The chairperson of the Pacific Youth Council says lumping the Pacific with Asia in international forums causes the region's needs to be diluted and lost.
Tahere Si'isi'ialafia is also a sociology lecturer at National University in Samoa.
Ms Si'isi'ialafia is one of six Pacific people among 21 candidates the Obama Foundation selected as emerging Asia-Pacific leaders.
They met in Hawai'i earlier this month to start designing a regional youth leadership programme.
Ms Si'isi'ialafia was part of a sub-group working on the sustainability of the programme.
She spoke with Dominic Godfrey about telling Barack Obama that Pacific perspectives were overshadowed when grouped with Asia.