5/2: API Graduation Keynote Speech
I’m incredibly blessed to have given the Alumna Keynote Speech for the 2021 LMU API Graduate Celebration. Due to several requests, I’m sharing my bio and keynote speech. There have been a few minor edits for clarity but also added links to things. A huge thank you to Jenica Rose Garcia for introducing me. Thank you to Aristotle Mosier (Director, Asian Pacific Student Services) and Carla Cruz (Assistant Director, Alumni Engagement) for the support. Enjoy!
LAILANIE GADIA’S BIO
Lailanie Gadia is a Filipina-American from Guam who graduated from LMU in 2011, with a B.A. in Economics and minored in Business and Asian Studies. While at LMU, she was in the Air Force ROTC program, worked as an EIS Peer Mentor, and was involved with Isang Bansa. She was also part of the founding staff of Asia Media International.
After LMU, she spent 6 years working in the mortgage and banking industry at Bank of Hope and City National Bank. Outside of her career, she pursued her passion for supporting API visibility in the media. She’s volunteered with several nonprofits, most notably Visual Communications and Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment. She’s worked with two fellow LMU alumni at their film production company and freelanced with creatives in marketing and social media. Eventually, she took a more active role in filmmaking, producing several short films including Dive Bar, which has screened at several festivals and currently can be found onboard Alaska Airlines flights.
In 2018, Lailanie became a financial professional with World Financial Group where she has been building her business helping families understand how money works, and working with them to properly plan for the long term through retirement. This has given her the flexibility to continue working with the API community. Lailanie serves as Manager of the Asian American Documentary Network, a network of over 800 API documentary filmmakers and film industry professionals. She is in pre-production for a narrative short film and assistant producing on a documentary feature, THIRD ACT, by Tad Nakamura, about his dad, Robert Nakamura, who is referred to as the “Godfather of Asian American media”. She assists with fiscal sponsorships and artist services at Visual Communications, home to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, where she has managed social media, sponsorships, and marketing over the years.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram: @itslailanie | Twitter: @lailanieg | Website: meetlailanie.me
Update 5/16: *I wrapped production for my narrative short film last weekend and excited to share we are now in post-production.
LAILANIE GADIA’S KEYNOTE SPEECH TO API GRADUATES
Thank you so much for the introduction, Jenica. I'm incredibly blessed to be part of this API graduate celebration, celebrating all of you who are entering the next chapter of your lives. When I was first asked to be the alumni speaker, I was really honored and couldn’t say no to giving back. Celebrating all of you is the best way to commemorate my 10 years since graduating. I can't believe how fast time has gone by.
To give a little background, my parents immigrated from the Philippines, settling in Los Angeles. I was born in Long Beach, California. My dad was in the Navy and we moved to Guam when I was 3 years old. Growing up, I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life. I just knew I wanted to make a difference in the world, help people, and reach my full potential. I’m blessed to have found my way to LMU because I don’t think I could have been anywhere else. The first time I stepped foot on campus a week before classes started, I felt like I had come home. This was the place I was meant to be. I found a home with Isang Bansa and APSS. I was proud to be part of the Air Force ROTC program. Although Economics was hard, I loved my major and minors because they opened me up to the world beyond life on Guam. It was at an APSS Third Tuesday event listening to Dante Basco share about the injustice he faced in Hollywood that my passion for API visibility was born. Huge thank you to Michelle Ko, the APSS Director at the time. She became a mentor and cultivated my passion, wherein my senior year, I did a poster presentation about Asian Americans Rising Through YouTube at the Research Symposium.
Looking at the last 10 years, 3 major life experiences shaped my life. All unexpected but they turned out to be experiences that shifted the path I was on for the better.
The first experience was in 2011. I thought I had my life planned out. For many of you, you might be able to relate especially because the pandemic was unexpected. I thought I was going to serve and build my career in the Air Force after graduation. God had other plans for me because when that fell through, it was tough. I didn’t have a Plan B. I somehow knew though that it was going to work out. I don’t know if it’s because I had confidence in the education I had at LMU - not just academically but the education of the whole person, the support of the LMU community, and my faith that cultivated on the bluff. I spent the year after graduation, coming back to the bluff, staying connected with my mentors and fellow students, was part of the founding staff of Asia Media International, helped two fellow alumni with their film production company, volunteered in the API community, and eventually got a local internship. I also took time to enjoy life, practiced self-care, and spent time with loved ones. It wasn’t easy financially but it was a year of personal growth.
It wasn’t until a year after graduation that I finally had my first full-time job. I was a Mortgage Loan Assistant at Bank of Hope and there I rose fairly quickly to a Loan Closer/Funder. Thanks again to Michelle Ko, she introduced me to Visual Communications, where I could support filmmakers, their annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and year-round programming. So whenever there were opportunities to volunteer on nights and weekends, I did. I always tried to learn when I could and took advantage of more meaningful and purposeful opportunities because I knew I had goals and dreams I wanted to accomplish. I wasn’t fully sure yet but I knew the general direction.
The second life experience was in 2016. After 4 years at the bank, I knew I needed to move on to my next chapter. I felt like I was getting stuck, working so hard, and feeling unfulfilled. I went on a retreat with Christus Ministries, run by Jesuit priest, Fr. Tri Dinh, who served in LMU’s campus ministry right before my time and is part of LMU’s Jesuit community today. When I thought I was going to leave the banking industry to enter the entertainment industry to help create access for API filmmakers and actors, another opportunity came. I connected with a recruiter on LinkedIn, who I found out recently was an LMU Alum, which makes total sense now, but it goes to show the power of our alumni network. In my call with him, I boldly gave him the work environment I wanted to be in and what I wanted to accomplish in the future. He had an opportunity at City National Bank for me. Although staying in the same role wasn’t what I wanted to do long term, the possibilities of being at a bigger bank known as the bank of Hollywood, I saw the opportunity to grow and enter the entertainment industry through banking. When you get confirmations you’re on the right path, it’s a gift. In the first couple of weeks being there, I found out about the Asian American Network, one of their Colleague Resource groups. The first lunch hour event I went to was a panel on Asian Americans in Entertainment.
The third life experience was at the beginning of 2018. I was unexpectedly let go due to restructuring and that was a tough experience to go through. I thought I was going to be there long term. I was part of the bank’s mentoring program, part of the Steering Committee with the Asian American Network, and was working towards an internal transfer. Again, God had other plans for me. I contacted several of my mentors and colleagues at the bank and also reached out to my recruiter. At that moment, I kept my options open to other roles at the bank I could go back to if it worked out. Otherwise, rather than going to another bank in the same role, I decided to leave the banking industry and finally took the leap of faith to pursue work I was more passionate about.
It was a time of uncertainty because I felt like I was back to where I was when I graduated from LMU. Then I realized everything I had been through was preparing me for this next chapter in my life so I somehow knew everything was going to work out. Visual Communications became a home for me during this time. Instead of staying home, I was able to work at their office in Little Tokyo to keep a routine and constantly applied to jobs that piqued my interest. Nothing was working out and then as VC started gearing up for their annual May Film Festival, they asked me if I wanted to be their social media coordinator. I jumped at the opportunity. Although it was seasonal, it was a paid gig working for this nonprofit I’ve spent years volunteering with so it seemed so natural. I’ll tell you, it was one of the best experiences to be on festival staff, being part of a family, and helping to put on the biggest community event supporting artists and connecting communities. I grew their visibility by 200% on social media that year.
After that opportunity was over, the loss of my career really hit me and it was the perfect time to prioritize self-care so I went on another retreat with Christus Ministries then took my first real vacation to Seattle to visit a high school friend. On my way back to LA, I made a connection with a former Army nurse who was part of a Financial Literacy campaign and introduced me to World Financial Group. I was connected to one of their offices in West LA. I started attending financial workshops and getting the financial help that I needed. The bank didn’t teach me personal finance. I had student loans and credit card debt, and nearing my 30s, I wanted to plan for the future to prepare for the unexpected. Through this, I was drawn to the business opportunity to build my own business in the financial services industry. Working with high net worth clients at the bank, I wanted to do more fulfilling work, helping everyday families like mine. I found what I was looking for. I could be my own boss, become an entrepreneur, have flexibility in my hours, and continue working with the API community. While I was in training and getting my license with the state of California, the opportunity with VC led me to other freelance work, working with API filmmakers and their projects, and becoming the social media coordinator of the Asian American Documentary Network.
In 2019, a year after being let go from the bank, I started to have a clearer vision of my future and I grew even more excited. Once I had a financial plan for myself in place, I knew from working in the API community that financial education was nonexistent and a huge need. Looking around, no one was offering this help. Because I became passionate about financial literacy and loved working with individuals to map out their futures, I knew I found what I was meant to do. Being an entrepreneur is hard work but it’s been worth it.
Today, I’m blessed to be a financial professional where I’ve been able to help my family but also my community with their finances from filmmakers to young professionals and families. It’s been a joy to help folks understand how money works and to build long-term relationships with them. I’m also blessed to now be the Manager of A-Doc where I’ve been able to support filmmakers over a virtual community especially during this pandemic and the continued anti-Asian sentiments and hate.
When the pandemic hit last year and there was a rise in anti-Asian sentiment, we at A-Doc wanted to provide ways to disrupt mainstream narratives about our communities. Our API communities are very diverse so we launched a storytelling initiative releasing 15 2-minute micro docs and 3 written pieces on social media sharing a range of stories in our communities from frontline workers, those experiencing COVID, unemployment, loss of a family member, and changes to their businesses. It’s received great feedback and continues to be shared today. We are in the midst of our second storytelling initiative sharing stories of resilience during this time, which is launching later this month. [Launching #AsianAmResilience on May 17 @aadocnetwork.]
All this has led me to my next dream of owning a film company to support filmmakers providing them with resources and funding.
One of the phrases I live by is “When one door closes, another door opens.” I choose every day to see the opportunities and looking back if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Sometimes I didn’t know what I was getting into but I had faith. Opportunities come to us in very big ways, very small ways, and even very disguised. Ignatian spirituality teaches us that being fully alive is an offered prayer to God. Our own motto, AMDG. [Ad Majorem Dei Glorium - For the Greater Glory of God, this is a great quick read from IgnatianSpirituality.com].
In this time of anti-Asian sentiment, our brothers and sisters in the Black and Brown communities are fighting racism, inequities, and injustice. We all must continue to fight for social justice. Our contribution to the fight is different for each of us. We all have unique gifts to offer and all are worthy. It could be in science, in education, in filmmaking, in politics, in organizing. Find what you’re most passionate about and pursue it. If you are uncertain, start with what interests you and your field of study.
No matter where I was in life, I strived to be fully alive so I kept pursuing what I was passionate about. Even though banking wasn’t what I wanted to do long term, that experience led me to opportunities that allowed me to volunteer and work adjacent to those passions. Eventually, it led me to become a financial professional focusing on working with those in the API community along with supporting filmmakers. This is my contribution to the movement - to fight financial illiteracy, bring financial education to our minority communities, and support stories that are fighting the mainstream narrative. Our stories have power.
One of my filmmaking mentors, Poh Si Teng, said in a recent interview so eloquently that one of her wishes is that “we will constantly surround ourselves with people who come from different backgrounds and life experiences—races, religions, ethnicities, sexuality, gender, classes, immigration status, disabilities. And that we listen and recognize each other. If we have deep and meaningful relationships with different types of people, they will tell us when we go astray. It makes us better storytellers, better filmmakers, better collaborators, and, hopefully, better people.”
Trust that our Jesuit education has given us the foundation to live authentic, meaningful, and purposeful lives. We need diverse narratives and stories out in the world. We will only be enriched by them. So own your story. Live your best story. That’s what’s going to change lives… change the narrative. Know that the path you walk is your journey and we aren’t alone. Reach out to me, reach out to your mentors, your fellow alumni, and people who support you. That’s what’s been integral for me over the years. Be filled with wonder at how your story unfolds. LMU has done amazing work to build a strong alumni network so stay connected and continue to be proud Lions. Congratulations Class of 2021. Go Lions!
