A Voice that Cannot Be Denied

How Vy Li ('21, master's in systems engineering) went from refugee to entrepreneur.

By Marisa Demers

For much of Vy Li’s life, silence was essential to her survival.

In 1981, as a toddler aboard a refugee boat, her mother kept Li quiet with cough syrup. Drawing attention from other passengers or, worse yet, nearby pirates could have cost Li her life. Years later, Li held back words and tears after an enraged boyfriend threw a knife so close to her face that it knocked Li’s glasses off. Lacking financial security, Li continued living with her abusive partner until she earned her bachelor’s degree.

Today, the Orange County resident’s life is vastly different. She is a co-owner and managing member of four financial technology startups, including one that recently sold to a publicly traded company. Yet, she is still fighting assumptions about the role of a female executive. Board members and employees look to her husband and co-owner Timothy Li for guidance, not her.

“We are supposed to believe that equality exists, but it does not,” Li says. “People may not look down at me, but they certainly do not care what I have to say, and I am tired of nobody listening.”

At 43, Li will no longer be quiet. She credits the graduate program at Cal Poly Pomona for giving her the self-confidence to assert herself more in the classroom and the boardroom. Li is using her position as a fintech leader, a Cal Poly Pomona alumna and a philanthropist to inspire others like her—immigrants, first-generation college students, and female engineers—to find their voice, too. 

A New Home 

Li was just three years old when she and her parents fled Vietnam’s communist-run government. The stories Li’s mother and father share about their journey to a Malaysian refugee camp are more vivid than Li’s personal recollection of them. Still, learning how much danger she endured as a child motivates her to succeed. “Something inside of me always made me feel I should accomplish more in life,” she says.

"Engineering gives us a method to address problems so that we can make the world better in ways both small and large. That is why I love it so much." – Vy Li (’21 Master's in Systems Engineering)

Li’s family eventually resettled in Ottawa, Canada. The next 15 years were challenging. Li’s mother and father worked as many as three jobs so they could leave their government-assisted housing and gain a foothold into middle-class life. Li took on the responsibility of helping with all household chores, including caring for her sister and brother.

Finding Her Passion

When the time came for college, Li’s mother and father offered financial support, but only if she majored in computer science. Li abided by their terms and enrolled at the University of Ottawa. During Silicon Valley’s explosive growth in 1999, Li transferred to San José State University. The new start connected Li to her true passion—engineering.

“Engineering gives us a method to address problems so that we can make the world better in ways both small and large,” Li says. “That is why I love it so much.”

In the years following her graduation, Li enrolled and dropped out of graduate school, met and married Timothy Li and had four children. When she was looking for ways to be taken more seriously at work, Li thought about the master’s degree that she never completed.

Paying It Forward  

When Li walked onto the Cal Poly Pomona campus in spring 2020, she expected to face challenges as a working mother and student. The COVID-19 pandemic made every aspect of her life more stressful.

Li was not ready to give up again. Faculty from the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME) did not know about Li’s successful businesses or her personal reasons for returning to school. Instead, they saw a driven student and wanted to help. Assistant Professor Payam Parsa, for instance, met with Li once a week to discuss her research project. Others, including Associate Professor and Chair Shokoufeh Mirzaei, would meet online to ensure students understood class materials. In December 2021, Li earned her master’s degree.

Because of her positive experience at Cal Poly Pomona, Vy and Timothy pledged $120,000 to the Department of Industrial Manufacturing last March. Funds will support an IME excellence fund and help renovate and purchase new equipment for the department’s computer-integrated manufacturing lab. In gratitude, Cal Poly Pomona’s renaming the space the Vy and Timothy Li Automation Laboratory for Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.

Ellips Masehian, assistant professor in IME, has spent the past four years trying to modernize the lab for students. He applied for several grants and even used funds from his faculty startup package to pay for instrumentation. With the Lis' support, Masehian can fast-track his plans.   

“This gift is very impactful,” he says. “We can act on our ideas without having to wait for grant funding.”

By naming the lab after her and her husband, Li hopes that immigrants who enter the engineering space will feel proud and driven to succeed. And, by providing a relevant, hands-on curriculum, Li says Cal Poly Pomona students can achieve social mobility that is critical to a safe and healthy life. 

“When you have experienced trauma it is very hard to take the next step to a better life,” Li says. “I want all the young women to know that they can absolutely get an education and find a better situation. It is really hard but I know they can do it.”