YouTube sensations David and Andrew Fung, known as The Fung Brothers, were special guests at a McDonald’s-sponsored education workshop held in San Francisco last July 12.
The Fung Brothers talked about their experiences going to college and answered questions from students and parents alike, as well as mingled with their fans during the event which drew hundreds of Asian American families.
Interviewed by the Asian Journal, David and Andrew said that they are glad to be able to have the opportunity to participate in the McDonald’s education workshops and give their unique perspective to both students and parents.
“Obviously, education is the building block to where they are going to go in the future. Without education, people can make a lot of misinformed decisions. You really want an educated population, moving forward,” David explained, when asked why they participate in these types of events.
“It’s also important, because a lot of the kids that we are talking to are the kids of immigrants who don’t necessarily understand the educational system that well,” Andrew chimed in. “So it’s important that people who been through the system for years come back and talk about it, and give some advice to people that they may not be getting at home.”
David says that speaking to young folks—giving them advice on college, education, their choices—is helpful because the younger generation may be able to relate to them more. “Let’s say for example, their parents give them a piece of advice that’s delivered in a certain way, maybe they are less receptive to that. The barriers are already up,” he related. “But if you have a person that they are more receptive to hearing things from… people process different things based on who they are hearing it from. We’re really happy to be somebody from their generation who really understands the struggle of growing up, being an immigrant kid whose parents are newly-arrived immigrants and kind of working through that. Hopefully they are able to take something away.”
Their experiences in college, both David and Andrew admit, were challenging but good, especially for Andrew who looked at his older brother’s experiences as building blocks.
“For us, it was a lot of figuring out,” Andrew said. “Well, it helped that David went to school before me so he was able to pass down some of the things that he did, like ‘Andrew, don’t do that whatever you do because I did that’. And even I made some mistakes as well… I’m a testament to how much mentorship helps or hearing advice from someone you relate to helps because then I got to avoid a lot of those problems when I went through it.”
For David, making use of available resources was key to adjusting to college life. “One thing that I really made use of was the counselor services. They actually had minority counselor services at the University of Washington which is where we went, specially designed for kids who are first-generation college students or just don’t really have parents who understand that system,” he revealed. “I absolutely received a lot of help that was provided by the university for people in my situation where you’re able to sit down, block off a chunk of time and then go, ‘What do you know and what don’t you know’ and come up with a plan from that point. We always recommend to kids, you meet all the counselors. Not all counselors can be a fit but if you find someone that you connect with, make sure you keep going back to that person and build a long-term relationship with that counselor because they’re going to help you with your college journey.”
And their advice to both parents and children?
“Due diligence. It’s a corporate term, but it means you do your research, and you go into a situation having all the information possible. Not that you’re going to make a perfect decision… who makes every perfect decision in life? Very few people do. But the important thing is that you have all the information…For example, people think that only rich people can go to college, which is a myth in some communities. So it’s really important that people go into those communities and tell them in a language they understand that it’s not true. There’s a lot of help available… It’s all about figuring it out. I think that’s a big part of our message… figuring the system out,” David said.
Andrew added: “That’s basically in a nutshell a lot of the struggle of being an immigrant – you coming into this system and you don’t know the ins and outs. You don’t know how to work it. So it’s important to understand it. We would like for kids and their parents to try to understand the system better, or at least good enough.”
For her part, Vivian Chen, Director of Ethnic Marketing for McDonald’s USA, told the Asian Journal that since 2008 McDonald’s has been partnering with media to present the education workshop to different communities.
“As a brand, we are honored to have the opportunity to support and sponsor this event to help Asian American youth pursue their academic aspirations and dreams,” Chen said.
Chen revealed that The Fung Brothers are among the many successful Asian Americans whom they have invited to talk to workshop participants. “One of the things we know is that growing up in America, you’re looking for role models to share your passions. We’re just honored to have so many successful Asian Americans here and be able to invite them,” she said, adding that, in this case The Fung Brothers are artists who are popular online, relevant to millenials and are relatable to Asian American youth.
When asked her advice to students pursuing education, Chen had this to say: “I think growing up we are always figuring out who we are and understanding our strengths and weaknesses. It is important for all the youth to really get to know themselves more and feel proud of who they are. The things that they are good at, their strengths, they should celebrate. And the things that may not be their strengths, they should continue to grow and learn and I would encourage that. Overall, as long as you know you have the opportunity to try different things so that you know things you like, things you don’t like, things you’re good at and the things you’re not good at – all these experiences will help you figure out your dreams, your passions and you will continue to pursue that and make a commitment for that.”
The McDonald’s Education Workshop is a series of events sponsored by McDonald’s with different partners. For 2014, they are bringing a total of 14 workshops to different cities throughout the United States, and reaching out to multiple ethnic communities. The entire series attracts roughly 25,000 Asian American youth each year.
According to Chen, the workshop will be a continuing effort by McDonald’s.
“Education has been a central core of our business and we are passionate about it. We’d love to continue to support,” she said. “We need more people to participate and celebrate. We are honored to be part of the journey to the success of people, including Asian Americans. Anything that we can do where we can be part of their journey to their success, we feel honored to be part of it.”
(Joseph Peralta/AJPress)
