"I thought the best thing was to first form an umbrella organization to group those hometown associations together - because everyone comes from somewhere in China," He explains. "So this organization could be a home base for Chinese from all walks of life."

In 2002, the Coordination Council of Chinese-American Associations was born.

For the next five years serving as deputy, He helped organize Chinese participation in many large-scale activities, some for the first time, such as the Independence Day Parade in Washington DC, the Memorial Day Parade in Montgomery County and Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

He's efforts attracted the attention of the state government. In 2010, she won the Governor's Volunteer Service Award and was the only Asian-American among the 33 recipients.

He's full-time job is as a program associate at the language and culture institute of Virginia Tech, where she got a master's degree in natural resources.

She became president of her organization in 2007 and started to devote more energy towards her larger goal of engaging Chinese-Americans in mainstream politics, from voter registration to fundraising for election campaigns.

"The more voting power a group has, the more attention it will get from elected officials. Besides, voting is a privilege and we have the obligation to use it," He explains.

He knows it is not an easy road.

"I often feel like I am still a dreamer even at this age," she says with a laugh.

Her next dream is to form an overarching committee, participated in by leaders of main organizations in the Chinese community who could meet regularly to design development plans for the community as a whole.

Asked if there was a model for that dream, He laughs and says, "Probably the UN".