Asian Spotlight | April 2022
Conversation with Lisa Nguyen
Lisa Nguyen was interviewed by Jason and Jenny as a part of ‘The Adult Table’ SASE Pro podcast. Lisa attended the SASE Pro Webinar with Hung Nguyen last year and found it very relatable as she had already applied to be on the reality TV show, Frogger. Lisa took the opportunity to reach out to Hung as a mentor since Hung had been on ‘The Amazing Race’. In this member spotlight, we will transcribe highlights of Lisa’s podcast as she talks about her appearance on the Frogger Show.
Here’s the link to listen to the whole podcast: The Adult Table - Episode 11 - Lisa Nyugen
Reality shows can be really intense. In a discussion about her involvement with the show, she talks about her relationship with the other contestants -
Jason
You were talking a little bit about your other contestants, and it seemed like there was just some really good camaraderie between you and the other contestants. Even the person that you're competing against, you both were super supportive, really wanted them to go far and vice versa. So can you kind of talk a little more about those kinds of relationships that you were able to build on the show and where they stand now after production?
Lisa
Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. Before coming on this TV show, I watched a lot of reality TV, like The Bachelor and Bachelorette. And I always wondered, how do these people who only know each other for four, five, six weeks suddenly become like lifelong best friends? And I now get it. You go through the bonding. Some of it's trauma bonding, like whether it's a quarantined hotel or the unpredictability of production. And these people become your friends. I remember getting on the plane in LA to go to Sydney and looking around me and the 20 odd people. I was super intimidated. We had bodybuilders. We had several personal trainers. We had a guy who did parkour professionally. I didn't know why I got picked or what I was doing here, and I was terrified. But we all ended up becoming really good friends. We all supported one another during our free time. It was kind of funny because we all have our strengths and we started kind of flexing it for one another.
Jenny
That's awesome. Yeah. Because it seemed like from the episodes that I watched, there were people from all over the US, Right? So it's nice to see the diverse cast just geographically.
Lisa
And they did a good job. Speaking of diversity, though, they passed a lot of very different backgrounds, different sexual orientation, different ages, different careers. So that was awesome. It was so much fun to just meet people with all these different walks of life, share support and rally around one another. They did try to tell us, get competitive, do a little bit of trash talking. But gosh, it's so hard because we all genuinely care about one another and we all genuinely supported one another both before, throughout the competition and especially after.
It was amazing to hear about the diverse group of people Lisa got to interact with! What’s even better is the lifelong friends she made through the show. Lisa also touched upon her how encouraging her boss was -
Lisa
I also would be remiss if I didn't mention my boss was super supportive of me going to Australia. He's never played Frogger, but when I explained to him, like, I got cast on this TV show and I'm going to Australia…He was like, go for it! How often are you going to get these world opportunities? A huge supporter of going and experiencing different places and cultures. So I am so humbled and fortunate that he was so supportive. He really trusted me and empowered me to move forward. And I love that. I really think that's super important; Like a good manager trusts their employees will get the work done. Doesn't matter what time of day or what their schedule is, they will deliver. And he trusted me. So that was awesome.
Jason
That sounds so cool. Having that manager's support and that trust is, if not the most important, like one of the most important things that I could appreciate. And especially during COVID times, like working from home, they trust in you that you're going to get the hours done. I like taking those little breaks and just working later in the day. But it all stems from that trust in you to be able to get the job done.
Lisa
Yeah, no, definitely. I speak from a position of experience in that I've had managers who didn't trust me and straight up ruined my self confidence. Yeah, it makes a difference. I know we can talk very positively, but not everyone is that way. And so this has truly shaped me to appreciate who I work for today and who I get to work with. So, yeah, that's really important, right?
Jenny
Yeah, that's definitely true. I feel like you should be communicating with your manager on, like, a regular basis, and they should be helping you achieve goals and helping you write those goals and helping you move forward in your career. And I'm in a rotational program, too, which is pretty nice. So I'm able to try out different things within the company, and everyone is super supportive of you, like, moving around to different teams and stuff like that. And I guess that's sort of like an adult part of life. Right. It's like navigating these and also just having these conversations so that we're aware, because honestly, if no one told me that, I wouldn't have known, like, oh, I should be meeting with my manager a certain amount of times, like, setting goals with them. Luckily, I've had really, like, inspirational and empowering managers who were like, hey, if your future manager doesn't necessarily do this, maybe you should raise it up to them or ask to talk one- on-one. So it's pretty cool that you bought that up. I think it's not talked about a lot, especially for younger, I think Asian American professionals, too. So that's why organizations like SASE exist, right? To have these conversations and have conferences so that we can build each other up. And yeah, I think it's really great, and that's why I'm involved in SASE.
Lisa
Yeah, Jenny, that's so true. Yeah. It makes or breaks your career if you don't have a good mentor or boss. Like, that can really shift things. For me, one of my other favorite parts about SASE is I've had some really good mentors, and I know I've had a chance to give back as well. So through the SASE Colorado Professional chapter, one of my favorite things is I actually helped spearhead our mentoring program a handful of years ago because I had seen just the power of having a mentor and someone to talk to and bounce those ideas off of, and what that did for me. So, yeah, it was super empowering to really kind of create this mentoring program and hopefully be that step in life for some other students and young professionals.
About an hour into the intriguing conversation, Lisa shares her thoughts on the current situation in the workforce -
Lisa
I think as recent as, like, within the last year between the Black Lives Matter movement and the Asian Americans hate crimes and the value of DEI, finally making a surface at the professional level and being able to talk about this in a work setting and to bring my identity and my culture to work, like, yeah, it's been very eye opening. I know SASE has been kind of my safe space to really talk about these cultural issues. SASE is a big part of who I am today.
Lisa Nguyen is a senior airport transportation planner for Denver International Airport. She specializes in bridging the gap between urban design, planning and traffic engineering. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and earned her Masters in transportation engineering at the University of Colorado Denver. Additionally, she also serves on boards and committees with a couple of groups; ITE, which is the Institute of Transportation Engineers, WTS, Women's Transportation Seminar, and also SASE!