OCA Intern Alum: Linh Truong
Written by Amelia Lagna and Kent Tong
Photo by Patience Ojionuka
A QUEER VIETNAMESE-CHINESE AMERICAN CREATIVE, Linh Truong does not remember a time when she did not love art and storytelling. She is a self-taught artist and avid reader, and by middle school, she’d start an Instagram account dedicated to the books she’d read. Starting with photography, Linh took family and senior portraits all through high school. Eventually, she ventured into making long-format videos on YouTube, making content centered not just on her personal life but also providing commentary on art and fashion, she told The Georgetown Independent. Driven by a colorful aesthetic and her quirky, down-to-earth personality, her videos soon took off—her YouTube channel currently boasts 1.26 million subscribers with over 71 million views. What started as a leisurely endeavor turned serious in 2020 when she realized she could financially support herself and her family through content creation alone.
While studying sociology and women & gender studies at Georgetown University, Truong found community in the school’s Vietnamese Student Association: first as a general member, then external PR director, and finally president. During her tenure, VSA hosted social events like a Mid-Autumn Festival celebration and Vietnamese culture show, educational discussions on affirmative action and labor organizing, professional development programming like resume and LinkedIn workshops, and voter registration efforts. Through her VSA mentor and former OCA intern, Amber Nguyen, she learned about OCA and its internship program, and found herself aligning much with OCA’s mission of uplifting AAPI women and getting AANHPI curriculum into K-12 classrooms.
Truong became an OCA intern in the summer of 2022, where she was placed to work at the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) as a communications and lead intern under the supervision of Andrew Peng, WHIAANHPI’s communications director, himself a former OCA National intern and staff member. She supported day-to-day operations, from event management and note-taking to writing talking points for federal programming. But her unique contribution to WHIAANHPI was her artistry and creativity, thanks to years of experience as a self-taught illustrator, graphic designer, and video editor. She produced videos and graphics for major campaigns celebrating Filipino American History Month, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) Week, and AA & NHPI Heritage Month, as well as contributing to a brand refresh for the Initiative’s public-facing platforms.
Interning at WHIAANHPI and OCA was Truong's first professional job (at least, a traditional one), allowing her to develop hard and soft skills as both an artist and an advocate. “I learned that my passions for social justice and advocacy, and art, film, and media have a ton of overlap,” she says. But it’s the long-lasting connections and friendships she made through the program—with fellow interns, national staff, and chapter members—that have left the deepest impact. “It was the first time I was surrounded by other queer, trans, gender non-conforming Asian American folks,” she says. “The sense of community and support was very healing.”
Since the OCA internship, Truong’s interned for the Democratic National Convention’s design team and collaborated with the OCA – Greater Washington, D.C. chapter to host a summit on AANHPI curriculum expansion. After graduating in 2024, she returned to OCA National to serve as the summer internship coordinator, helping guide the next generation of interns through the same program that shaped her. “OCA set high standards for work culture when I was an intern. From the camaraderie I felt amongst the national team to the mentorship selflessly given to younger staff, I knew that OCA was an environment I felt supported and uplifted in,” she says. “So, when I learned OCA was hiring for a summer internship program coordinator, it was no question that I was interested in applying.” She enjoyed getting to know the interns she managed, listening to their dreams and ambitions, and imparting lessons she’s learned from her successes and failures as a former student and OCA intern.
Linh Truong at the East Wing of The White House, taken during her internship with WHIAANHPI
Today, Truong lives in New York City, working full-time as an artist and content creator to an online audience of over 1.8 million people across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, collaborating with both small businesses and major brands like Adobe and All Nippon Airways. While she doesn’t consider herself a social media activist, it’s not unusual to find her sharing links and resources across all her platforms related to causes she’s passionate about, such as voter registration, reproductive rights and trans rights, gun violence prevention, and fundraisers for bail assistance, victims of police brutality, Palestine, Congo, and Sudan. “People like me have a responsibility to direct people to these resources so these stories and voices can be heard and amplified,” she told The Georgetown Independent. At the end of the day, Truong aims to continue creating with the intention of bringing more good into the world—and inspiring others to do the same.
Truong uses both she/her and they/them pronouns. This article uses she/her for consistency.