Interviewer: Siena Iwasaki Milbauer
AAOP is committed to supporting and uplifting the activism of young Asian Americans. That’s why we are excited to present an ongoing series of interviews with bold Asian American youth organizers. Today, a conversation with Alysa Monteagudo, who is a member of AAOP’s Youth Action Team, and the co-founder of so she CAN.
Please introduce yourself!
Alysa: My name is Alysa Monteagudo, I’m 16 years old, my pronouns are she/her/hers, and I live in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Prior to creating so she CAN, were you involved in other forms of activism? If so, what kinds?
Alysa: My first experience with social justice and activism was with AAOP. I was a youth fellow in their summer program and there I got to learn about different social justice issues in the Asian American community. [I also learned about] how people can community organize.
Can you give a general overview of what so she CAN is?
Alysa: so she CAN is a student led organization aimed to support all, but specifically help uplift the voices of marginalized people, communities, and women. We try to inform everyone on social justice issues that are occuring around the world, in order to help them feel empowered about how they can make change in their own communities.
What motivated you to create this project?
Alysa: I wanted to create my own [organization] because I felt like there wasn’t a focus on women of color, or Asian women. And I wanted to fill that gap in order to create change. I also think I’m someone who is very passionate about research and I wanted to do research that actually helps benefit people. By starting this organization, I thought that was a good way I could help inform others on important issues that they should know about.
Could you talk about one or two specific things that you’ve created as part of so she CAN?
Alysa: so she CAN has our own podcast, called “so she CAN speak”. We have [team members] research about different issues that are occurring around the world. We create a script and then me and Celine (so she CAN’s co-founder) co-host the podcast. I help video-edit everything together and put it on our YouTube channel so that people can listen.
We also have a website and an Instagram. The blog articles on our website and our posts on Instagram coincide with each other. So [for example], one of our writers created an article about how Poland recently banned abortion. And alongside that our graphic designer created a post about the laws in Poland and how abortion [laws are] in other countries as well.
As a person with many commitments, including school, how do you manage co-running so she CAN?
Alysa: I think the first thing is to really find and trust other people. At first, I wanted to just do it myself. And then after laying out everything that I needed to do, I realized that it was going to be really hard for just me to take on. So I decided to grow my team and really trust in others to do tasks.
Scheduling is [also] important for me. I have a bunch of different things that I have to do for both school and so she CAN. So I write them all down in my planner and prioritize what should go first. But [to be honest] if you want your work to do well, you will have to make some sacrifices. I probably don’t have as much free time as other people. But I still have a good balance between everything that I am doing.
How does your identity as a young Asian American woman influence your activism and the work that you are doing?
Alysa: I think the main reason I started to get into activism is because I am a young Asian woman. Knowing that there are a lot of disparities out there for women of color, and for my people, I think that motivated me to try to empower others like me.
What is a change that you want to see and to help create in the world?
Alysa: I think for girls there is a lot of negativity in society and online with social media. For so she CAN, a goal of mine would be to help people my age become more confident about themselves. I’d love my organization to evoke confidence and empowerment.
Learn more about so she CAN!
Website: https://soshecan.wixsite.com/organization
Instagram: @soshecanorg
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn-rnEEag66mWevFKx-oF9w
(Image credits: so she CAN, Alysa Monteagudo)