Mona leads a global business development & partnerships program at Waze/Google. She is an avid traveler, singer & the official Mandarin Chinese navigation voice for Waze.
“I grew up isolated and bullied as the only Asian kid in very conservative, all-white communities across the Midwest and East Coast. As an only child, I struggled with being the odd one out and did everything I could to fit in and hide my “Asianness”.
When I moved to Cupertino, California in 6th grade, I experienced reverse culture shock and suddenly felt too white. As a reaction, I immersed myself into Asian culture and went the other extreme. I eventually reached a point where I didn’t feel a sense of belonging with either culture; I was too “white” for Asia and too Asian for the US. Over time, I was able to overcome that feeling and learned to embrace my identity. I came to realize that I didn’t need to fit neatly into any one box or label, and that my bicultural identity was an feature, not a bug.”
