The Life Story of Betty Yu
Author: Betty Yu
Betty Lin Yu 林玲娟 was born on April 15, 1945 at 南投台灣, the seventh of nine children of her parents, 父親林玉秋先生及母親洪金鶯女士·
In the early 1950s, Betty moved with her family to Taipei, where she lived until she went to 淡江 University, where she graduated in June 1969. Shortly after graduation, in October of 1969, Betty moved to the United States. Initially, she lived with one of her older sisters and her husband and family in Huntsville, Alabama. After a few months, she then moved to Grandview, Ohio, to live with another of her older sisters, and her brother-in-law and family.
In February of 1971 February, Betty moved to Los Angeles, California, where her then-fiance, Jin Chyuan Yu, was living and working as an engineer. In July of that year, Betty and Jin were married, in Santa Monica, California.
Over the next few years, Betty worked while taking accounting classes, eventually entering the accounting field. During these years, from 1971 to 1978, Betty worked primarily to support her husband while he completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at UCLA. In 1976, she gave birth to her first child, a son, Charles, and in 1978 came her second son, Kelvin. Betty raised both boys while working full-time, taking on parental and financial responsibilities while navigating a new country and a new culture. In 1978, Betty obtained an accounting position at the Culver City Unified School District.
As her two boys grew a little older, Betty became interested in pursuing real estate as an additional career and challenge. Completing night school in West Los Angeles, Santa Monica College, Betty passed her exams and received her California real estate licenses in 1987. She worked in real estate on weekends for supplementary income, while still holding down her full-time accounting job and raising her children. Eventually, in 1988, Betty and Jin moved from West Los Angeles to Rancho Palos Verdes (Betty handling both the purchase and sale transactions).
In the same year as the move (1988), Betty secured an accountant position at the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. Over the next several years, with the U.S. in a recession, Betty endured a number of challenges, negotiating the difficulties of office restructuring in an environment that where Betty, as a minority and a woman, was discriminated against by her colleagues and the administration. Seeing that other minorities in her workplace were similarly being mistreated, Betty decided to become involved with her union, the California School Employees Association (CSEA), the largest classified school employees union in the United States.
Betty served as Secretary, then Vice President, and then President of her CSEA chapter, the first person of Asian descent to serve as President.
First in my chapter, I ran for secretary, I overcome the difficulty to take meeting minutes and produced report. But I did it at very hard way. Then I ran for first Vice President, then President. I was the the first Asian to be a chapter President in the CSEA, which at the time had over 280,000 members.
Betty’s service and leadership in CSEA continued, as she was then appointed as regional representative, overseeing eight school districts in the south bay region of southern California, an honor which she was also the first person of Asian descent to receive. Her duties and responsibilities included regional activities, negotiating and public communications, as well as liaising with state legislators in Sacramento on CSEA matters.
During Betty’s long service with CSEA, she labored hard on behalf of many workers, improving their circumstances and in many cases, saving their jobs. She secured rights and benefits for countless workers, including better pay and working environments, as well as improving job training. This work helped minorities in particular, as they had the least access and most need for a powerful voice to speak on their behalf. As a woman and a minority, coming to a new country and learning a new language and culture, Betty’s significant efforts contributed to progress and are a model for public service.
In addition to her union work, Betty also worked for many years helping her husband Jin establishing a number of programs and initiatives for Taiwanese American youth, including the TACL-LID Camp, the TACL Political Internship Program, and other events. Through these efforts, Betty and Jin helped to support and encourage the political and community involvement of many young Taiwanese Americans in California and beyond, thereby increasing awareness, engagement and political clout for the community as a whole.
After retiring in 2008, she is now enjoying her retirement and grandchildren one day at a time.
From Betty Yu/2015/07
Translated from: 307. 林玲娟的人生故事/林玲娟/2015/07 by Author
Posted: 1/14/2021
