AAPI Heritage Month Spotlight: Trang Truong-Hill

In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, the Trust is spotlighting AAPI leaders and AAPI-serving organizations who are making a difference in the Chicago region. Check back throughout the month of May for more profiles. 

Trang Truong-Hill is the Director of Newcomer Strategies & Global Services at the YMCA of the USA—focusing on new immigrant engagement, integration, inclusion, and community bridge-building. The YMCA of the USA is the national resource office for the nation’s YMCAs and is headquartered in Chicago. The organization is a leading nonprofit committed to strengthening community by connecting all people to their potential, purpose and each other. Working locally, they focus on empowering young people, improving health and well-being, and inspiring action in and across communities. 

Trang is also a donor of the Asian Giving Circle (AGC), one of six affinity fund initiatives housed at The Chicago Community Trust, and serves on its grantmaking committee. Founded in 2022, AGC has been using collective giving to build power and deepen impact in diverse Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the Chicago area. To date, it has given more than $770,000 in grant funding to more than 90 nonprofit partners. 

She recently connected with the Trust to discuss her philanthropic journey, involvement with AGC, and learnings from the AAPI community. 

Tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you became involved with Asian Giving Circle. 

Trang Truong-Hill: I am a community organizer, volunteer and nonprofit leader. I am the daughter of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees. I am a mom to an energetic two-year-old daughter, a wife to a collegiate basketball coach, and a lover of nature. I moved to the Greater Chicago area from Southern California.  

I became involved in AGC during the early onset of the pandemic as anti-Asian hate and violence were on the rise. I attended a virtual community healing circle and reconnected with a former colleague on that call who introduced me to AGC. I was immediately drawn to AGC’s commitment to supporting AAPI communities and its grantmaking committee, which also reflected the diverse AAPI communities across the greater Chicago region. 

What inspired you to begin your journey with philanthropy and charitable giving? Are there any learnings you have gleaned over the years in doing so? 

TTH: As a kid, I’ve always wanted to make the community a better place and make a difference in the world. I have worked and volunteered in the nonprofit sector for over 18 years. Early in my career, I learned and experienced firsthand the importance of having a culture of philanthropy and how storytelling is so key in sharing the impact that is made through the resources that are raised. In order to help sustain nonprofit organizations, the community it serves also needs to believe in the mission and work of the organization and be part of the story to keep it going, growing and thriving.  

What’s your take on the importance of community and using your voice and philanthropic support to advocate for the AAPI community? 

TTH: Often, AAPI communities are overlooked when it comes to philanthropic support. Time and time again, I have seen philanthropic opportunities that leave out AAPI communities—shadowed by the “model minority myth” that AAPIs are doing fine and are not struggling, and there aren’t needs. AGC provides an opportunity to bring visibility to AAPI organizations and community issues. AGC prioritizes funding smaller grassroots organizations that may not have access to philanthropic support. I try my best to continue to raise my voice and shed light on these issues. There are complexities and nuances in the AAPI diaspora, and it is important to understand the history of each AAPI group.  

Can you talk a bit about issues facing the AAPI community that you are passionate about in addressing? 

TTH: Asian Americans are often seen as the “model minority” for their socioeconomic and educational success compared to other groups. The “model minority myth” is a stereotype that generalizes Asian Americans by depicting them as the perfect example of an “if-they-can-do-it-so-can-you” success story.  

If you look at educational outcomes, for instance, you have some groups that have extraordinarily high rates of college education, like Indians, Chinese and Koreans. But then there are other groups like Cambodian, Laotian and Hmong that have higher high school dropout rates than African American and Latine communities. AAPIs represent both extremes of the spectrum—they have extremely high median household income and extremely high poverty rates. Because of these extremes, it masks the problems and challenges that other Asian ethnic groups experience.   

There are radically different histories, experiences and oppressions across the Asian American diaspora; yet often, they are lumped together as one ambiguous other. Whenever people think about “Asian” identities, they think specifically of East Asian identities, such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean. There are over 50 distinct countries in Asia. Other groups in the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora are erased, and their lived realities and challenges are diminished. Assuming all Asians are the same, the myth also creates a mono-dimensional Asian American without regard to intersections. It does not consider class, citizenship, language, gender, sexuality, ability, religion, or other social identities. 

In the spirit of AAPI Month, are there any icons or leaders—past or present—who inspire you?  

TTH: The AAPI leader that inspires me is Amanda Nguyen, an activist and astronaut. She will become the first Vietnamese woman to go to space when she flies on an upcoming Blue Origin launch on the New Shepard rocket. Amanda’s activism focuses on the intersection of race and gender. She is an inspiration, and I admire her resilience and love what she stands for.