The Asian Pacific Islander Faculty & Staff Association is pleased to present this year’s Fullerton College APIA scholarship to Julianne Le. Julianne has overcome personal and familial hardships to excel academically as well as in extracurricular activities. After Hurricane Delta in Louisiana, Julianne helped her family move to California where, as the oldest child of an immigrant family, she helped raise her younger siblings and obtained a job to help support her family.

Julianne was inspired by the memory of her grandparents to enroll in Fullerton College where she maintained a 4.0 grade point average while becoming involved on campus. Julianne tutored English for Hornets Tutoring then moved on to a promotion from writer to news editor of FC’s student newspaper, The Hornet. As the only Asian staff member, she highlighted events that could have been missed, such as a talk by Filipino writer Grace Talusan. As a result of her excellent reporting on campus governance and local elections, during spring 2023 semester, she was part of a four-member team funded by California Humanities Emerging Journalism Fellowship, part of the organization’s Democracy and the Informed Citizen Initiative. The team developed a multimedia story focused on bringing accountability to systems of power and uplifting the voices of community members.

Julianne has earned recognition on numerous occasions including: the 2023 William T. Boyce Creative Writing Award; a second place in FC Library’s Banned Book Contest; and she was a Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship Semifinalist. She also founded Live on Air, a club that highlights creative work by women of color and provides space for underrepresented voices. Her lesbian identity and Vietnamese heritage motivate her to promote activism and provide a platform for those outside of the mainstream narrative. Julianne will be transferring to UCLA in the fall so we wish her all the best in her future endeavors.