Anhlan P. Nguyen, one of two new appointees to VEF

In announcing the appointment, President Obama said, “These individuals have demonstrated knowledge and dedication throughout their careers. I am grateful they have chosen to take on these important roles, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.” He said those words not only of the two women but also of a 3rd appointee announced the same time – the first U.S. ambassador to Burma after 22 years of interrupted diplomatic relations.

The two new Board members of VEF are Anhlan P. Nguyen (Nguyễn Phúc Anh Lan) from Houston and Quyen N. Vuong (Vương Ngọc Quyên) from San Jose.

Nguyen is known for the activities organized by the Vietnamese Culture and Science Association (Hội Văn Hóa Khoa Học Việt Nam), a multi-faceted, well-funded group who gets its finger in just about everything going on in Houston, including the controversial election of community leaders.

ICAN's Facebook page

Vuong, on the other hand, is almost exclusively focused on human services. She previously spent a year with the UNHCR (High Commissioner for Refugees) in Hong Kong as a Fulbright scholar.

Vuong is currently the Executive Director of the International Children Assistance Network (ICAN), an organization she co-founded in 2000, which helps Vietnamese disadvantaged students both in Northern California and in Vietnam.

Created by Act of Congress and funded by the U.S. government, the VEF is an independent agency whose mission is “to strengthen the U.S.-Vietnam bilateral relationship through educational exchanges in science and technology.”

In addition to Presidential appointees, the Board of VEF include ex oficio members from the Cabinet – the Secretaries of Education, State, and Treasury – and bi-partisan members drawn from both houses of Congress.

The White House press release include more details about the appointees’ background:

Anhlan P. Nguyen, Appointee for Member, Board of Directors of the Vietnam Education Foundation
Anhlan P. Nguyen is currently an IT project portfolio manager at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Chair of the Board of Directors for the Vietnamese Culture and Science Association. In 1998, Ms. Nguyen established the National Youth Leadership Development Camp in 1998, and in 1990 she helped found the Vietnamese Youth Center of Toronto. Ms. Nguyen won the Women’s Leadership Empowerment Award by the Texas Women Empowerment Foundation in 2011 and was named one of the “Top 25 Women of Houston” by Comerica Bank and the Steed Society in 2010 for her leadership and community involvement. In addition, she won the Outstanding Community Leader Award from the Youth Leadership Council of Houston in 2004 and was selected as one of five outstanding young Houstonians by the Junior Chamber of Commerce in 2000. Ms. Nguyen has a B.S. and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Quyen N. Vuong, Appointee for Member, Board of Directors of the Vietnam Education Foundation
Quyen N. Vuong is the Executive Director of the International Children Assistance Network in San Jose, CA, an organization she co-founded in 2000. She is also a board member of the Pacific Links Foundation, an organization she co-founded in 2001, and a founding member of the Vietnamese American Non-Governmental Network, created in 2004. Ms. Vuong serves on the Board of Directors of the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, the Community Advisory Committee for San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum, and the Advisory Board for the Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution for Mission College. She received a Fulbright in 1989 and worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Hong Kong. Ms. Vuong holds a B.A. in Economics from Yale University, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Thuy Vo Dang heads the Vietnamese American Oral History Project at UC Irvine.

UC Irvine is creating an archive of personal oral histories by members of the local Vietnamese-American community. This “Vietnamese American Oral History Project” is headed by Dr. Thuy Vo-Dang, a postdoctoral fellow in the university’s Department of Asian American Studies.

The Bolsavik interviewed Dr. Vo Dang for Nguoi Viet Daily News, published here. Following is the same interview, in its original English.

Q. How is the collecting work going so far?

Dr. Vo Dang: The collection of oral histories is going quite well! I have done 3 interviews that are fully transcribed, but we are looking for ways to have them translated (they are in Vietnamese). My students have gathered a total of 36 interviews that are fully processed. These are new interviews; there are existing ones as well.

Q. What do you mean by “fully processed”? What does it take for interview to be fully processed?

Dr. Vo Dang: It means they have been transcribed and ready to transfer over to the Southeast Asian Archive. All these interviews are audio-recorded and come with photos. Some have original documents that Narrators (what we call our interview subjects) have donated to be kept with their stories.

Q: What kind of stories do you have so far?

Dr. Vo Dang: The stories are already quite diverse and interesting. Many reeducation camp stories, ethnic Chinese-Vietnamese experiences, a handful of folks who worked for Boeing, 2 French-Vietnamese-Americans, community leaders, educators, artists, business owners.

Q: Any surprises? Any anecdotes you can share with us?

Dr. Vo Dang: One of the most interesting things that has come up: many of my students have interviewed a parent and unearthed stories they’ve never heard before.

One of those stories involves the sexual abuse of a group of teenage Viet refugees in Georgia in the 1980s by a sponsor. I think this story is very telling of the manipulation of the refugee-sponsorship system by nonprofits, churches, and other MAAs at that time.

Another student interviewed her Vietnamese language teacher from high school and he told her that when he was young (during the war) he ditched school and was therefore put on a priority list for the draft and then ended up in the military in South Vietnam. After the war ended he was imprisoned by the new regime. So, he would use this as a cautionary tale to his students to not slack off, miss school, or be lazy or they could end up in prison!

One of my Narrators told me about his reeducation prison days and he mentioned that his job in prison involved painting the background for stage performances. His friend drew three flowers as part of the backdrop and got called in my the inspectors and asked why he drew three flowers. They wanted to know if he meant it as a critique of the new regime (three flowers in Vietnamese is ba hoa which also means liar) and then they made him draw in another flower to make four.

These are some stories that are emerging in the interviews, but there are so many more “ordinary” tales of perseverance, struggle, and triumph. I am so excited about this collection of stories!

Q: You mentioned something about existing interviews. Can you elaborate?

Dr. Vo Dang: On top of these original new interviews, I am working on processing interviews that the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation conducted in 2010, through their “500 Oral Histories Project“. I am also processing old interviews from 2003-2005 conducted by Professor Linda Vo‘s students at UCI. So, you see, the work is not only about doing interviews but bringing together existing interviews and making sure they are ready for online presentation and historical preservation.

I expected to have 100 by the end of the year and we are on track for this to happen. Since I now have the first batch from my students on hand, I will be transferring them to the libraries by the end of this month.

Q: What kind of outreach have you used to get to narrators?

Dr. Vo Dang: So far, I’ve used UCI communications’ press release and news features, academic newsletters, our project website, Facebook, and outreach at community events such as Common Ground (to recruit volunteers).

Word of mouth has been the best form of outreach–my students’ and the organizations and community leaders I work with–this helps to recruit Narrators through a credible link.

Q: How about Vietnamese media?

Dr. Vo Dang: I am hoping to launch a Vietnamese media campaign soon. Vien Dong has a story on us. I hope to get Nguoi Viet and Viet Bao to also do a feature on the project or run free ads for Narrators to contact me.

Q: Does your project involve remote states?

Dr. Vo Dang: The project is only focused on Southern California, so the Narrators have come from all over OC, LA, San Diego and a few from the Inland Empire. I’ve gotten inquiries over FB and email from people all over the country, but we are only interviewing So Cal Vietnamese. There’s a professor at Grinnell College in Iowa that contacted me about donating her students’ interviews of Viet-Americans there, so we are in communication about how that would work.

Q: How do people get hold of you to tell their stories? Do you pick and choose or take all comers?

Dr. Vo Dang: People can email the project at vaohp@uci.edu or email me directly. They can contact us on FB.

So far, we’ve taken all who are interested in telling their stories but these Narrators have to be willing to sign the release that allows for us to make their interviews public.

—–

Thuy Vo Dang is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Asian American Studies at UC Irvine. She earned her Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego. She conducted oral history interviews with first generation Vietnamese Americans in San Diego for her doctoral dissertation on cultural politics and memory. Thuy has also collaborated on a Pacific Rim Foundation-funded project, interviewing over 70 Vietnamese Americans in Southern California. Her writings have been published in Amerasia Journal, the anthology Le Viet Nam Au Féminin, and Journal of Vietnamese Studies. Thuy serves on the board of directors for the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA) and the St. Anselm’s Cross-cultural Community Center. She’s also a contributing blogger on www.diaCRITICS.org.

Thach Tak Nguyen shakes hands with President Obama at the Champions of Change ceremony at the White House.

A Vietnamese-American, himself coming from a broken, low-income family, was honored by President Barack Obama for his innovative idea to help feed the homeless, a project that he started while still a student at UCLA.

Thach “Tak” Nguyen, 23, co-founder and CFO of Swipes for the Homeless, a non-profit organization that started as a student organization at UCLA, was honored as a “Champion of Change“ in a Mar. 15 ceremony at the White House that was captured on video. Tak is in the lower right corner of the screen.

The term “swipe” in the organization’s name refers to extra meals on meal plans (cards) that students may have skipped – i.e. not swipped – during the week, and accumulated over the quarter. In 2011, Tak and his friend Bryan Pezeshki had this idea to take all these unused swipes and trade in for meals for the homeless.

As noted in the Tak’s blog on the White House web site here, to date the organization has “collected over 20,000 meals…, with a record of 7,421 meals this past university quarter.”

In 2011, the duo took this program national and now has chapters at USC, UC Berkeley, Texas State University San Marcos, and even at the University of Paris in France.

Tak is still the organization’s CFO; he deals with the internal operations of the organization, with a specific focus on talent management and grooming future leaders. His professional experience ranges from business development to project management in Fortune 50 companies.

What’s even more amazing is, as Nguoi Viet Daily News found out, Tak himself came from a broken working class family. Both his parents are barbers and they divorced when he was 15. He started working through high school, getting money for college.

Even after he got admitted to UCLA, in his first year he worked the night shift, from 9pm to 3am, getting paid $9 an hour. In his second year, he asked his parents for $75 each per month; they give him $100 each. After four months, he found a job, and voluntarily paid back his parents.

Tak credited his work to the mere fact that he was admitted to UCLA. He told Nguoi Viet that in his admission essay he asked the school to overlook one bad year in his transcript when his parents divorced.

When he got in, Tak determined to prove to UCLA Admissions they were right in giving him the opportunity.

 
Tak with his parents at graduation.

SF Community College District Trustee Steve Ngo

(The Bolsavik did this for his job at Nguoi Viet, here)

In the City and County of San Francisco, there’s only one Viet elected official.

That sole Vietnamese-American is Steve Ngo, elected in 2008 to a seat on the Board of Trustees for the San Francisco Community College District.

The District is one of the largest in the nation and serves over 100,000 students.

Ngo is born in Lexington, Kentucky, in a Viet refugee family. After fleeing Vietnam for the United States, Steve’s mother worked as a waitress and nail salon technician in New Orleans, Louisiana. After 20 years, she eventually opened her own nail salon business. His father took jobs as a busboy, roofer, and chef, and later attended community college to become an auto body repair technician. According to Ngo, his mother only had a third grade education and his father only completed the eighth grade, but “in America they were able to build a better life through hard work and vocational education.”

Ngo became an attorney and practiced election law and civil litigation, before winning office. Previously, Ngo was a budget consultant for the California State Assembly Budget Committee, where he was a recipient of the Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellowship.

Ngo received his B.A. from UCLA. He later received his Master of Public Policy from Georgetown and a law degree from UC Hastings in San Francisco, where he was elected student body president.

Vũ Quí Hạo Nhiên (NV): What in your views are the most important missions of a community college in educating its students?

Steve Ngo: The fundamental purpose of the community colleges is to provide lifelong access to education and training. The United States, and California in particular, have a competitive advantage in that its citizens can enter or re-enter the pipeline for advanced training or higher education at will.

NV: With 4-year college tuition rising rapidly, do you see an increase in students choosing the community colleges as a low-cost alternative to the first 2 years of college instead of heading straight to UC or other 4-year colleges after high school?

Steve Ngo: Yes, absolutely, based on simple laws of economics. We cannot, however, continue to price our citizens out of a good that is both private and public. Moreover, even as the laws of supply and demand push more students into our community college system, we also have to ensure that the system can handle the increased demand for education. Otherwise, the state simply pushes our citizens out of education entirely. That is a disaster with long-term economic and social implications.

NV: In the same vein, do you see an increase in students who are already enrolled at UC, CSU, or other 4-year schools, taking community college classes to save money?

Steve Ngo: Yes, but again, the problem is whether the state will fund the community colleges to adequately handle the increased demand for its services.

NV: For the non-transfer students, what does statistics say about their employability after community college? What majors or courses of study seem to do better, in terms of jobs and salaries?

Steve Ngo: Studies show that by 2018 63 percent of all jobs will require a degree beyond high school. But the most pressing fact is the nascent retirement of the baby boomers, which will at once create jobs to provide for their care and jobs to be filled by their exit from the workforce. There will also be demand for workers as the economy continues to grow in the post-industrial era. You need to get a post-secondary degree to compete in the workforce for jobs in most sectors. Our state budget must have the foresight and vision to contemplate this reality. Past budgets did not.

NV: Is the budget situation worse at the community colleges compared to UC or CSU?

Steve Ngo: I won’t speak for UC or CSU, but the community colleges have sliced their budgets down to the bone, and have still been able to provide moderate access to the increased demand. But we should be doing more for our citizens and getting them – and the state – ready for the economy of the future. The funding levels do not reflect that commitment.

NV: Compared to other community colleges, how is SFCC doing budget-wise?

Steve Ngo: We are one of the largest community colleges in the state, mainly due to our large immigrant population enrolled in our English as a Second Language courses. Because these courses get funded at a lower level than general education courses, the system is at an inherent disadvantage. But it shouldn’t be. These types of courses are the bedrock of the system of education that the state must provide to all of its citizens if we are to build a future in California that is vibrant, prosperous and just.

NV: How are SFCC transfer students coping with the increased costs and restricted admissions at UC and CSU?

Steve Ngo: Our students are resilient, but as a society, we shouldn’t have to make the burden harder to obtain a college degree. Individual families would not make it harder for the children to go to school; our state, too, cannot continue to make it harder for our citizens to get a degree. The lack of funding means lack of counselors to advise them on college and financial aid options and it means a lack of courses to help them transfer in time to the four-year college of their choice.

What people must know is that the Obama Administration and the Democratic-controlled congress enacted two vital laws that were smart about our future: (1) the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act was the largest investment in higher education in a generation, cutting bank subsidies and providing the savings from that money to increase financial aid to low-income students, and (2) the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the “stimulus,” which enabled schools, including at our college, to keep teachers and counselors from being laid off. These are the people who help get our students where they need to go. So the long answer to this question is our students have been able to cope in due part to the work of our teachers, counselors and staff, and also because of the leadership of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, George Miller and the U.S. Senate.

NV: Does SFCC have specific programs to help unemployed mid-career people find jobs?

Steve Ngo: Yes, our Career and Technical Education programs run the gamut. We are also working to improve our vocational ESL programs so that all San Franciscans can have better access to those jobs in the sectors that are growing the fastest in our economy.

Arthur Tran, a 7th grader at Fitz Intermediate in Santa Ana, won the GGUSD spelling bee for middle schoolers

The Garden Grove Unified School District announced the Top 10 finishers for the district-wide spelling bee for middle schoolers (called intermediate schools in this district), and all ten have Vietnamese last names.

The winner, Arthur Tran (pictured), a 7th grader at Fitz Intermediate School (located in Santa Ana actually) beat out the runner-up, Nancy Nguyen of Alamitos Intermediate, by correctly spelling glaucoma.

Arthur’s favorite school subject is math, according to the press release by the school district.

The complete list of Top 10 finishers, all with Viet last names, are in the press release below.

Press Release
Garden Grove Unified School District

Release Date: Immediate Contact: (PIO) Alan Trudell (714-663-6503)

Fitz Intermediate School Student Claims the Crown as

Grades 7-8 Spelling Bee Champion of GGUSD

Arthur Tran of Fitz Intermediate School earned the title of champion of the annual spelling bee for seventh and eighth-grade students in the Garden Grove Unified School District. The event was held Thursday, Jan. 13, at the Garden Grove Community Meeting Center.

Arthur, a 13-year-old seventh-grader, correctly spelled the deciding word, glaucoma – becoming the top speller among more than 7,500 intermediate school pupils in the GGUSD. The bee winner, a Santa Ana resident, is a straight-A student who says math is his favorite subject.

English teachers Michelle Gunderson and Michael Coyle served as coaches for the four spelling bee contestants from Fitz Intermediate, located in Santa Ana.

In this year’s district competition, Arthur dueled for first-place with Nancy Nguyen of Alamitos Intermediate, who earned runner-up honors. Nancy was followed by Tommy Nguyen of McGarvin Intermediate, third place; and Ryan Tran of Ralston Intermediate, fourth-place. Other honored participants included Vincent Nguyen of Doig Intermediate, fifth-place; Danny Vu of Doig Intermediate, sixth-place; Calvin Ly of Walton Intermediate, seventh-place; Sunny Le of Alamitos Intermediate, eighth-place; May Vo of Ralston Intermediate, ninth-place; and Julie Nguyen of Ralston Intermediate, 10th-place.

The district champion and the nine runners-up will represent the GGUSD at the Orange County Spelling Competition, with the written segment scheduled February 16 at the Orange County Department of Education in Costa Mesa followed by the deciding oral spelling round on February 26 at the Orange County Department of Education.

Each of the district’s 10 intermediate schools entered its four best spellers in the district competition. Contestants were asked to spell such words as concomitant, lackadaisical, and cumulonimbus.

Board of Education President Lan Quoc Nguyen presented trophies to the top 10 spellers, and all contest entrants received certificates of participation.

PR #838

The fellowship, named the Lan and Mark Beyster Fellowship Program, will provide $25,000 to enable a law school graduate to provide legal services to and advocacy for the community, announces the Vietnamese-American Bar Association of Northern California in a press release.

This fellowship “is the first fellowship of this kind given by any minority bar organization in the country,” noted Quyen Ta, President of the VABANC. It will be the largest fellowship amount offered by a minority bar organization.

Download the application form (in Microsoft Word) here (wiggle the inner scroll bar if nothing shows).

Read the entire press release after the jump (or read the PDF here).

VABANC Launches First Ever Year-Long Fellowship
to Provide Legal Services

SAN JOSE, California.

The Vietnamese American Bar Association of Northern California (VABANC) proudly announces the establishment of the Lan and Mark Beyster Fellowship Program, a post-graduate fellowship to be provided to a recent law school graduate. The Lan & Mark Beyster Fellowship Program will provide $25,000 to enable a law school graduate to provide legal services to and advocacy for the Vietnamese American community and/or other underserved/underresourced communities.

“This is the first fellowship of this kind given by any minority bar organization in the country,” noted Quyen Ta, President of the VABANC. “We are very excited by the program. This fellowship builds upon the work VABANC has done to encourage public service,” said Ms. Ta.

This fellowship will be the largest fellowship amount offered by a minority bar organization to encourage and provide legal services and pro bono work with the Vietnamese American Community. Most Vietnamese Americans came to the United States as refugees. Despite some instances of model-minority accomplishments, many Vietnamese Americans still live in poverty and lack access to the legal system.

For the last 8 years, VABANC has provided two to three scholarships per year to law students to recognize their achievements and commitments to serving their communities and to encourage public service. The Lan and Mark Beyster Fellowship builds on VABANC’s goals by supporting a recent law graduate who will serve the greater community and whose work will achieve a richer and more inclusive vision of social justice in underserved communities.

For many years, Mrs. Lan Beyster, Mr. Mark Beyster and their family have generously contributed to many philanthropic and educational endeavors. With this fellowship, the Beysters want to encourage public service in the Vietnamese American community and to provide low-income communities with legal services.

To learn more about VABANC, please visit its website at www.vabanc.org.

Here are some multiple-choice test questions from the Vietnamese-language class at Coastline Community College:

* You ask someone to repeat what she said.

a. Xin hỏi, ông tên gì? (Sir, what’s your name?)
b. Xin lỗi, ông tên gì? (Excuse me sir, what’s your name?)
c. Xin hỏi, ông làm gì? (Sir, what do you do?)
d. Xin lỗi, ông nói sao? (Excuse me sir, what did you say?)

Yes sir, you’re a woman.

* Oanh can speak and read Vietnamese

a. She knows Vietnamese.
b. She is fluent in Vietnamese.
c. She is learning Vietnamese.
d. She is not fluent in Vietnamese.

* Oanh and Tâm are friends

a. Tâm and Oanh are in the same Vietnamese class.
b. Oanh and Tâm know Vietnamese.
c. Oanh and Tâm are born in Texas.
d. Tâm and Oanh live in California.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is supposed to be how critical thinking is conducted in Vietnamese….

(These questions are taken from the blog of a student currently taking the class. Not sure s/he wants the teacher to know about it, so the Bolsavik is not making a link to that blog.)

The three finalists are Kevin Pham of La Quinta High School (Westminster resident), and Minhngoc Nguyen and Quynh Nguyen of Garden Grove High School (Garden Grove residents), are semifinalists in the prestigious National Merit Scholarship program.

Being a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship is actually just based on PSAT scores. Further consideration includes school records, SAT scores, and an essay. About 90% of semifinalists advance to the finalist rank, and about half win the scholarship.

The Garden Grove USD covers most of Garden Grove and portions of six surrounding cities – Anaheim, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, Stanton, and Westminster. The entirety of what is commonly considered the “Vietnamese area,” including the commercial area known as Little Saigon, falls within the GGUSD.