An Intellectual Home
Jennifer Ho '92 supports Asian American scholars
Jennifer Ho’s first Asian American studies class was a confluence of stories.
“I vividly remember learning about a little-known refugee relief act passed by Congress,” said Jennifer. Originally designed to support communist refugees from Eastern Europe, the act was later amended to include quotas for Chinese refugees. “When I realized that law allowed my father’s family to leave China and come to the United States, my mind just exploded.”
Another pivotal moment came when she read Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Woman Warrior.”
“I’d never encountered Asian American literature in my public library or K-12 education. That book gave me the confidence to pursue a line of study that I have felt enriched by every day of my life,” said Jennifer.
Jennifer would go on to take many Asian American studies classes offered at UC Santa Barbara. She is now the director of the Center for the Humanities & the Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she teaches classes on Asian American culture and Critical Race Theory. Jennifer is active in community engagement around issues of race and intersectionality, leading workshops on anti-racism and how to talk about race.
Motivated by a desire to advance the field, Jennifer hopes her bequest to UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Asian American Studies will provide stability and flexibility for the department by allowing the chair to address pressing needs.
“For the department to be able to count on this legacy commitment to support our future graduate emphasis students year after year is a gift that keeps giving, indeed,” said Erin Khuê Ninh, professor and chair of the Department of Asian American Studies.
Jennifer also supports the department with flexible current-use philanthropy.
“Dr. Ho is a UC Santa Barbara alum and former president of the Association for Asian American Studies who considers this field her intellectual home. As a professor herself, she can appreciate firsthand how vital unrestricted support is for faculty, and also for a department more broadly. With her support, students in our new graduate emphasis will be subsidized in their travel to present at the annual conference of the Association. Graduate travel funding at the university is scarce and yet these professionalization and networking opportunities are, as we know, crucial to building their careers. There is perhaps no more efficient way to positively impact both faculty and undergraduates than to uplift our graduate students, who are our research assistants and teaching assistants, respectively,” said Khuê Ninh.
Jennifer plans to name the endowment after the women in her family. Her paternal grandmother fulfilled her duty to marry into wealth — later stripped away by the communist revolution. Her maternal grandmother, from a poor family, raised nine children. Neither woman had a college education. Jennifer’s mother was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, and received a scholarship to train as a nurse in England at age 17. She returned to Jamaica as a registered nurse after three years and then immigrated in 1966 to the United States, where she met Jennifer’s father.
“We don’t think about the contributions of women. I want to emphasize how courageous it is to leave a country and a culture and immigrate to another place where you don’t speak the language or know the customs,” Jennifer said. “I’m where I am because of this foundation in Asian American studies, but more importantly, because of these influential women in my life.”
Jennifer’s gift to the Department of Asian American Studies will honor the contributions of the women in her family while empowering the contributions of scholars in the field in perpetuity.
Published January 2025
We don’t think about the contributions of women. I want to emphasize how courageous it is to leave a country and a culture and immigrate to another place where you don’t speak the language or know the customs. I’m where I am because of this foundation in Asian American studies, but more importantly, because of these influential women in my life.
Jennifer Ho ’92
