Rice Center for Engineering Leadership · Rice SASE
The projects on this site are the technical half of what I do at Rice. This page is the other half. Two things here: why I care about leadership, and why I started an Asian engineering chapter from scratch. The ethics page covers the case competition that sits in between the two.
Why leadership
I did not start out as a leader. Sophomore year I floated between subteams on the rocketry team, showed up inconsistently, and got passed over for three leadership roles while people my year were leading teams. My own verdict afterward was blunt: all I had to do was pull up consistently.
That is still how I think about it. Leadership credibility is built on being known, present, and reliable, not on having ideas. I prepare for leadership the way I prepare for technical work: track the weak stories, rehearse the better ones, and speak up in the meeting instead of hoping the work speaks for itself. Since then: avionics-mechanical lead on the rocketry team, Student Director at RCEL, and founder of a chapter that did not exist a year ago.
[add: one or two sentences in your own voice on what leading actually feels like to you now]
Rice Center for Engineering Leadership
Student Director · March 2026 to present
RCEL is the engineering leadership program at Rice. I took three of its leadership classes before I ever held a role, and the Student Director seat is where I finally get to practice what they taught. The three Student Directors run the program's student side: event planning, team leads, the industry relationships, and the year's vision.
Four words we wrote before the year started: grassroots, structure, visibility, reliable. When a call is not obvious, I go back to the director's address the three of us co-signed and ask whether the choice makes participation easier, makes RCEL more visible, or builds a partnership. If it does none of those, it is not the move.
Structure means leads should not be doing all the work. One of my named responsibilities this year was to separate roles across the teams so no one over-compensates for everyone else.
What I run this fall: the engineering ethics panel in November (I moderate), the resume workshop, the career expo table, and the C-suite dinner. [confirm the list and add anything you own that is missing]
What I take back to my other roles: RCEL is where I learned how to run an event that people actually show up to. The rocketry subteam and the SASE chapter both run on its playbook.
[placeholder: photo] file: assets/leadership/rcel-1.jpg You with the other Student Directors, or at an RCEL event you ran. The Instagram first-post photo works if it exists.
RCEL Student Directors, 2026-27.
Being Asian in engineering, and starting Rice SASE
Founder and President, Rice chapter of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers · June 2026 to present
Asian and Pacific Islander engineers are well represented in technical roles and the least likely group to be promoted into leadership. People call it the bamboo ceiling. At Rice there was no Asian engineering organization at all, and no career fair aimed at us. My response to that has never been resentment. The only productive response is to work harder and smarter, and to build the thing that is missing.
So I started the chapter. It is the first thing I ever tried to build on my own, and I refused to let it fail.
Founded from nothing in one summer. Recruited a seven-person founding board, wrote the constitution, signed the chapter agreement with SASE National, and got Rice's official recognition in August 2026, in time for the club fair.
What the chapter is for: professional development, mentorship from Asian professionals and alumni, cultural programming, and a real community, not a resume line. Membership is open to everyone.
First events: an industry panel with engineers from Raytheon and Rice faculty in September, the first general meeting the same week, and a 10-student delegation to the SASE National Convention in Seattle in October 2026. [confirm panelists and update after the events happen]
What I learned: being president means setting other people up to do their jobs. My instinct was to build everything myself overnight. The better version ran it through my officers.
[placeholder: photo] file: assets/leadership/sase-board.jpg The founding board together. The club fair table or the first general meeting also works (sase-fair.jpg, sase-gbm.jpg).
Rice SASE founding board, fall 2026.
[placeholder: photo] file: assets/leadership/sase-fair.jpg The table at the club fair, August 2026.
First club fair, August 2026.
Also
Rice SolidWorks User Group, External Vice President and CAD Lead. Built the CSWA prep curriculum, 90% pass rate.
Rice Eclipse Rocketry, Avionics-Mechanical Lead. Recruited and run a subteam building the 2026-27 test rocket. Rocketry page