Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mia Rios. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Mia, thank you so much for joining us and offering your lessons and wisdom for our readers. One of the things we most admire about you is your generosity and so we’d love if you could talk to us about where you think your generosity comes from.
My generosity is inherited and generational, and it comes from my grandmothers and my mother. The women in my family model to me what it means to be a fervent Filipina. Their actions have influenced the strength, skills, and values that I hold in my identity to this day. Each of these women have portrayed generosity uniquely through their actions of love.
Throughout my childhood and adolescence, my maternal grandmother would fly independently from the Philippines every summer to visit and spend quality time with me and my cousins growing up in the U.S. In the Philippines, she was a dentist in her career, while raising five children alongside my maternal grandfather. Any in-laws who have met her have always felt welcomed with her vibrant smile and optimistic spirit. She had been very embracing and inclusive to any extended loved ones (friends, significant others, etc.) joining our family.
My paternal grandmother was resilient in the midst of Japan’s occupation of the Philippines in World War II. She was unable to finish her college education due to the war, but she had met with my paternal grandfather who was in the guerrilla resistance. Together, they raised eight children, while overcoming the post traumatic impact that the war had on the both of them. She had emphasized the importance of education, and was hopeful for her lineage of children and grandchildren to fulfill their academics.
My mom is my greatest supporter, from being there for me as an avid audience member at my performances to being a shoulder to cry on in my most vulnerable moments. Just like my maternal grandmother, she is a leading dentist in the South Bay, and she has worked hard to attain that career goal and establish her lifestyle ever since having immigrated to the U.S. in her early twenties. My mom is passionate about her hobbies (exercise, financial literacy, singing, etc.), which fill the happiness that she has inside her and extends to my dad, her two daughters, and everyone around her. Personality-wise, she is sociable and friendly, willingly open to make connections with the people she meets.
I would not say that their love was a sacrifice to their individual lives. Rather, their actions embedded with the intention of love emerged the purpose of the good people they were meant to be. Every selfless action and mindful choice that they made proceeded with love. Who they simply were effortlessly attracted people one and all to learn from them and get to know their stories. Proudly associated with these three wonderful women, I recognize the built-in support system derived in my family background. My mindset is inspired to offer their given generosity to myself and others around me, willing to grow in their foundation of love.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My name is Mia G. Rios (she/her/siya), and I am a twenty-three year old second-generation Filipina-American creative artist and aspiring mental health worker born in Palo Alto and raised in San Jose, CA. My creative mediums are singing-songwriting and poetry. I have performed my poetry and original songs in community events across the San Francisco Bay Area, such as LEAD Filipino’s Fly Pinays 2023 Summit, FAHM (Filipino American History Month) Jam and Jeepney Jam at the Berryessa Flea Market, Chopsticks Alley Art’s Outside the Box Artist Panel, SJ Made’s Pinoytown Artwalk, and San Francisco Filipino Cultural Center’s Philippine American Writers’ Association (PAWA) Poetry Event. I have been singing and performing since the age of 5 through a Bay Area music program called Bytes & Notes, located and based in San Jose. I started writing songs and poems when I was in high school at the age of 16, and have come back to the passions during the pandemic quarantine in 2020.
I have a B.A. degree in Psychology from the University of San Francisco, along with four minors in Music, Sociology, Child & Youth Studies, and Public Service & Community Engagement. For the next two years, I will be attending San Jose State University for graduate school to receive my MSW degree (Masters in Social Work). I became inspired to direct my career in psychology towards a path in social work when I engaged in advocacy during the Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate movements, which motivated me to called the Triple A Movement for Asian and Asian-identifying populations to be in community solidarity with non-Asian identifying individuals in the South Bay. I became more ingrained with the social work path, engaging in internship opportunities serving various populations and communities. In the fall of 2021, I had the opportunity to study abroad in London, interning to serve the refugee youth student population at Salusbury World UK. As well, I have taken part in Filipino community social work at San Francisco’s SoMa District, advocating affordable housing for low-income POC populations through the South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN) and Filipino Community Development Corporation (FCDC). Currently, I have been maintaining my activism and local community work through LEAD Filipino and Malaya Movement South Bay. I hope to become a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), emphasized in the community mental health field. Hopefully in the foreseeable future, with much experience in the social work field, I would like to further advance my career in becoming a Doctor of Social Work (DSW) running a private practice providing cultural mental healthcare across the state of California.
In terms of my art, I am planning to self-publish my very first poetry book at the moment. Titled Stranger Soul, this collection of prose and poems tells about the personal accounts of my experiences growing up and my emerging adulthood. The book specifically reflects on the departure of my late teenhood and entrance into my early twenties. Themes include navigating one’s individual self, enduring heartbreak, reminiscing youthhood, and engaging in connection. Many of the topics emphasize mental health, personal relationships, Asian-American culture and advocacy, and gender and sexuality. Be on the lookout for its release coming up this summer! You can find upcoming project announcements and updates through my Instagram @mia.g.rios.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think that the three qualities that I found most impactful in my journey were kindness, empathetic understanding, and assertiveness.
First and foremost, kindness is highly universal. Kindness is a trait applied to all aspects regarding your life, relationships, and the communities that you are involved in. Whether at school, work, and/or in your personal life, the foundation of your career network and support system is the kindness that you impose. Kindness is the kickstart to a good first impression. I always see kindness as the quality that rises above all other qualities. It takes thoughtfulness, consideration, and strength to continue choosing to pursue life with kindness, despite any negative experiences that may come your way. You would not have the selflessness to extend kindness to others if you do not offer kindness to yourself first. Creating kindness for yourself and others implements expansive hearts and minds, as well as the base to other good quality traits.
Understanding, or having an empathetic sense, is the connection to fostering the kindness shared between people. Empathetic understanding and kindness work hand-in-hand with each other. When another person does not have kindness within their own self, an empathetic person can understand the hardships that the other person could be going through and further choose to treat them with kindness. In turn, this could guide the challenging individual to be able to sense the exposed kindness and allow themselves to feel it. Empathetic understanding creates diverse perspectives to view the uniqueness of each individuals’ identities. Understanding other cultures outside of my own amplifies my knowledge of other people and the world around me. In the process of holding kindness and empathetic understanding for yourself and people, feelings of being valued and cared for emerge.
Assertiveness is the most honest and raw quality. Being assertive means to be real with yourself as well as curating high standards for yourself. This trait prioritizes the values that meet the worth of your personal self. These values attract and extend to the types of people that you would surround yourself with. I have felt that assertiveness is the quality that I am still working on to improve, since I had often been quiet and introverted in nature ever since I was really young. There is a lot of importance to taking action, especially standing up for yourself and your beliefs. Being a compliant bystander in the face of conflict would not be able to create the change or resolution desired. Especially being surrounded by groups of people with treatment that overstep your boundaries, there is a great necessity to be vocal in advocating for your respect and rights. Being assertive would lead you to the best opportunities and people that you deserve to have in your life. Assertiveness takes passion, confidence, and boldness to be firm and secure with the individual that you are.
My advice on developing these three qualities for folks who are early in their life journey is to simply be themselves. Detaching from the ideas of what others expect you to be can narrow down the central standards that you truly want for yourself. People can guide, support, and hope highly, of the individual that you are becoming, but the ending outcome all surmounts to if it is what you truly want for yourself. In the process of growing up and discovering yourself, you will be bound to make mistakes and failures. There can be the immediacy to want to dwell in the hardships and regrets. But how can you continue your journey? Moving forward is a choice and details a specific intention. That intention in each step of your journey is to hold the three qualities of kindness, empathetic understanding, and assertiveness in the acts you choose to make. These actions would collectively build and ingrain the three qualities into your mindset and individual identity. Fulfill the good values and choose to nourish love within yourself, and you will attract like-minded people and exciting experiences that will come your way. The rest of what is deserving and rightfully meant for you in the rest of your life journey will follow suit.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
In terms of music, I am looking for a band and music producers who could help provide instrumentals, record in a studio space, and bring my songs to life.
To give an idea of the music genres I express, my styles of music are influenced by artists like Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Laufey, etc. I hope to one day release an EP or debut, or at least officially release my music on various streaming platforms. Thus, I am looking for music producers who can guide me with constructing additional instrumentals to my vocals, as well as guide me with how to independently release music. For the band, I am looking for a simple standard band of a guitarist (acoustic/electric), drummer, bassist, keys/pianist, and violinists/string players.
If you are reading this article and are interested in collaborating, please reach out to me through Instagram @mia.g.rios or shoot me an email through [email protected] !
Contact Info:
- Instagram: mia.g.rios
- Facebook: Mia Rios
- Linkedin: Charmina (Mia) Rios
- SoundCloud: miagrios
Image Credits
@briaanou @acerendipity @akbayansjsu
