Meet the
Coalition’s Founders
Tseyang
Co-Founder and Co-Director
Tseyang is a Tibetan student activist from Queens, New York. The Tibetan Freedom Movement has been at the core of her identity for as long as she remembers. Her mode of involvement has taken many forms throughout the years, most recently as the President of Students for a Free Tibet’s Boston chapter where she has led advocacy trainings and spearheaded intiatives in the NoBeijing2022 and Hands Off Tibetan DNA campaigns. Working with Boston cross-movement groups has transformed the way she approaches advocacy and crystallized her belief in the power of collective organizing. Beyond activism, she also explores her Tibetan identity by serving on the board of Rokpa, a non-profit organization focused on increasing education access and cultivating community enrichment for Tibetan youth in exile and the Harvard Undergraduate Tibetan Cultural Association. You can find her reading medical ethnographies, crocheting, or at the Boston Tibetan community’s weekly Lhakar Vigils.
Cosette
Co-Founder and Co-Director
Cosette Wu is a Taiwanese Junior at Harvard studying Economics and Government. She was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii but grew up returning to Taiwan every summer and winter. In high school, Cosette authored and published the biography of her great-grandfather, a 228 Massacre victim (translated by the Taiyang Studies of Taiwanese Literature and History Institute and on display in the Sifang Hospital Museum). Learning about Taiwan’s authoritarian past and democratization sparked her passion for defending Taiwan’s hard-earned freedom. Cosette has since interned with the Project 2049 Institute, Forward Alliance, and OFTaiwan. At Forward Alliance, she led the development of Taiwan’s first web-based civil defense / emergency response training. On campus, Cosette is the former Co-President of the Harvard Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative (Harvard’s premier foreign policy organization) and a Board Member of the Taiwanese Cultural Society.
Kawsar
Co-Founder
Kawsar Yasin (she/her) is an Uyghur Sophomore at Harvard studying History and Anthropology originally from Tyler, Texas. This past summer, she worked as an intern at the Uyghur Human Rights Project and traveled to Dharamsala, India with the Harvard Undergraduate Tibetan Cultural Association. She founded a Harvard club for Uyghur advocacy and culture, through which she has organized speaker events, demonstrations/vigils, and showcases highlighting Uyghur art and literature in the diaspora. Outside of Harvard, Kawsar attends Students for a Free Tibet Boston’s weekly Lhakar vigils, aids the Boston Uyghur Association in planning actions, and works with Uyghur Academy on long-term plans for projects addressing cultural preservation in exile. She joined the coalition to sustain cross-movement actions and deepen solidarity networks. In addition to grassroots organizing, she finds community in these spaces and hopes that other students are inspired to take on this work in exile as well.