu Directorship for the Asian American Activities Center (A³C), the first endowed directorship for Stanford’s community centers in honor of their father. Since then, the duo have continued to promote Asian American community cohesion by hosting mentor-mentee get-togethers as recently as this past fall.

At ages 10 and 12, Will and Angie emigrated from Taiwan to Guam and then to Saratoga, Calif. When the two first landed in the States, neither spoke a word of English and enrolled in their respective schools’ English as a second language program.

Unlike Guam, where there wasn’t a “majority ethnicity” and most of the community spoke with an accent, in Saratoga, “every single Asian boy was in my social circle in my class,” Will said in an interview with The Daily. Will recalls the disparities between American-born Asians and first-generation Asian immigrants who existed in separate social circles.

During this time in the late ’90’s, Will described a “social hierarchy” in the high school’s environment based on how “assimilated” to American culture one was. Specifically, Asian immigrants made efforts to fit in or act “more Americanized,” Angie recalled.

By the time the two came to Stanford in 1992 and 1996, respectively, Angie and Will faced a seemingly new world in regards to the sense of community on campus.

For one, Stanford was much more diverse. The University had just undergone an examination in 1986, where Jeffrey Au, a Stanford junior at the time, questioned the low Asian-American acceptance rates. In response, Stanford’s Academic Senate Committee indeed found an “unconscious bias” in admissions. By the ’90’s, the Asian population on campus had notably risen from under 10% to around 15% according to Will.

Angie recalls the Asian American community on the Farm to be much more tight-knit than their high school. “It’s almost like we’re all Asian Americans, so the level of social integration and interaction among members from different communities is very high. It was a very comfortable environment in that sense,” Angie said. To her, Stanford represented a “pinnacle of Asian integration.”

For the first time, Will also felt a deeper community among other Asians. From his Asian peers, Will learned “how to be a leader, how to create initiatives, how to motivate not just yourself, but a group of people, and how to be activists both from the entrepreneurial, social and political perspectives,” he said.

However, while the Asian American community was established among the student population, it did not extend to the University at large. History professor and former Senior Associate Vice Provost Gordon Chang, who launched the first introductory Asian American studies program at the time, was the only Asian American teacher on campus, according to Will.

After graduating from Stanford, Angie found that the East Coast had weaker Asian American communities than the west. “California was almost a bit of a bubble for the more privileged segment of the Asian American community,” she said. “Once you left that bubble, a lot of the reality hit and there just hadn’t been as much progress in other parts of the country.”

Furthermore, in her professional life as a lawyer, Angie encountered that a substantial majority of her initial law firm’s partners and senior lawyers weren’t willing to mentor young and upcoming Asian lawyers. “It’s almost like there were too many [Asians] at the junior level,” she recalled.

From their experiences, Will and Angie later decided to start the A³C Endowed Directorship.

The endowment was largely motivated by their parents’ sacrifices in their quality of life and career in emigrating. “As hard as it was for me to adjust culturally, I think it was harder for them given how much older they were and how much more ingrained their social circles were back in Taiwan,” Will said.

The second motivation for the endowment was more community oriented. Will explained that many Asian Americans think about “giving” from one generation to the next in a “very closed community mindset,” specifically restricted to within the family structure. To address this, Will aimed to cultivate more generosity towards the Asian-American community by fostering “cultural, social, and political power” in order to “create a sense of cohesion and common purpose.”

In addition to familial relationships, it was much more important for Will and Angie to “think about how we could create a better Stanford for the next generation of Asian American kids,” Will said.

Associate Dean of Students and current Scott J. J. Hsu Director of the A³C Linda Tran shared that the endowment’s legacy has continued to engage “supportive and empowering spaces of belonging, community and learning for generations of students.”

Specifically, the endowment has supported new initiatives including the Issues & Advocacy program, in addition to expanding current organizations’ resources. In recent years especially, the endowment has afforded the A³C with the ability to provide processing spaces and care around incidents of anti-Asian hate and complex world events, according to Tran.

The Hsu siblings’ commitment to giving back to Stanford — especially the Asian American student body — has also manifested in their active mentorship of current students. In the Asian American Interactive Mentoring Program, Stanford sophomores are paired with Asian American faculty, staff and alumni for one-on-one mentorship, quarterly dinners and small events.

Alexandra Huynh ’25, a former mentee of Will, shared how his mentorship impacted her time at Stanford. From their conversations ranging from poetry to familial experiences, Will served as Huynh’s role model. “Having someone who can serve as an example of how I might consider bringing resources and reinvesting back into the community has been grounding,” she said.

Stanford’s Asian American Research Center program associate and fellow mentee, Charlie Lee ’24 recalled a specific piece of advice Will shared: “Follow your heart and passions, and everything else — the money, the recognition and happiness — will follow suit.” 

Transferring to Stanford as a first-generation, low-income, queer Hmong student, Lee grappled with imposter syndrome at the university. Will was “one of the first people to see and celebrate all of my intersectional identities,” Lee said.

Learning about Will’s story has served as an inspiration for Lee. “I hope he knows the incredible difference he has made,” Lee said. “Not just for me, but for countless students who have been fortunate enough to learn from his wisdom and generosity.” Even beyond the duration of the A³C mentorship, Lee and Will have continued to connect several times each year.

Huynh also described the endowment’s impact on a larger scale. “Endowing the A³C means that the center will always have leadership available to continue advocating for student programs, not only for Asian American students, but also for students of other marginalized, minority populations,” she said.

Reflecting on their personal experiences and professional careers, Will and Angie offered advice for current students who are similarly looking into Asian American communities.

“It’s almost important not to study all the time. You need to develop your non-academic skills and also to understand who you are and where you’re coming from,” Angie said.

On a similar vein, Will encouraged students to treat peers both as social circles and professional relationships.

“Treat each other with respect, don’t blow things out of proportion, understand that these relationships are not just one year, two years or even four years, but a lifetime,” he said.