What does "being strong" mean to you? Showing up for the ones you love with genuine care and consistency. And showing up for yourself with that same care and consistency. This past year, I’ve been navigating my first year of business school. I’ve learned that strength lives in small acts, like staying present for my partner after a long day, checking in on classmates, or keeping up with my commitments to clubs. In an environment where so much pulls for your attention, strength is choosing care even when it’s 'inconvenient', and giving that same grace back to yourself.
How does family shape your perception of strength? My parents left China to build a new life in a place where they didn’t yet know the language or the culture, guided only by a dream. I think that’s pretty fearless. While they were in grad school, they had my sister and me and began to build a life of their own. From them, I learned that strength can be quiet: learning, adapting, and choosing love even when it’s hard. They taught us independence and curiosity, but also the importance of slowing down to share a meal, to laugh, to just be together. Strength, to me, is being steadfast and consistent while knowing how to make your own happiness along the way.
What keeps you strong in times of trial? Finding a tether to the things that matter. For me, that often takes the shape of a small ritual. A routine, a hobby, a habit, etc. Lately, it’s been long walks with an audiobook in my ears.
When has your strength been personally challenged and how did you respond? During undergrad, I rode the cutest little moped around campus. One evening, just a few blocks from home, a speeding car came around a bend and sent me flying twenty feet across the road. I was lucky that only my ankle was hurt, though recovery took months and left lasting effects. At first, I wasn’t used to tending to something that required slow, consistent care. Healing became an exercise in patience and self-discipline. Over time, I began to see movement as a form of strength rather than something I had taken for granted. I got more into working out and became deeply tuned into my mobility, learning how to build stability and confidence from the ground up. That experience reshaped my idea of strength. It is not about toughness or speed but about showing up for yourself through discomfort, staying patient, and rebuilding one steady step at a time.
If you could ask a question to other women regarding strength, what would you ask? As I step into my career after business school, how do you stay true to yourself while growing into something new?
Jesi’s Intentional Act of Kindness
How did you use the $100? I used the $100 to contribute to a community fund supporting the children of a server at a neighborhood restaurant who passed away suddenly earlier this year. The restaurant had started a fundraiser to help his two young kids with future education costs, and I added the $100 to that collective effort. When I first moved for grad school, I didn’t know many people here. One of my earliest meals was at a small burger spot, and the server who helped me that night made me feel unexpectedly welcomed. It was such a small exchange but with genuine warmth and light conversation. I didn’t know him well, but his kindness stayed with me, and I found myself returning to that spot often over the next year.
A few months ago I learned he had passed away suddenly, leaving behind two children. The community around him immediately came together. The restaurant shared memories, customers contributed, and people told stories about how he made them feel seen. His everyday kindness had created this humming network of care, and now that same network was supporting his family. Contributing the $100 to this fund honored a small but meaningful moment from my early days in a new place and allowed me to extend comfort to the people he loved most.
What was the 'Intentional Act of Kindness' process like for you? This is a really special part of this project. The process made me pay closer attention to the small threads of connection around me. It reminded me that we often underestimate how a simple moment of warmth can stay with someone, and how those small gestures become part of the legacy we leave behind. It helped me see that kindness does not end with a single moment. It continues through the people who carry it forward, and participating in that ripple felt like a way to honor the legacy of someone who made the world a little better simply by being in it.