This chapter reflects on the journeys of three Asian female TESOLers in the United States, revisiting and rewriting pivotal moments in their doctoral memories as a method of inquiry. Using the lens of agency, conceptualized as both intentionality and activity, and as an ecological achievement, we examine how we navigated the challenges of conference participation, graduate assistantship responsibilities, and advisor-advisee power dynamics during dissertation writing. This chapter brings together three distinct yet interconnected narratives through three tiers: enrichment, enhancement, and empowerment. Together, our reflections provide insights for Asian doctoral TESOL students into creating agencies that manifest their emerging scholarly identities and their sociocultural in-betweenness. By employing memory rewriting, we transform our individual experiences of struggle and growth into a collective account of how our agency is enacted in various academic spaces, highlighting the critical role of belonging and identity formation in the academic pipeline of TESOL. By doing so, our chapter contributes to the theorization of Asian TESOLer scholars’ experiences by focusing on agency, communities of practice, belongingness, and identity formation as critical dimensions, as well as offering practical insights for future doctoral students at large.
