Saran Tugsjargal - Policy Maker, Advocate, Mongolian-American, and a College Freshman

Our Superstar Guest, Saran Tugsjargal is a student with ASD, SLD, ADHD starting her freshman year at Rice University. She is an advocate for equitable education with a goal is to prove that disabilities don't hinder leadership. Collaborating with ACLC's special education department, she amplifies disabled student experiences. Initiating the Mongolian American Disability Mentorship program in Summer 2023, she mentored over 50+ families. In October 2023, she became one of California's first student commissioners with disabilities, representing over 800,000 students. Speaking at conferences like Breaking Barriers and CarsPlus, she's influenced over 400+ educators. Notably, she championed bill AB2173, changing "emotional disturbance" to "emotional disability." Recognized with awards like the Rotary Youth Leadership Award and the Ronald Reagan Leadership Medal, she's celebrated for her exceptional leadership and advocacy.

LINKS

https://www.linkedin.com/in/saran-tugsjargal/

email: sara.tugsjargal@gmail.com

Our Host

Dennis Tran is a social impact storyteller, DEIA speaker, and consultant committed to fostering a neuroinclusive and accessible world. As a queer, partially blind, late-identified autistic-ADHDer (AuDHD) Vietnamese American with C-PTSD and glaucoma, Dennis channels his lived experiences to support others navigating similar challenges. Holding a degree in Public Health Policy with a Business Management minor from UC Irvine, Dennis has successfully built a multi-faceted career across sectors, including digital media, technology, healthcare, entertainment, and philanthropy.

Through storytelling, cultural and disability inclusion consultation, and accessibility advising, Dennis empowers neurodivergent and disabled individuals to live fulfilling lives. His advocacy work emphasizes the transformative power of representation and the importance of creating inclusive spaces where individuals don’t have to hide or “overcome” who they are. Dennis is passionate about uplifting the AANHPI community, addressing cultural stigma, and bridging intergenerational gaps.

Dennis has spoken at UCSF, CSUF, Autodesk, Steelcase, and Heap, sharing insights on neurodiversity, anti-ableism, and DEIA best practices.

He is one of the co-hosts and co-producers of the Innovating Inclusion podcast.

His work is driven by the belief that disability and neurodiversity are not a limitation but a source of resilience and creativity.

CONTACT DENNIS

www.innovatinginclusion.org

Transcript

ANGIE CASTRO: Welcome to Innovating Inclusion everyone. Today we're pleased to welcome brand new co-host Dennis Tran to the table. Dennis speaks to a nationally and globally recognized disability and mental health advocate, a trailblazer in education policy, and the first Mongolian American to be government appointed in the United States, Saran Tugsjargal. Saran has helped pass three bills into law and serves as a National Youth Fellow and youth policy accelerator at the highest level of policy making. Enjoy today's episode as Saran redefines what youth leadership and advocacy could look like from the ground up. 

DENNIS TRAN: Saran, welcome. To start us off, we would like to ask our guests the question, what does "innovating inclusion" mean to you?

SARAN TUGSJARGAL: The phrase, "innovating inclusion"... it reminds me of many things, and I think that phrase means to me is innovating the world where inclusion is a daily part of our lives, and how we're really including the voices of youth marginalized communities and people at the tables. And that's what inclusion really means to me. And that's what the word innovating inclusion means is how we all come together to really creating those spaces where everyone's a part of those spaces, and it's accessible. 

DENNIS: You're the first Mongolian-American to be appointed as a National Youth Fellow for the US Department of Labor, representing over 2.3 million students with disabilities. This is huge. What has it meant to represent not only disabled students, but your Mongolian identity in spaces where both are underrepresented? 

SARAN: It has been always an interesting scope for me. I mean, it's not been the most easiest thing. It's been rewarding, but it also has lifted my communities, the Mongolian community as well, for someone they can just look up to and someone they can believe in someone and have someone have their backs and understand what they've been through.

And I think that a lot of the work that I do is not just for disabled students, it's for the Mongolian community. So how I can continue to break those stigma, talking about disability in the Mongolian communities, how Mongolian students who are immigrants who can have access to resources and more of those type of things, and I think that it's been huge, but also it's been rewarding for Mongolian-Americans and for someone they can just look up to and be uplifted and see how it's possible for them.

Often like being as a student leader, but also being a Mongolian person in the United States, Mongolians are often are not included in the conversation. We don't, we're not talked about. No one knows about our culture. No one knows about our history. No one really knows about the things that we go through.

So, and I think that me stepping into these roles, it has opened people's eyes and has allowed people to really understand how that there's many, many student disabilities in the United States who are Mongolians, who do have that. 

DENNIS: Your cultural identity is very important as a Mongolian-American being in the Asian community where there's a lot of cultural stigma, misunderstandings, and misrepresentation. How do you introduce yourself in spaces that have not yet understood the full spectrum of who you are as an Asian-American and a person with a disability and neurodivergent as well?

SARAN: That's another good question. The way that I would introduce myself in spaces that don't really understand who I am and things like that, I always set off with telling them about my story, about my background, how did I get involved in spaces of policymaking? How did I get involved in spaces of things that I do.

So I really start off with really talking about my story, and I think that's really important as I go into these spaces of policy, education, social welfare and things like that. It's important that I tell the story piece of why and how I got there. I think that's really important. 

DENNIS: Would you mind sharing your journey of what it's like growing up with ADHD, Autism, and Specifically Learning Disability, or SLD, as well?

SARAN: Of course. So I was diagnosed with all of these disabilities since I was very, very, very little. I remember when I was one years old, and seven months, I was referred to the California Regional Center where I had support from regional center, and I had developmental delay at that time. I didn't know how to walk. I was behind in reading, writing, speaking, understanding basic things, and I had lack of motor skills. So at a very, very, very young age, I had the support systems. However, having those support systems were never that easy because I never really liked my support systems growing up, because in elementary. I didn't really have friends. I didn't have someone to look up to. I was basically isolated and I was basically segregated for a lot of the years in elementary. Often, like my peers would be... they'd be hanging out with one another, or they would be doing a social activity like celebrating Valentine's Day and things like that. I often would miss those activities because I often needed to go to my services. I needed to go to physical therapy. I need to go to speech pathologist. I need to go all these different types of services. And I kind of just kind of really like felt like I was segregated a lot at times in elementary. That really affected me growing up because I never really wanted to be called as someone with disability. I never liked my disability. I never liked special education growing up, so that's always been a very struggle for me growing up, was that it turned a lot of into bullying. Often I was labeled as, "Oh, you're that emotional disturbed kid." "Oh, you're that crazy one." "Oh, you're just gonna be dumb all the time."

Or, I've heard these. Phrases over and over again throughout my elementary and my middle school journey. And it's always been very difficult for me because often when I would go to my teacher and be like, "Hey, I need help," or I would just need this, my teacher would be like, "I think you're the problem here." Like, why are you crying? And that really affected me, and that really created a lot of stigma against me. And the only place where I felt very safe and very comfortable and felt like I can be okay was my special education room, which is the resource room at my school. It was very difficult for me because it wasn't just me that I was experiencing what I experienced. It was also other kids who just experienced what I experienced. A lot of Mongolians who were Mongolian students with disabilities who were also experiencing that, and that really affected me because I didn't have anyone to look up to at that time. I didn't really, because there's no one in my community I can look up to that lived my experiences that looked like me, that had the same disability as like me had that. So that's when it became like that shifting power of me becoming a leader for my communities and beyond. 

DENNIS: As someone who's been diagnosed in the past five years, as I look back, I share a lot of your experiences where I was bullied or left outta things by my peers. I didn't have the language to navigate those type of things, or I never had special education or no resources to support me. And also the lack of representation as an Asian-American was a big key factor because I didn't really see those supports or representation out there. There's a big cultural stigma in the Asian community around disability and mental health. They see being different as bad luck or sin. Have you experienced anything like that growing up with Mongolian parents?

SARAN: For my parents, I felt like growing up they had a difficult time of accepting I had a disability. Although they were supportive of me every single step of my journey, no matter what. Even though my parents who were immigrants who came to the United States and who raised me and then became US citizens, I think it's been a journey for 'em.

My mom's been at my schools. She's always been at those IEP meetings. She's always been talking to my educators. She's always been advocating for me as best as she can, even though English for her is not her first language, English is her second language. That's always been very struggling for her because she doesn't understand English very well and often meetings with my educators, I would have to be the one translating for her because she simply does not know English very well. I would be the one who would have to fix all the problems at school 'cause she couldn't understand it and she didn't know how to understand it. And that was always been very difficult for me because I would always be like, "I'm so young, why am I doing this?" Or like, I wish she could really understand what's happening. But language and access was always a barrier for me and my parents growing up. I think that ever since I've had that support system, it made my life better each day, even though I never really liked that support system, because often the systems that we live in are not designed for us. They're used to separate. They're used to segregate. They're used to oppress people. But yeah, my parents overall became very supportive of me no matter what. And I think they are always supportive of me no matter where I go in life. And they was like that. But I would say you're right. Stigma is a real thing in the Asian community in general. Talking about disability, talking about any of this is very stigmatizing for a lot of people. It's because a lot of Asian communities don't wanna accept it and it's hard. They often believe in stereotypes and really push on that, and that really affect people.

DENNIS: What's your turning point that led you to decide that things needed to change, and how did you become the one leading the change? 

SARAN: This is one of my favorite questions that someone has ever asked me, and I would say that it started in middle school. I became very involved in student government. I decided to basically take roles at my school and kind of being the one in charge of like school issues. And I think that my passion for public service started at that time. I wanted to be more involved in my school community. I wanted to build leadership skills. I wanted to take charge of things. So I've had that passion for student government since middle school, and that really changed a lot for me. I became very well known in my school. I mean, I go to a very, very small school, 390 students at sixth to 12th grade. And I would often like come to school and people would be like, "Hey, Saran, we need help with this. Could you help with this?" And I would help with that, whether it was creating workshops on language access for parents and their students, or whether it was creating clubs at my school for students to be a part of. Whether it's like creating workshops and student activity for students to be a part of and things like that. I became very involved in my school culture and since I went to a school that's predominantly immigrants and predominantly people of color, it kind of really sparked change in me that I wanted to make changes, not in my school, but beyond my school.

So I've been that girl who has had passions for student government and leadership from a very young age in middle school. But since then, like in my seventh or eighth grade, COVID-19 hit, I'm sure we all know how COVID attacked its own many people. I became a caregiver for my grandparents. So I took care of my grandma in Mongolian, and she had ovarian cancer, and she asked me to raise my twin cousins. I would look at her and I was like, you're asking a 14-year-old, which is insane, and I didn't really know myself that time. I didn't know that I would be able to do that because living on multiple disabilities, that would be a challenge for me. It would be something that I would never expect to do. But I remember in my freshman year of high school, I started to raise my twin cousins with my parents. And it's never been an easy thing for me. I've had to skip my exams to take care of them. I would have to do cough mediation. I would've to do a lot of sort things for them in high school. Being in that role, not only did I have to advocate for them, I had to advocate for myself. And things got more difficult for there 'cause as someone who struggled to advocate for herself in middle school and elementary, she had to speak up. She had to speak up for herself and her communities and my twin cousins were also two people who came to the United States and don't what English is, don't know what resource is, people don't speak their language. So I had to really be in that zone of advocating for them. As I advocate for them and as I advocate for myself, I found my passion for advocacy and leadership. I realized that there's not gonna be any leaders for them to look up to, and I thought that maybe it's time for me to become the leader for myself and for them so they can have someone they can look up to, someone who knows what they're going through, who knows as a Mongolian person.

So I decided to became a student commissioner for the California Department of Education ACSE Commission. That really sparked my changes. How can I make changes on a statewide level and really push for advocacy for marginalized communities, but also for entirely pursued disabilities and things like that.

DENNIS: How did you juggle living with ADHD and Autism and accomplish so much? 

SARAN: It was a difficult experience in triple all those different types of things that was happening to me. I mean, I was fourteen, I became a caregiver, but I was also grieving losses and things like that, so it was very difficult that time. I would say for me, my support systems did continue with me from my middle school to my high school.

But I would say what really impacted the most was I would often have to lose teachers because they wouldn't be able to work at my school anymore because they don't have the mental capacity or the physical capacity to work at my school. 'cause they're not being paid enough. They're also underfunded. So that impacted a lot of my education pieces as well. My education journey is like, I need educators, but often my teacher would leave, or resign. For me, my support system did continue with me in middle school and high school, and I often would request more support systems like, "Hey, is it possible if I can do my work here?" "Is it possible if I can do this?"

Basically, whatever was given to me, I would try my best to see what I can do with my support systems. Often, I would be very behind of my peers. My peers could be doing a lot of things with their time. I would be often very behind in my academics. And that kind of affected me a lot because sometimes I'd be like, oh, why am I not like my peers? Why can I not be like my peers and things like that? But I would be in my resource room, I would be like studying for tests. I would be writing essays, learning how to write essays, doing basic math problems to get caught up. No matter how much I felt sad because I was behind, I realized that it's okay because I'm different. Everyone's different in their own capacities, and I think that my special education team in middle school and high school helped me along that journey. They taught me how to write essays. They taught me how to do all of those type of things, and they were just there for me when I needed it. Even though when things were really difficult at home, I find some way at school and spend more time in that room and getting the support I need and that was really important for me as by juggling all these different types of things just find the time for me is to get the academic support I need to be successful where I am today. 

DENNIS: I feel like right now there are lots of folks in disability spaces who have gone through years of trauma and they lack the support system, and that is an underlying reasoning for the current mental health crisis in the US.

Saran you're one, the California Student Commissioners with disability and have helped passed three statewide bills. Can you walk us through the process of advocating for AB 2173, which replaced the term "emotional disturbance" with "emotional disability"? 

SARAN: So this bill came to our table last year in April at the Advisory Commission of Special Education at the CDE Building, which is the California Department of Education.

And when this bill came to our table, this was presented by the SELPAs. Which is a Special Educational Local Plan area, but also with collaboration with Assembly member Dawn Addis, who is the one who introduced the bill and was the one who championed that bill. They came to our commission meeting and they asked us to support this bill.

I remember looking at them and I was like, this is the most important bill to me. Why? Because for years of my life, for 13 years, I was labeled as emotionally disturbed. And that label has been very stigmatizing for me and has been stigmatizing for so many different types of people. And often when I see that label, I would feel like wanting to cry because it's not the most easiest thing because sometimes that label would ring flashbacks of what my elementary and what my middle school looked like for me growing up.

And when she asked me to open up and talk about my story at that table, I would just open in tears and I would kind of feel very teary and very emotional, 'cause I know that little me would've wanted this. She would've wanted to be, not be labeled and just be labeled as something else that wasn't labeled.

But this moment it kind of gave me a lot of power, my ability to define what language is, because I know that as a young woman now, and as a leader now, language is a huge deal in education beyond. You're not gonna know how the book lands, but you're gonna know how the book is giving to someone. The way that we say things, the way that we talk about things to people, it has a lot of impact. And changing this word, "emotional disturbance"/ "emotional disability", it changes a lot. It reduces stigma. It breaks stigma, it gets rid of labels, and it starts being more clear what this action means. Because growing up I was never emotion disturbed. I was never like that, but I was labeled as that because that's the way I reacted. Even though I never understood like why I was being labeled as emotionally disturbed, because "disturbed" is not a very nice word to call someone, and that's a label. I remember talking about my story, and then I remember passing this on the commission. They asked us to vote on it, and I said, yes. We wrote a support letter to the state legislator, and then later on this bill went through the cross of the legislative system and it passed, and Governor Newsom signed into law.

DENNIS: In your other roles, you are also currently serving in the Mental Health of America and US Department of Labor shaping mental health, youth and disability employment policy. So what are the key changes that you're seeing there? 

SARAN: So thank you for seeing that. So basically what I do as a National Youth Fellow for the US Department of Labor for ODEP, which stands for Office Department and Employment Civility Policy.

So it's basically an initiative that is funded $7.6 million, something like that for the US Department of Labor. And what we do is there's five national youth fellows across the country. We all work together. We all come together and we learn how to facilitate presentations, how we present, how we speak to policy makers.

Basically, it's a fellowship. It's a five-year fellowship program where we learn all these skills, but we also apply these skills in real life by working with these five states the next five years, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Louisiana, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Virginia.

Basically what happens? 30 policy makers in total from all of these states come together at an in-person meeting that happens every single year in some state. And we come together and we share our lived experiences about how we should go for CTE Pathways for students with disabilities. So that's our focus is sharing our lived experiences and telling them why and support to have youth policy in their states and how that can shape CT Pathways... Career Technical Education pathways... from education, from student disabilities who are going through the education now to employment policy into employment transition. 

DENNIS: As a student leader who's really graduated from high school as a valedictorian, how do you navigate the tension between being taken seriously in a professional room and still being seen as young, 18 years old who has accomplished so much for your age?

SARAN: It's something that I'm always going to navigate as a student and as a leader in these space rooms, because I'm in spaces where I'm meeting CEOs, Executive Directors, and all these very big, big, big titles and these individuals who have years of experience and I have little years of experience. So what I would do is I would go into the offices and I would actually take the time and really understand where do people come from? Where do I come from and what kind of capacity can I bring to their work? All of these individuals, I'm walking into spaces, they had a different education system. They have different support systems. They have different degrees and things like that. But for me, as a young individual, I also come from a very different perspective and a different education experience space.

I've been through those barriers. I've been through all of this, and some of them are the ones who create those barriers are the ones who create that system. They work in that system so it feels weird sometimes walking into the room where I'm meeting with people who are actually the ones who are in control of the education system that had to contribute to that.

And for me, what I do is in those spaces, I really defy the status quo. I ask the hard questions. I tell them my lived experiences and the things that I've been through as a young individual who has been through the education system from K through 12, public education systems and all these different like systems of social welfare. And I share my lived experiences because to me, I think that a lot of these people who shape policy and education in the social welfare system is, they don't know the types of barriers that have been put in my generation's way. 'cause a lot of people in my community, in my generation have been through so much. Often people who create these systems don't know what those barriers are and what those, what that policy actually like when it's enacted. So a lot of it, like I said, is going into those rooms and really collaborating with these individuals and sharing my perspectives of how can we work together, even though I'm a young individual with not a lot of experience, but my experience is lived experience, and my experience is working with diverse people and communities and teams, and how can we bridge together to work together to address these needs? It can really change policy. It can really change people's lives, and it can really build an impact when we work together. 

DENNIS: What does cultural responsive advocacy look like to you, and how do you practice that across both your local and national work?

SARAN: My biggest advice to policy makers, national and local levels is telling them to include the voices of all the systems. And that's what inclusion really is, is when you include all the voices together, especially when we're talking about Asian-American experiences and things like that. I always ask, invite Mongolians to the table, ask them about their experiences, what they've been through.

That's really what inclusion looks like, is when you really invite all the systems together at the table, understanding about their experiences, you're really able to drive that change. And I think that's how I practice it in my local and national level. 

DENNIS: Where you cover, how do you say grounded in your "why"?

SARAN: I say ground in my "why" through really understanding how I got here in the first place. And I think that my why, I think about like all of the experiences that I've been through. Why do I need to continue to go forward and push forward in my life? Every time I go through like new side quests and opportunities and things like that, and policies, I think about what little Saran would've wanted that day. What did little me want? Little me would want with friends. Little me wanted a system that would care about her, a system that she was never segregated and separated, things like that. Why that would matter to her? Why would that matter to all the students just like her? Why do I need to continue to fight for her and continue to fight for all the people just like her? And I think that's really grounded my why, because I believe that young people can drive policy, can change policy no matter what their experience because honestly, your lived experience is your experience.

My childhood dream, since the age five was to be normal. I never wanna be called Autistic. I never wanna be called any of this because it was too stigmatizing for me.

And I think what my mom did is she showed me a picture, a long list of people who have my disabilities. I mean, these are famous people like Bill Gates. And that really made me remind me like, oh, maybe I can become a person like them. Oh, maybe it's not a bad thing after all. So I've kind of accepted it after my mom has comforted me with her words and showing me pictures of famous people when I became very successful. And that kind of really made me, the person who I am today is showing people that no matter what your disability is, no matter how much it impacts you, your disability should never hinder your ability to make the changes to become the leader you are today. Whether it's becoming an artist, there's becoming rapper, whatever it is, you can do it no matter what your disability is.

And that's what I show with the work that I do is not only am I just representing students advising and signing bills into law, I'm also showing young people who are youth disabilities, and I'm showing young people in general, is that you can do anything, what's possible, because to me, the word impossible is kinda like a hoax to me, but showing that you're able to do it no matter what your age is, no matter what your experience is, and really use your lived experience to draw that change.

My biggest hope is that young people like myself, Gen Z, continue to fight and continue to leave those spaces of education, disability, and mental health advocacy in those spaces, making sure that we are continuing to fight for those spaces, making sure that we are on the front line of the work that we do, and making sure that in the next 10 to 15 years it's gonna be us be at the forefront of openings we do. That's what I think. That's what I hope.

NARRATOR: Innovating Inclusion is a production of the Fox Family Foundation, whose mission is to break the link between poverty and disability. Saran has started her freshman year at Rice University and continues her public policy and advocacy work. Our theme song today was written byAlex Cap with incidental music by TravisA. King, and Bruce Maginnis.

Today's episode was co-produced by Dennis Tran. Our producer is Akira Nakano. Please visit our website, www.innovatinginclusion.org.,