Our celebration of AAPI month continues with a conversation with Celeste Fa’ai’uaso. Celeste is a senior program manager at Google and has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. She attributes her academic drive to her parents’ passion for education. 

Celeste’s father grew up in American Samoa before moving to the mainland for college, and her mother, who is Mexican American, was raised by a single mom in Compton, CA. Her parents and older brother were instrumental in shaping her into the determined individual she is today.

She and host Sean Li discuss her upbringing, her father’s Samoan roots, how Pacific Islanders are a separate demographic group than Asian, and how companies can do better to support their AAPI employees. 

*OneHaas Alumni Podcast is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

How she discovered her passion for mechanical engineering

My dad had a lot of tools and I found out how to use a screwdriver maybe when I was like six or something. And once I found that out, I was really curious on how things worked. And so I started to take things apart in my house.

I’d get a phone and take it apart or get a radio and take it apart. And I think at first it was cute, but then my mom was like, if you're gonna take something apart, put it back together.

Why she chose Berkeley over other schools

Haas is the perfect school for me because of the community. It's such a small group and such amazing, caring people … You are with people who believe in you. They're not sizing you up. They're actually interested in who you are as a person and what are your goals, and they want you to achieve your goals.

On the Pacific Islander erasure that can happen during AAPI month

Oftentimes when I see commercials or initiatives, I don't see Pacific Islanders, and that really makes me sad, makes me angry because I'm thinking this month is supposed to highlight us and even in this month, I don't see me or my people, and I just don't want people to forget the PI whenever they say AAPI or Asian and Pacific Islander.

A piece of Pacific Islander history she’s especially proud of 

My Polynesian ancestors were the best mariners in the world, in human history of sailing the Pacific Islands way before Europe or Vikings were doing what they were doing. Like I've heard the distance they've sailed is equivalent to traveling from south of Mexico to Alaska. They traveled  by using the stars, the currents, looking where birds were landing, and they were covering the Pacific Ocean way before people from Europe and covering a lot more space in the ocean than Vikings. 

Show Links:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Polynesian Wayfinders And The Cosmos
• Polynesian Culture Center in Oahu, Hawaii 
• Map of Pacific Islands: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia

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