Actor and rights activist BD Wong visited Shippensburg University on Thursday to discuss diversity and the numerous challenges he faced throughout his career in conjunction with the university’s annual HOPE Diversity Scholarship Program.

The Helping Our People Excel (HOPE) scholarship is offered every year to select SU students for their leadership and academic excellence. Wong, known for his roles in movies such as “Jurassic World” and “Father of the Bride,” as well as TV shows such as “Law and Order: SVU” and “Gotham,” has been performing since the late 1980s. However, he said he faced racism and homophobia as a gay, Asian-American man throughout his entire life.

“A big part of my DNA is diversity,” Wong said. “It is a topic that I personally feel cannot be over discussed.”

Addressing SU students and faculty during a question-and-answer session backstage of H. Ric Luhrs Performing Arts Center Thursday afternoon, Wong said he believes sensitivity is at its most important in the year 2017.

“In particular now, discussion of diversity is super powerful and important,” Wong said. “It’s really reassuring to understand that your obstacles are shared with others.”

Growing up in San Francisco, California, as the middle child of a Chinese-American family, Wong said he was raised in a traditional Chinese household and found himself longing to participate in the popular American customs of the time.

“My parents enjoyed a very interesting bi-cultural childhood,” Wong said. “I find that, looking back, my younger brother and I were all about being American.”

Wong, who first realized he was gay as a teenager, began singing in high school, leading to his performance in numerous high school and community musicals.

As a teenager, Wong said he was not aware of racial typecasting in the entertainment industry, but discovered it after being cast as a stereotypical Chinese immigrant in the musical “Anything Goes.”

“All I can tell you is that it short-circuited my brain,” Wong said. “I remember it was so sad to me.”

Prior to the lecture, a formal reception and dinner was held on the second floor of the Luhrs Performing Arts Center and in Reisner Dining Hall’s Tuscarora Room.

The dinner honored this year’s scholarship recipients; Sara Diaz, Suphawat Nambuppha, Amelia Rhoads and Natalie Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, whose grandparents worked 13 hours a day seven days a week after arriving in America, wore a necklace given to her grandmother by her grandfather on their wedding day as a representation of their sacrifice.

“[The necklace] represents the countless sacrifices of my family for me to be able to attend SU,” Rodriguez said. “My grandparents’ dream of a better future is now mine as well.”

Wong opened up at his 8 p.m. presentation about the anguish he felt following the premature birth of his twin sons, and the one twin’s subsequent death.

Wong said he channeled his grief into sending updates on his son’s well-being to his friends and family.

“I began opening up my feelings by writing emails,” Wong said.

Several individuals in attendance asked Wong about how they should cope with recent changes in society.

In response, Wong said students who feel discouraged by recent events should use their feelings as an opportunity to better their society.

“The moral of the story is a ‘do you’ kind of thing. We live in a world where there are a lot of reasons why we don’t ‘do us,’” Wong said. “I’ve seen it time and time again and I believe in it with my whole heart.”

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