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Um, today is February 16th, 2019. My name is Chelsey Wen and I'm here with Kelly Dong, and we are interviewing Anhlan Nguyen. So, first question: where were you born, and can you tell us a little bit

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about your family? I was born in Hué, which is um in the central region of Vietnam, Vietnam has three regions, the North, the middle, and the South, and Hué is uh in the central region, and I was born from a royal family,

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so my—actually my grandpa uh was the Mandarin under Nguyen dynasty and my great grandpa uh was the prince. So, in the old days they could call me Princess Anhlan and uh so but basically my,

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my grandfather had uh 35 kids, 35 children, 7 wives, and 2 concubines. And my real grandmother is the third wife.

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So, as you can imagine, having a big family of 35 kids, my father was not m—the favorite one because he's the son of the third wife, and he, he was the only one who graduated from college and actually when—go through college on his

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own, became a civil engineer and my dad uh has been always a role model for me for hard work, perseverance, and determination for your future, and you are the one who determines for your future.

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My mother is a mathematics uh teacher, so she has been a teacher all her life uh until uh she re—um until we left Vietnam, and uh she—she's a mathematics teacher.

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And I grew up in uh, in Hué until I c—I was uh six years old then the war was broken in uh in Hué. It's really uh significant experience for me for uh first time as a kid uh witness the war in which a lot

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of people was buried alive. It's uh it's a which is um the sp—the spring of 1968, and then after that our whole family was uh moving to uh Saigon

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and uh lived there until 1975, and after that, as you know, the South lost to the North, Vietnam was reunited under the Communist government and um and then my, my dad uh escaped after nine attempts.

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It's really tough and then after that he sponsored all our family to Canada, to start a new life. So, I arrived in Canada 1984, and um uh signed up, worked full-time, uh studied full-time, and graduated

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from the University of Toronto as a computer science grad—graduate and uh got my masters there too, started my career as a professional uh with IBM, and in 1994 I moved to um United States. I got married. I followed my heart.

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And guess what, now I am uh um American citizen in 2000 and uh I can never be so uh so much proud of becoming a citizen of such uh a country with freedom and uh with all the rights and the freedom

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that I was not given when I was back uh in the old days. Um, so can you tell us about what kind of neighborhood or community you grew up in? So, that would be in Vietnam.

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Uh, in Vietnam I was uh grow—uh growing up uh, when I was very little, which was in Hué. But most of my, my childhood was in Saigon, and um my dad was a civil engineer, so he built our house himself.

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He designed the house so that uh it has four stories and the stories were rented out to po—to buy some income and we all lived in the first two stories. And it was uh very nice neighborhood um I actually

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um uh make a lot of friends around, and we played games and it's a very peaceful childhood for me. Um, I still remember in

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2013, I came back the first time, after 19 uh 84 since I left Vietnam. I came back uh as part of the—the delegation um representing President

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Barack Obama, so it was a very high position when I was there. And the first thing I did when I arrived in Saigon would be took—taking a taxi, go to the house where I grew up.

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It rained a little bit. I stood up in front of that house, no longer being the house that I grew up with, but it brought up so much memory. I cried. And it's uh really phenomenal to see

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how much in life that I have went through, since those days. Mm-hmm. Um, how many siblings did you have? I have two brothers and two sisters. Mm-hmm. And most of them live in Toronto,

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Canada, but I have my oldest sister who live in Arizona. Mm-hmm. Um, how do you—how did your parents raise you and what expectations did they have? My parents are typical Vietnamese parents, always

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teach—uh I learned a lot about my—my dad about his optimism. The thing that I'm uh—and unfortunately both of them passed away in 2017. So, I treasured the most the gifts from my

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pare—parents, especially from my dad. His relentless optimism, in any case, any situation, he would find something good about the situation to be happy about,

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so I miss his laughter. He taught us to look at life lightly, like don't, you know, don't take it so serious, so you always have to find different perspective of the bad things happening to you so that

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you can find good reason why it happened. And secondly, he would not take no as an answer. He could go all the way, find all possibilities so that you can solve the problem that you're facing,

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and uh my mom gave me a lot of uh disciplines and I remember when I was very young, little kid, she would force all of us to go at in, you know, study time, and regardless of, you know, how much fun you had out there,

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you've got to finish your homework, and I remember the crying, crying, you know, trying to do all the math, but because she built that habit and it became a—a discipline habit that all

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of us—we would do homework, we would do what we're supposed to do before we go out and have fun. And, and it it built us uh a valuable habit, and something that I learned from my mom that I don't want to have in

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me that is worrying. So, I got that from my mom—like she would worry about everything and that really, you know, really hit her mental, and that's one of the cause that she got Alzheimer's and uh dementia at the

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end of her life. Um, I would te—tell myself, 'I never want to be in that place,' so I taught myself that in order to get rid of worry um, you know, I just have to learn how to control my mind, how to learn

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how to focus on the positive thinking and that's led me to become a professional life coach. So, it's uh, it's amazing how much your parents can teach you. It's such amazing.

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And I'm—I—I owing them every single achievement that I got, it's because the way they raised me. Mm-hmm. Do you feel like you've carried on your father's attitude, his optimism? Mm-hmm a lot.

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In my darkest day, which is the day that my mom died, and the day that my dad died. Um, my mom um, you know, at uh—at the end of her life it's pretty uh sad because

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she was uh in the nursing home for two years, so it was a blessing that she left us, and when she uh she passed away, very peaceful, and she was holding my—my father's hand. My father was at 88 years old,

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and he drove everyday, like 20 minutes one way, stayed with her for whole day, eat dinner with her, then drove back home and he did that every single day for the last two years of my mom's life.

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And, and I saw the unconditional love, he taught us so much in those two years, just by his actions, and he never complained. I always see him laughing or, or smiling

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and—and I look at him I don't know how he could draw the energy, you know, at 88 year old, he's supposed to relax and sleep and—and—no, he always be there for my mom, and my mom passed when she was holding hand with my dad.

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So, that is the blessing, but none of us there, because we all children, you know, we um we just received the news afterward. But seeing my mom pass, and how my dad um

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took it, he was very optimistic, but the only thing that he couldn't face was the loss of his wife. So, he went downhill and I was there. Um, I still remember I took

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the urn of my mom uh remain to the cemetery with him. So, and—and both of us take a smiling picture, you know, so it's—it's—it's something that you still can be happy about because my mom is in a better

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place, she no longer suffer, right? Um, but then when my dad passed, that was really tough because he's very healthy. At 88 he's still driving, you know, and in the morning he's still

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driving, but I think he didn't want to live anymore, and because he, he no longer want to live, he want to be with his wife. Us children we cannot do anything so I—I sort of fly back and forth craz—like crazy, I was

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living here, right so I just go to Canada back and forth just like every other week, and I witnessed the last moments with my dad, had his last breath, and it touched me deeply. The last four sentence that he told us

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taught me the whole lesson about life. He said, 'I love you. I thank you.' So, he actually thanked all of us children being there for him, so 'I love you.

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I thank you. I am happy,' and he tried to smile even in the very tough conditions because at the time, his um—your—his body no longer functioned, so the doctor told us he's leaving, he—he could pass within the next few hours.

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So, we knew, but he still tried to smile. 'I'm happy,' and then finally, 'goodbye all of my children.' And with that four sentences, I will forever remember the lesson from my dad, which is from his heart.

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Live happily, right? Be thankful, so he thanked you, and he lo—just giving love. He loved the children.

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He loved his wife. He just give out love, so that's what he taught us before he left. Um, thank you for telling us that story. Um, could you tell us about some memorable

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experiences from your early childhood? Mm. When I was young, um I was very tomboy, so I always caused t—trouble for my parents because my parents thought that I, you know, this kid is

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just like black sheep in the family because I was, I—I was 3, I always gung-ho and played games with the—with the, the the, you know, all the boys. I—I didn't play with the girls, and all the heavy stuff, you know

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so, so there was a time, it was so funny I um, I was, you know, a trouble, you know, you know, trouble making kid in the class, so much that, that the sister—so it's uh uh like a Catholic

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school, so the—the Catholic nun was the teacher, so she basically couldn't stand my behavior so she put me under her seat, and and, you know, that's a big table, so she put me, you know, right here because the—the

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table has a cover, so nobody see me, so it, it's dark. I only see her shoes, right. And I ended up fiddling with her shoes, and caused so much

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problems that she, 'ok, you go back to your seat.' But I still remember, I was not fearful of anything, so nobody can make me fearful of anything, I would do anything, I would try anything, but I

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lost that when I grew up. I don't know when. I—it maybe when you're taught to be behave yourself, you're taught to be compliant, you're taught to be follow the rules or something. I became very obedient,

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but when I—when I was very young, like 3 or 4 years old, man I would try everything, I'm a risk taker. And I caused problems for my—my parents because I would not um I would not care what the teacher say, I just do whatever I wanted, you know, but I lost that when I grew up.

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I grew up I became very compliant, uh small talking, like s—soft talking and things like that, so it's—it's interesting. Yeah. Um, so I know you already said your family

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to Saigon because of the war. Um, how else do you think the war impacted your childhood? Very immensely.

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I just remember different memories—because I was only like 5, 6 years old back then. But in 1968 if you learned the history you know that the the Viet-Cong, they came to Hué and they have a big massacre,

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which is they killed thousand of people. And how do you, how can you kill thousand of people, uh least expensively, okay because they—they try to save uh to save the um you know the—the gun with um with all

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the, how do you call them, to say the, basically the all the arms are, you know, the guns. So, instead of killing people with a gun, they would put people alive.

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They would put all the people in a big, uh um you know—a big grave. Each of them could be uh digging their own grave. So, they were put in the grave.

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So, each of the people who will be executed, they're supposed to dig their own grave. And then they, they had everything up to this, uh and they used some kind of um—oh it's horrible, and they just,

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you know, just um... bang it on the head until the people die. It's horrible. And I was not witness, as a child of course nobody let me see those uh we only, I remember

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my, my uh mother, my father, they all crying and they w—they they have some relatives, friends, that was in that bunch of people that was executed and there was a large uh effort, like after the Viet-Cong

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receded and then, you know, people can come and try to find out who were killed, who were not killed. I just remember the energy was so sad. It was so tremendous and it was so,

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as a child, I—I couldn't imagine how a person can die that way, you know, but luckily I had only one uncle that was, that was dead, that was executed the—the others survive, but you

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can imagine all the families affected by these death, and the death is very terrible. Um, it caused me a sad, a big sadness that I couldn't explain.

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I was only a child, I don't even can articulate my pain, but the—the collective pain that I observed by being with my parents and all the relatives and going around and there's a large uh boy scout group that actually

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going around and helping people to find, and—and they all trying to be helpful. Um, that's the only thing that I feel good about because these are young people that helping, you know, it—it's just like a disaster

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happened, but this is a disaster caused by human being, it's not by the natural disaster. So, somebody actually killed thousand of people. And killed in a—such a really violent way um I

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was a child but I still remember until this day. I—what I can tell you is that it—it—it didn't shape my life until my escape that I can share with you that how it shaped my life because back then I was like 5, 6 years old,

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but a 5—6 year old can remember. I only remember the energy. I never want to be there. I never want to be in that place that is so cold, so deep.

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And, and people can be so cruel to people, and it just so sad. The sadness is—is unimaginable, and that caused me some nightmare, but uh when I came to Saigon I was a kid, so I adapted, so but now US though,

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it all came back. Mm-hmm. Um so, can you tell us about your family and living situation and how the new Vietnamese government affected it at the time? So, after 1975, uh my dad came to re-education

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camp because he was a civil servant. He's not in the army he's um he's an officer. So he, he's a s—some kind of hand r—high ranking in the government so if you are at a certain level you've got to go to re-education camp.

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So, my dad came there for about seven months, and um and he didn't like it. Uh, my mother was a teacher so she continued to teach and all of us go to the same school that she t—that she taught.

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Um, so after my dad came back from the education camp, he has only one thing, one goal only: get the whole family out of there. Any price, he would, he

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would deal with anything, any means that he has, but we've got to get out. So, basically um we tried uh one escape with the whole family, and it was a disaster because uh, you know, we paid the money but the boat never came,

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sort of that uh story. So, my dad and my oldest sister escaped, so they didn't—they were not put in jail. Uh, I was put in jail uh

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separately because—because all of us scattered according to, you know, when the—the trip was planned, and—and then my mother and, and, and my siblings, back then—my younger brothers—my youngest

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brother was only like 9 years old, he was very young. And my youngest sister—younger sister is about um I think 14, and my younger brother is the13. So, they all were c—you know in the prison, different

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prison. So, it—it was, so I didn't know what happened to my family, so w—we didn't know. So, at that time, um uh, it's it’s all scattered and then some miracle happened that finally we all get

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back together, and, you know, and my dad uh tried to escape about 7 times, 9 times, so he succeeded after the 9th or 10th, so use up all the money. We got back, you know, after that escape not successful, we

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decided—he decided we're not going to escape together, there's no way. We cannot afford the money, right, to escape everybody, and secondly, the danger and everything, my dad said let him handle it, you

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guys just stay home and go to school. So, we came back to school, and I actually got um I—I really love to study I um uh I was an A student, I really want to become a—an

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engineer back then. Uh, so when I applied into the university um because of the track record that, you know, our family escaped once. They ranked me as um uh, they ranked me as the—the

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bottom of—of the scale to be considered to be admitted to the university. So, you are admitted to the university not based on your merit, it—your merit is only some scale, but the main thing you've got to belong to the one two three four

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five, up to fifteen, and I was ranked at the fifteen, because—because my family escaped, so guess what I—I didn't get into the university the first year.

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So, it's all of that, but um so that's why my mom tried to send me to escape. So, we tried—I tried twice, I was put in jail another time, but finally we used up all the

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money and my dad ended up sponsoring our family from Canada, and finally in 1984 uh our whole family reunited in Canada. Yeah. So, how was the resettlement process, once you got there?

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Very nice, um actually my dad uh came to uh the the escape that he was successful he came to I think uh Malaysia and from Malaysia he was—so he was accepted to Canada first, not US, so that's why

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he came to Cana—and he's, he speak French very well. So, that's why he—he chose Canada and he chose Montreal, because Montreal they speak French as the main language. And, and

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his—he, he got a drafting engineer, he was working um to get back his P. E., professional engineering degree in Montreal, and can't you believe he did—he did two jobs.

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During the day, he did the drafting engineer, during the night he could do the worst job that nobody wanted to do but it—it has money so that he can send back to the uh family. He—he did uh worm picking.

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Have you heard about that? You pick the worm. So, the worm is inside the, you know there is an area of all the worms right, so you have to basically goes out and pick the worms from the so it's a very tough job.

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But you know if you—if you pick a certain amount of worms uh you—you get paid pretty well. So, he would do that for us. How could I repay him, you know, for that kind of work?

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He taught me so much with that. During the day he was the drafting engineer and at night he would do the dirtiest job just because he love his family so much.

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So, um when I learned about all of this it just blowed my mind, and when I arrive in America, I told myself, there is nothing that I cannot do, if my dad has sacrificed that much to really bring

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us into America there is no other thing that I cannot do to deserve his sacrifice. Mm-hmm. You make me remember him, sorry. Oh, no. I got emotional.

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You can say as much or as little as you want. Mm-hmm. Um, so what impact do you think your experience leaving Vietnam has had on your outlook on life?

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I um, I want to share with you a story, one of the escapes that fail, ok. Uh, because we—our family tried a lot. And the only successful was my dad, right,

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but one of these escapes I was uh going with um my brother, so me and my brother—I was 19, and the boat is 50 meters long, only 50 meters long, and 300 people is on that boat.

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It's just like layer people after people and uh when the boat uh arrived at the international border, so pr—pretty far um the boat start sinking, so they had some holes.

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So, the captain said if we continue we all die, so he made the decision to go back to the shore, and we didn't know—it was like 2 am in the morning, and about 300 meters from the shore, the boat started sinking, and half of the boat died in

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front of me, so I saw all of this and luckily I was able to swim, my brother the same, so we swam and we arrived to the, nowhere, we don't know where it was, uh it's like a—3 am in the morning, but I

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was quick enough to follow someone that I thought that could help and we ended up staying in a house that they help us to get back to Saigon, so we were lucky. We were the lucky ones, but that night, um

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I saw, I witnessed the death of the people who sacrificed everything for freedom. And I realize how lucky I am, how lucky I was um to survive that, that

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trip, and then finally arrive in America by airplane, and when I arrive here I see all the people here, all, you know, all the freedom, you're free to do—pursue your happiness if you have a—a—a will and you

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want to do something, you can achieve anything, and I felt that I need to volunteer, I need to serve because the, the freedom that I am given is just priceless, and so to me, um—so even I work full time, at

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the time when I arrived in Canada I work full time because to help my dad, right it's the whole family and I was the second oldest girl um and then I studied full time. I had a little problem of getting my TOEFL score because of my listening.

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My writing is very good, my listening is pretty bad. Uh, but I—I felt that I could do anything, and that what shaped me to become who I am today. Whenever I was handed

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to me some problems, some life challenge, or life obstacle, I'm telling myself I'm lucky, the luckiest girl in the world. I got all the privilege to stay alive, and matter, and that's all matter, I'm still alive!

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I have to live for those people who died on the high sea, never see the freedom. I have to live for the people before me, who died in the jungle never know their, their future, their families. So, I have to live for those

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people, and I had no right to become disappointed or to become hopeless or to become uh depress because I am so lucky. I am so blessed, so it shaped my thinking, it shaped my practicing

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gratitude and I think it's become one of the main resources for me whenever I faced with obstacle. Mm-hmm. Um, could you tell us about your college experience in Canada?

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How was that different than studying in Vietnam? Um, Canada is a beautiful country with a multicultural uh philosophy so I had a—a fun time in college, even, you know, it was a little bit tough.

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Initially I—I wanted to double major so I planned to do like political science double major with computer science which is like two completely different things. Then, then I realized—and, and my first year I was lucky, I got

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straight A plus, so I—I did really well. But then I realized um, a—and because I also work at the same time, so I worked part time, studying full time uh and and I—and I volunteer a lot too.

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So, I—I—I realized to myself, something got to give, so basically I only uh I picked computer science but I had a very active uh college life with my uh Vietnamese student society, so I'm

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involved—I built that uh, do a lot of cultural dances, practices and just having a good time and then I hang out with uh other students uh in the computer science student union uh so I did a lot of volunteering in the

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campus and uh helping younger student to come on board how to adjust to the college life and um I also uh served in the scout. I'm a crazy person I do everything that I could in terms of serving

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because I believe that I—I am so much blessed. I've got to pay back the blessing that I've received by—by become a good citizen, so I was also involve in uh Girl Guides of Canada, which is like a girl scout in—in Canada

00:31:23.160 - 00:31:38.760

and uh I was a guider in charge of uh a brownie pack, brownie is the age from uh 6 to 9, very young uh little kids. I enjoyed that immensely, so that my second family, which is uh 50 girls. They're all grown up

00:31:39.070 - 00:31:53.570

right now but uh I still remember those days were so much fun. I never had a dull day. Always busy and helping other people and then there was one year uh that there was forced repatriation for the

00:31:53.720 - 00:32:08.430

refugees at the all the Southeast Asian cam—uh camps uh and, and I don't think I slept those days. Like I volunteered during the night, I really worked with the—they're called Operation Lifeline which is um uh

00:32:08.860 - 00:32:21.760

an initiative by a York professor, York University, which is another university. They have a refugee re— uh resettlement project, and um I would volunteer there and we tried to get more sponsorship from the

00:32:21.810 - 00:32:35.730

Canadian family to bring in these families from the refugee camp, and that's the one time that I was planning to take off one semester just to go to the Southeast Asia to help and my—my

00:32:36.050 - 00:32:50.610

f—my parents would scold 'No you don't want to stop studying! You've got to study.' So I stopped my crazy idea, but um so my college life was beautiful, full of color um after I graduate from college um

00:32:51.580 - 00:33:01.800

I still continued to be involve with scout, um but then I also founded a youth center. And I saw the need and I said, hey, there is no environment like that.

00:33:02.020 - 00:33:10.850

Why not I created it? So that I'm that type of person. You don't have then uh—what you want, you create it! So I created a youth—it's called Vietnamese

00:33:10.850 - 00:33:26.050

Youth Center of Toronto, and it started from uh 3 members to 200 members, and we have a budget of— 65,000 dollars uh do lots of youth related stuff and mostly uh just have an environ—provide an

00:33:26.140 - 00:33:46.710

environment, healthy environment for the youth to be hang out and have fun. So, what were some things that you enjoyed about Canada, and did you miss anything about Vietnam? Um, for Canada, I enjoyed the most is the people, the friendliness and um,

00:33:48.180 - 00:34:05.170

um I felt really belonging the first day I was there, so people very welcoming um they really promote the multiculturalism, so I don't feel that I was different uh when I was there um

00:34:06.430 - 00:34:18.220

everybody was super friendly so that's what I liked the most. Um, what I miss in Vietnam was um I guess the weather, uh the people. The weather is very

00:34:18.560 - 00:34:38.140

warm uh Canada was very cold, so that's what I missed and um I don't know it just, it just, I spent a—a chunk of my life in Vietnam and I loved the country, I loved the people there, so I basically missed a lot

00:34:38.380 - 00:34:51.150

of friends, right. But life moves on, like, you know, I became Canadian. I love Canadian. I still love Vietnam but now I love Canadians also, and then I moved to United States now I

00:34:51.150 - 00:35:05.710

love United States, so you know it does not limit me uh from loving Vietnam so I can love all the three countries the same. Mm-hmm. Was there a—a strong Vietnamese community in Canada where you

00:35:06.320 - 00:35:21.320

were? Yes, yes, I actually created it, part of the uh especially through the youth because like, like the older—there's a uh, uh an association called Vietnamese Association of Toronto. So, they have—they

00:35:21.320 - 00:35:36.910

were founded even before 1975, so it's—they're always, it's just like an agency providing services so I volunteered a lot with the VAT. But then I found that the youth have unique demands because they born here, or they came here very young, so they are

00:35:36.910 - 00:35:50.750

speaking Vietnamese not that good and they assimilate to the Canadian culture but they still have a longing, to understand more about their own culture. They have a longing of understanding their

00:35:50.870 - 00:36:03.980

roots and also at the same time still want to integrate to the new society so it's a ch—a unique challenge so I founded the youth center because of that, and I found it's very rewarding.

00:36:05.390 - 00:36:17.020

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, did you ever have any problems getting used to the culture in Canada? Problems related what? Getting used to a different culture in Canada.

00:36:19.440 - 00:36:38.640

Mm, this only happened for the first couple of years um like in Canada uh I think they're very liberal, so um, you know, in Vietnamese culture you don't have

00:36:40.890 - 00:36:53.970

um living with—together before marriage, so for a girl if you want to live in with someone, the only way of getting out of the family will be get married to that guy, and then you live in, right.

00:36:54.470 - 00:37:07.860

Um, what I found shocking, and again I was—I was, back then I was raised that way so when I came I was shocking to see that people are very liberal, you know, they move in, they move out.

00:37:09.350 - 00:37:24.830

They have sex, they—you know, that is a normal thing, but to me it's not normal so I was kind of um uneasy seeing that. Now, I change. Um, living here for long enough I uh adapted to the culture

00:37:24.950 - 00:37:40.640

and to me it's just a different perspective, and—and I accepted it better, but in—in the old days when I first came here it’s always kinda bothering me, yeah. Mm-hmm. Did you keep in touch with your family and friends in Vietnam?

00:37:41.670 - 00:37:56.500

Yeah, yeah most of the time, and uh and some friends told me, 'Anhlan uh you live in uh the country and I think that after twenty year you probably would forgot about Vietnamese language and you know

00:37:56.540 - 00:38:11.990

you will become Canadian.' Back then they didn't know that I moved to United States, right. Uh, and things like that, but I told them, no I don't think so, and it proved that to be right because um there was never a day that I did not um,

00:38:14.460 - 00:38:28.700

I did not realize that, you know, I have the blood of Vietnamese in my blood. I cannot deny it, regardless of how white like I can, you know, make my skin so white, I can dye my hair to be yellow, you know all of that.

00:38:29.420 - 00:38:41.390

But inside, the blood inside of me is from my mom and my dad. It has the blood of Vietnamese. There is nothing shameful about that. It is the pride, and and and having that blood

00:38:42.350 - 00:38:57.690

is a privilege because it taught me so much on the values. How to be strong, how to be resilient. That's what I want to pass onto future generations of Vietnamese Americans or Vietnamese Canadians.

00:38:57.720 - 00:39:11.690

You have to know about your roots, and there's nothing shameful about it. You should be proud of it. Do you think that Canadians at the time were aware of the war in Vietnam and how

00:39:11.760 - 00:39:25.350

do you think they felt about it? I don't think they know a lot. They only know some—through some movies and stuff and their knowledge about the war is very limited, so I don't blame them if there are

00:39:25.350 - 00:39:41.670

some conclusion or some remarks about uh the war, but it's understandable. They, just far away country and back then, it’s still a new country. Canada is new, so I—I don't really pay

00:39:41.830 - 00:39:59.610

attention much uh, mm-hmm. Mm so, why did you choose to study computer science over political science? Well, uh it's—it's a good question and I think um, opened another can of worm .

00:40:01.040 - 00:40:14.700

Basically I was raised risk averse, so anything, you know, when you make and this—this happened a lot and now I become an advocate for all the students who are choosing their career because when you

00:40:14.700 - 00:40:29.500

make a decision on what kind of career you—you would follow, normally you would say, ok what is the safest way to achieve that? You never ask, ok what—what really alive in me, what really, you know, that make me thrive.

00:40:30.340 - 00:40:43.940

It's just like, ok what is the safest way, the least uh risky way that I can have a job and I can pay some money, you know pay rents and get some good income.

00:40:44.910 - 00:40:59.940

And it's not like—nothing's wrong about that but it is the dominant factor when you choose a career back then. And, and for as the first—you know the first generation coming to America, and my dad had to work two

00:41:00.230 - 00:41:15.700

w—two jobs, right, to support my family and my mom, at the age of 52 uh she came back to school and—so that she could get a job to support us. It's all haunted me about, I'm going to have enough

00:41:15.860 - 00:41:29.110

money to pay, you know, for the stuff. So, the driver at the p—at the time was not which one I would love the most or which I—one I would be the best that used my best gift, right.

00:41:29.520 - 00:41:42.330

So, I chose computer science because it's the safest, with first I am always very good in mathematics. I get grades easily. Secondly, it's a safe job, quote, en quote because

00:41:42.820 - 00:41:58.440

back then uh computer science um is a very high—in high demand. So, there—there's the job security there. So, I—I will c—I will uh make sure that I got the job when I graduated because I need that to um to

00:41:58.440 - 00:42:12.790

help my parents. So, all of that driver make me choose computer science um... it was a g—a good choice. Now I can still say it was a good choice because I had a very uh good

00:42:12.950 - 00:42:28.320

career in IT, information technology and um I worked—I got scholarship. I got scholarship right in my second, third year, internship led me to, you know, even get the job before I graduated.

00:42:28.320 - 00:42:41.050

I already get two offers that I can choose: Bell Canada and IBM. So, I started my career with IBM Canada and then moved to the states, continue working on—and I got a computer science master as well

00:42:41.150 - 00:42:56.500

in univ—uh University of Toronto, so I—I didn't say anything that bad because it turned out worth. But I only change my career two years ago, and I was living the time of my life, and I

00:42:56.500 - 00:43:13.360

realized one thing, that um, nobody told me that sometimes you've got to do, what you've got to do as fast as you can so that you can do what you love to do, as long as you can. So, that certain time in your life,

00:43:13.970 - 00:43:28.050

that you probably would have to do what you have to do, which is like the safest way to get a job or to uh you know have a career and things like that because there's certain expectation about, you know, you have to establish the family.

00:43:28.130 - 00:43:37.290

You have to provide for your family. You have to make sure you—you have enough income and things like that. So, that part is still a needed portion but somehow

00:43:38.170 - 00:43:47.760

you have to figure out. You have to have a life plan. And if you can focus so much on getting get this done as fast as you can

00:43:47.780 - 00:44:07.120

have—accumulucate—accumulate uh wealth or whatever so that you can be f—uh financially independent, then you can start doing what I'm doing now, faster, because whi—well guess what now I'm, you know, older than 55 now I just change up at my age of 55!

00:44:07.800 - 00:44:23.600

You see, and I never lived such a happy life in the past two years, and I realized now coming back, if I could have started this earlier, maybe the

00:44:23.660 - 00:44:37.060

gift that I'm doing now, I would have impact so many more people because it's the gift from God. It's something that—that inside of each of us. Nobody look like anybody else.

00:44:37.100 - 00:44:48.710

Each of us has different gift. If you can use that gift, and utilize that gift and make it your job um you become invincible. And that is

00:44:48.710 - 00:45:09.000

something I only experienced recently and I realized, hm, the choice that I make is not bad, but if I had a change in those early days, life would probably be tremendously different in a very

00:45:09.020 - 00:45:23.420

positive way. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, outside of your community service during college, did you have other hobbies? I loved singing. I love singing.

00:45:23.540 - 00:45:33.600

I love painting. But all became luxury when I go to work because, you know, like the demanding job of IT. I've got to keep up with the technologies.

00:45:33.650 - 00:45:48.550

I, I—I love learning so it's al—I'm always learning something new. To me, growth is one of my major driver for uh a job. Like I cannot st—sit on a job that doing the same thing again and again. I need to continue to

00:45:48.550 - 00:46:01.500

grow, continue to learn new stuff, and that's why I'm g—I was good at IT because you—technology change all the time, right? Um, so about hobby, I uh I love reading.

00:46:02.130 - 00:46:11.510

I love um volunteering, volunteering is a big part of my life. Actually, volunteering actually bigger than my full time job. So, there was a time

00:46:12.050 - 00:46:26.520

that I was working 50 hours, that was my paid job, okay 50 hours per week. I served on VCSA so at— there was a time that I—I volunteered like 40 hours per week, so nearly another full time job. But then

00:46:26.520 - 00:46:40.610

when I served on the board, then I was um came back to school, and there was a time that I was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the national foundation, and I had to go to uh DC every quarter

00:46:41.210 - 00:46:55.480

and of course, uh talking to people in Vietnam, you know like during the night, it would be the day over there. So, basically I slept very little for those years. I—my workload was like uh 80 hours per

00:46:55.480 - 00:47:11.950

week um so uh I felt that um it's um, it's in my blood, that—that I love volunteer work. I don't know whether it's a hobby. If you can say that it's a hobby then it's a hobby, yeah.

00:47:12.170 - 00:47:24.720

And painting, writing, uh talking, especially mentoring, I love mentoring younger peoples, and that led to the path that I'm doing right now uh for a living.

00:47:25.240 - 00:47:37.950

I'm a professional life coach. I never feel so much satisfaction doing that job, I just love it. Um, how did you meet your husband?

00:47:38.980 - 00:47:52.040

Uh, we met at a youth uh conference, where else? Both of us are very active in the community and, and it's a long distance relationship and uh we only met 6 times before we got married.

00:47:53.180 - 00:48:06.410

Yeah, but we uh he wrote me 275 letters, I then—numbered it uh it's, it's very special. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, did you have any children?

00:48:07.030 - 00:48:20.990

We don't. and that's—that's another, now people can—can be dreadful about that, right. People can be so sad about that, but I chose a different path. I s—I look at it as god wanted us to be

00:48:20.990 - 00:48:36.480

committed to the cause that we serve, and my husband is the founder of the Institute for Civic Education in Vietnam, and we started with a dream, back in 199—uh 2005 uh he was teaching at University of

00:48:36.510 - 00:48:50.750

Houston and teaching at Michael DeBakey High School for Health Professions and I told him, 'if you love education you want to do something, do it, because don't wait until you retire. You'll be so old. You don't have enough energy.' So, he quit.

00:48:51.510 - 00:49:05.860

And um we start with a dream, that there would be some students in Vietnam. We launched, uh it took him two years to develop the curriculum, and guess what, 12 years later we reached out, like our website

00:49:06.410 - 00:49:23.890

was visited by millions, 2.5 million hits per year, a hundred thousand of uh registered, and more than 3000 students from around the world, and 40 countries. It's just amazing to see how far you could go when you—when you

00:49:23.890 - 00:49:39.910

have a good intention to serve people. And so in 2007 I make a major decision in my life to stop working in corporate and—and, you know, helping him to support him in the ICVN, and working full time then, and of course

00:49:40.160 - 00:49:54.120

working in non-profit, you don't have money, then uh what I did was uh we started um a social enterprise that provide fee based training and coaching services, so that we can make a living, and I enjoyed it so much.

00:49:57.110 - 00:50:11.490

So, what made you decide to come to Houston? My husband! My husband lives here, right. So uh, it's simple, you follow your heart, and and at the time it was—it was tough because

00:50:11.800 - 00:50:26.140

I never left uh lived far away from from my family. I got uh um I got a scholarship from Berkeley when I was uh finishing my uh undergrad degree but my dad told me 'If you want to study study here in U of T,

00:50:26.140 - 00:50:45.350

you know, don't go far. Girls not supposed to go far from family un—until they—she got married.' So, you know, being a b—obedient daughter, I just—to me, it's okay, but uh but so when I met my husband and I f—I realized that, you know, um we're meant for each

00:50:45.350 - 00:50:58.230

other uh I joined Houston because he's lived here, that simple. Um, can you talk about some of the similarities and differences between living in Vietnam, Canada,

00:50:58.230 - 00:51:15.000

and the United States, in Houston? Um, living in Vietnam it was so far away for me, so I would say living in Canada and living in the U. S. Now, I came back, when I served on the Vietnam education foundation that is when I had the chance

00:51:15.270 - 00:51:32.280

to go back to Vietnam, and it's a different Vietnam that I knew, so I would reserve the comment about living in Vietnam because I did not have enough experience for Vietnam nowadays. What I can tell is that there's a large population of young

00:51:32.450 - 00:51:48.940

people eager to learn and that's why my heart is where it is. I want to serve them, and that's one of the major reasons why I—I quit my job without hesitation because I want to focus on um developing some programs to serve uh the

00:51:48.990 - 00:52:03.100

younger generation in Vietnam so that they can become the best version they can be. And um and from that hopefully the society will be better and and it could create some necessary social changes to to

00:52:03.100 - 00:52:16.370

change the country to the right direction. Um, compare Canadian and the U. S. is uh is more uh doable job. Uh, living in Canada is um steady and

00:52:17.560 - 00:52:28.190

people are less competitive. Um, very friendly. Now, in Houston it's very friendly too, but it's changing because of the diversity

00:52:28.670 - 00:52:39.670

like our city become one of the top diverse city in the U. S. It was not when I first came here but now it became s—so you know so it's dynamic, it's keep changing.

00:52:40.430 - 00:52:50.120

Uh, I—I—I think the lifestyle in Houston or in America overall is much faster than in Canada. In Canada people are more laid back.

00:52:51.490 - 00:53:05.000

Um, they—they tend to enjoy life more, and they tend to be less competitive, and to Canada, multicultural is something that built in. Everybody respect everybody else.

00:53:05.070 - 00:53:19.240

So, I don't—I don't see people have to fight for it, but here in c—uh in U. S, sometimes we have to fight for it. Um, it's—it's making better, it's making progress, but uh overall, I

00:53:19.320 - 00:53:30.700

think in the U. S. I think um, but U. S. has much more opportunity, it's—it's truly the American dream, land of opportunity because if you have some dream and you have the

00:53:30.950 - 00:53:40.650

determination, U. S. would give you all the tools that you needed for you to be successful. Canada might not.

00:53:41.570 - 00:53:59.340

And so to me, if you young, and you ambitious uh you believe in yourself and you have certain skills or certain gift um and do not afraid to take risks, uh then the chance to be successful would be much

00:53:59.400 - 00:54:20.780

more in U. S. than in Canada. Mm-hmm. So, you are at the right country Um, how do you think the Asian communities in Toronto and Houston are different or similar? I think Asian is Asian, you know, regardless whether you're from Canada or uh

00:54:21.450 - 00:54:36.300

U. S. uh we all have traditions, cultures, uh some good things, the good values that keep us strong uh but there's some not so good uh values or customs that we

00:54:36.410 - 00:54:55.060

need to adapt uh so it's a balancing act and to me, it doesn't really matter you Asian-American or you Asian-Canadian it's the same, it's the same issues that you face uh more or less. So, in 1998, I founded uh Youth Leadership

00:54:55.610 - 00:55:08.890

Development Camp for Vietnamese Americans and Vietnamese uh Canadian. Now I was from Canada that's why I brought in the Canadian campers. Initially it was founded in Dallas and uh and the following

00:55:08.890 - 00:55:24.750

year it expanded to Oklahoma and before you know it it's nationwide, and it has been going on for the last 21 years. We train 5000 leaders so it's across the United States. It became a kind of a flashy program of the non-profit that I

00:55:24.750 - 00:55:36.830

serve uh for a long time, so Vietnamese culture and science association, and um and based on that, I—I see Asian Americans or Asian Canadians they, they're the same.

00:55:36.930 - 00:55:49.100

They share the same challenge. Uh they, they have the same dreams, so it's not that much of different. Mm-hmm. How do you think the Vietnamese or Vietnamese-American

00:55:50.150 - 00:56:05.160

community in Houston has changed over time? That's a deep question. Maybe deserve a PhD thesis a dissertation or something, and—and it's worth it, it's worth it.

00:56:06.050 - 00:56:19.650

Um, it's um, as you know, culture is—is the changing uh changing thing. Yeah culture is not fixed. It's evolving right uh according to the time. So um, when you

00:56:19.650 - 00:56:36.330

look at the landscape of um Asian Americans or Vietnamese Americans uh throughout the years, you can see that different way—actually I'm working on a book. Hopefully within the two or three years and in

00:56:36.530 - 00:56:51.330

partnership with the—the center so that I can get some story from your uh archive um a book talking about the history of Vietnamese Americans in Houston, starting with the fir—very first Vietnamese

00:56:51.440 - 00:57:11.500

arrived here as a refugee in 1975, and then you have uh a wave of refugees that came in uh by boat, which is like in the 1978—79 until 1990s around that. And then after 1990s you have a wave of uh people who

00:57:11.550 - 00:57:21.980

used to be a political prisoner and they have a HO program, which is like uh that what they public departure or something like that. Like so it's—it's ODP.

00:57:22.230 - 00:57:38.070

Um, I don't know what it stands for, but it's—it's like the—the people who have been uh political prisoners in Vietnam or went through the re-education camp for more—or three months or mo—three years or more, they can—they could

00:57:38.070 - 00:57:53.680

relocate to, immigrated to the United States, so that's a whole wave of another group of Asian Americans, Vietnamese American, put it that way, and then the immigrants, because of all the family and sponsor back there, so that

00:57:55.010 - 00:58:13.840

become you know a—a vast source of uh different group of people have a little bit different um thinkings or different way of looking at life, but again, we share some core values that I think is important to emphasize, and um so

00:58:13.880 - 00:58:26.180

it's enriched the—the—it's just like a tapestry of all of these Vietnamese Americans, different groups come together to paint the picture of the Houston community overall. Yeah.

00:58:28.860 - 00:58:36.350

Okay, Kelly do you have questions? Yeah, do you want to take a break now? Yeah, let's take a break. I need to drink some water.

00:58:38.290 - 00:58:53.060

Ok um, so we're back from our break and now um I am Kelly Dong and I will be asking the rest of the questions. So, um can you tell us about your current job right now and what made you decide to quit

00:58:53.060 - 00:59:09.190

your old job? Ok, so currently I um, I'm currently the director of development, and uh uh uh development and uh marketing for institute for civic education in Vietnam.

00:59:09.850 - 00:59:25.890

This is a non-profit 501C3 non- profit that was established in 2005 when my husband quit his job uh to do this. And in the last, uh the mission of the Institute for Civic Education in Vietnam is focusing on

00:59:26.580 - 00:59:43.720

promoting uh the civic education, civic engagement, uh civic leadership and also helping to build the society from the ground up uh, by providing uh online classes, onsite uh training,

00:59:44.130 - 00:59:58.460

and anything that helped to develop a person. Because in order to become a good citizen, you want to become a good person first, right? So uh, that's the mission of uh Institute for Civic Education in Vietnam.

00:59:59.240 - 01:00:10.530

And now, because I started working full time for this organization I want to bring civic engagement, civic education to Houston. To United States. Because guess what?

01:00:10.800 - 01:00:26.450

We need that too. So, I have been involved with the Houston in Actions Coalition uh between different community of colors and community overall, for the whole greater Houston area, uh to work on something like uh how you can increase the

01:00:26.490 - 01:00:40.370

voting registration and voting uh power for the Asian-Americans communities. Uh, how can you uh get more information, how can you build a hub of information so people can be more effective engage in

01:00:40.470 - 01:00:53.520

understanding what are the issues so you can, you know, just like a—a vibrant community. Now, I love Houston because Houston is, is a community that is very vibrant and very diverse, um and I enjoy

01:00:54.640 - 01:01:08.270

uh working with all different community uh through this work. Uh, however as was mentioned because it's focused in Vietnam, so we actually have a lot of online classes that geared to student in Vietnam.

01:01:08.800 - 01:01:23.400

Uh, we develop the class in Vietnamese so that they, the Vietnamese students, can learn from it, and uh there's a large department of translation where we translate all the work of Plato, of Aristotle, Jean

01:01:23.400 - 01:01:40.540

Jacques-Rousseau, John Locke, Thomas Paine, um and even a book from Zakaria, you know Fareed Zakaria who is uh uh, still, he—he's not classic, he's he's still modern and he is uh an anchor for CNN.

01:01:41.670 - 01:01:58.060

So um, so that's the main, one of the jobs that I do. Also, I—I started a social enterprise, it's called Lyceum, Lyceum and Professional Development for Success. I strongly believe that each of us as a human being has so

01:01:58.060 - 01:02:15.470

much potential inside, and sometime um people only exercise about 5% or 6% of their human potential. And as a coach of professional for life per- by the way I'm a certified uh international coaching federation certified

01:02:15.830 - 01:02:32.750

life coach, uh that um, my main job is supporting the client to connected with their best self so that they can live the—the life they're meant to live. They can be the best version of themself and they have a

01:02:32.800 - 01:02:47.700

happy um more fulfilled and successful life. So that's uh, that's the passion that I have, and in this lyceum coaching and training services, I use two model.

01:02:48.410 - 01:03:05.820

One is emotional intelligence, it's, you probably heard of the term uh pretty often. Uh there's been so many studies and it became a discipline of emotional intelligence became a discipline in psychology that studying uh

01:03:06.540 - 01:03:18.620

why is it so important, and they have thought that about 90% of top performers in all corporations uh they have high EQ. And EQ is emotional

01:03:18.720 - 01:03:32.850

quotient, which is the measurement for your emotional intelligence versus the IQ which is the measurement of your intellectual, logical intelligence. And people saying that EQ

01:03:32.900 - 01:03:49.640

become one of the key competency to help you to be successful. Not just in, in life- in in in work, but also in life. And, one of the model that I'm building right now is promoting people to develop their emotional

01:03:50.150 - 01:04:05.740

intelligence because emotional intelligence can be developed, so it's not like oh, 'I was born with that and I cannot change'. You can actually deliberately intentionally changing your behavior, uh working with the

01:04:05.780 - 01:04:22.780

coach, or working with a—a mentor to really develop your EQ. And the model I use um is the Bion model, which is talking about uh your self-management, your self awareness, uh it's called self-

01:04:22.780 - 01:04:36.370

perception, uh self-expression is how you communicate to outside world, how you uh you aware of your emotional awareness, and how you can be independent. And then, they talked about interpersonal skill

01:04:36.870 - 01:04:50.550

which is uh how you interact with other people, how you can practice empathy so you can understand other people perspective, and how you can practice social responsibility in your community.

01:04:51.450 - 01:05:01.920

And then, it talked about decision making. N—every single moment in life, you are making choice. And you are the choice you make, agree?

01:05:02.410 - 01:05:13.610

Because basically, you know, from the point that you get up in the morning until the point that you go to sleep, you make constant different choices throughout the day, right? And those

01:05:13.610 - 01:05:29.490

making decisions are one of the key uh competency that we have in the the the EI model that I am using. And the last one, which is a very important one too is stress management. Now, who would not have the

01:05:29.490 - 01:05:43.250

stress living this day in the modern society right? You have so many things that you wanna do, you only have 24 hours a day but you have demand from work, you have, if you have children you have demand

01:05:43.250 - 01:05:57.710

from children, you have spouse, you have demand from spouse, you have demand from your parents and the society and friends and you name it. I mean, it's endless uh pressure and the expectation from

01:05:57.830 - 01:06:12.340

each of the party towards you and your performance, so, how do you manage that? How do you can be, and look at changes, who would not have changes in these days? You deal with thi—one thing, the next

01:06:12.340 - 01:06:28.510

day things change. So, so handle the change is one of the most challenging things that everyone experience right? So, emotional intelligence component of stress management they teach you how to be adaptable. So how can you, you be flexible enough so

01:06:28.510 - 01:06:41.920

that you can adapt to changes uh accordingly and then, also how can you um, control your impulse, it's called impulse control. So, if if it called like

01:06:41.920 - 01:06:58.170

delaying your, uh im—uh immediate gratification for the future, things like that. So, all of that is all in the EQ model that we built, and in order to practice and build EQ, we have another

01:06:58.170 - 01:07:13.820

model is called the 5 value system that I'm really living it! And because when I was living it, I saw it's a tremendously powerful I want to spread this message into the uh, all the world about this.

01:07:13.970 - 01:07:29.570

It's called G.R.A.C.E. Now the grace, when you say grace, it already means so meaningful right, but actually it's the acronym of 5 value. The g is stand for gratitude, the r stand for respect,

01:07:30.510 - 01:07:43.730

the a is stand for accountability, the c stand for courage, and the e is for engagement. And these 5 values if you practice, you become so powerful, that no problems that you cannot solve.

01:07:44.660 - 01:07:59.760

You become happier, because when you practice gratitude, lets look at it, you are grateful of the things that you receive then how can you be not happy, right? And when you grateful it leads to respect, so you respect the other people, you

01:07:59.820 - 01:08:13.240

respect yourself first, you respect other, and you respect the environment. And we need it so much in in in these days when people need immediate attention, people just become so impatient and

01:08:13.740 - 01:08:23.450

they want it now, and you know that kind of mentality, respect is something that we missing. So we wanna, and—and practice respect also active listening.

01:08:24.360 - 01:08:39.620

How many of you have encountered the case where people just keep talking and when you talk and when you listen you don't listen you prepare for for for counteract whatever the other person talk, so listening is one of the skill that you really need to

01:08:39.620 - 01:08:53.430

build relationship and impart the respect. Accountability, man this is huge right? Accounta—we see like in the government, in the private sector, in the public sector, accountability is always a very

01:08:53.940 - 01:09:09.430

important and I don't think we have emphasized enough. And accountability is not talking about you responsible for the thing, you assigned, but you also responsible for the things happening to you, and how you can own those, like you

01:09:09.510 - 01:09:23.200

own your own emotions and you choose emotion that really empowering you to be successful. And that's what accountability that you want to, we want to promote. And, but accountability is tough, right?

01:09:23.900 - 01:09:36.460

Nobody say that it's easy to be accountable, even the thing like ok, I know that I exercise everyday it will be good. But in the morning, get out of your bed and going to the run, oh, sometimes so tough,

01:09:36.760 - 01:09:50.560

right? So it—you need the C, which is courage. Courage is that you, you've got to have the courage to do the thing that you fear of, or you don't like, but you know that's good for you so you have the courage

01:09:50.710 - 01:10:02.420

to do that. So, in order for accountability to be successful you've gotta practice courage. And the last value, the E is engagement; we live in the world together. You are one but in eight billion

01:10:02.420 - 01:10:16.900

people in the world, but the eight people—billion uh people in the world would not be humanity without you. So, we are all interrelated, so we are all interconnected, the fact that today I sit here and talk to you

01:10:17.780 - 01:10:30.380

and uh we connected with viewers is—is a wonderful miracle, right? So, but people don't appreciate that, so engagement is teaching people to connect and you connect to yourself.

01:10:30.930 - 01:10:44.100

You need to connect to yourself first before you connect to other and then connect with the environment. And you see, if these five values, g. r. a. c. e, intertwine with each other, you would become a person

01:10:44.150 - 01:10:59.070

that totally at a different level, and that is what I um ambitious to really create this kind of mindset, this kind of program and my dream is that seeing all kids in America, in Vietnam

01:10:59.840 - 01:11:08.680

practicing g. r. a. c. e, so that they can be the best version that can, they can, and nothing that can stop them to achieve their greatness.

01:11:09.340 - 01:11:21.930

Mm-hmm. So, do you think that your experience in computer science and your corporate job have prepared you to be uh more successful in your work for the community? For, for, for what uh?

01:11:21.930 - 01:11:40.430

Uh, working in the comm-community. Absolutely, um, by profession, I'm, I'm still have a PMP which is professional management- uh project management professional by PMI. So, all my life I um, I have about more than 20 years of project

01:11:40.450 - 01:11:55.620

management various program management and portfolio management, so I teach. I can do it like with my, my eyes folded ok, like blindfolded. Um, uh, it help me to be very systematic so whenever

01:11:56.410 - 01:12:06.920

you involve in the community organization and you do some event, it help you to plan out, it help you to ask question about risk management. Ok how 'bout this: what is your assumption?

01:12:06.980 - 01:12:20.640

Challenge your assumption, and what happen if the risk happen, how do you do risk planning, uh response planning, and communication? Human resource? How can you build the team together to work on the project because

01:12:20.640 - 01:12:28.060

you cannot do it on your own. You need people; you need the community. So, all of this skill set that I learn from my corporate job?

01:12:28.740 - 01:12:41.920

It uh helped me tremendously in organizing uh activities, plans, and we did something very crazy. I—I remember back in 2001, uh if you remember we had a really a big

01:12:42.280 - 01:12:58.550

eve- I mean, um, incident that uh uh the, you know, the terrorists and the tower come down and and the whole community was so shock and then I remember sitting in the office. Everybody just like 'we've got to do

01:12:58.550 - 01:13:13.190

something, we've got to do something' so VCSA cooperate with another 20 Asian organizations in Houston. It took us only 4 weeks and we organized a walkathon we called "Walk for America", and all of

01:13:13.460 - 01:13:31.100

the proceeds and it's right uh at the University of Houston uh, and and we, we had 5,000 walkers and we raised $85,000 for American Red Cross, uh to help with the victims' um families. But, you can see all of

01:13:31.100 - 01:13:45.430

that need a lot of organizing, how you work together, you bring the whole community together and even a time like that, like everybody is affected, or Harvey, you know? Most recently, Harvey, you

01:13:45.430 - 01:14:02.550

see that the whole community together, but the organizing skill uh, I got it from the corporate job that I have. It' s very helpful. Um, is there a specific cause that you're most passionate about? Yes, I just shared with you, I am passionate all my

01:14:02.760 - 01:14:17.710

life. I'm passionate about helping other people to achieve their greatness. I strongly believe that we exist here on this Earth for a reason. So, being a human being, like just imagine what is the chance

01:14:18.490 - 01:14:30.570

you become a human being. One out of four hundred trillion, so that you know, you can be conceive. And guess what? You're a miracle! But, we

01:14:30.570 - 01:14:45.090

are not aware of that unless you practice g. r. a. c. e, unless you really understand who you are, what you here for, and go for it. Never give up if people telling you that you not good enough, you telling them 'I

01:14:45.090 - 01:14:59.910

am good enough'. And believe in yourself, you’ve got to believe in yourself before other people believe in you. So the top things that you want to do is really learning who you are, never deny anything from you

01:14:59.960 - 01:15:13.030

because you are a miracle. And then from that foundation, build off your competencies so that you can work with the the work that you like the most and, and be the best.

01:15:13.520 - 01:15:27.180

So, my job here on this Earth from now till the end of my life is helping you, helping you to connect with your best self, so that you become the best version of yourself, and each of us is different.

01:15:27.620 - 01:15:42.020

Nobody is like anybody else, but each of you have a destiny. The greatness inside of you that I want to wake up and make you become the best person, you live the life that you meant to live, and that is my cause.

01:15:44.160 - 01:16:00.130

Mm-hmm. Um, what was it like to be appointed by President Obama to the Board of Vietnam Education Foundation, and how did you come across the opportunity? I was shocked! I was- it was, it was completely uh something that I never expected.

01:16:00.380 - 01:16:16.520

You know we live in the south, in the Texas right? And um, and I never had an idea, like I didn't even know the Vietnam Education Foundation exists uh before I was appointed, like I didn't even know that

01:16:16.890 - 01:16:30.170

exists, and to know how ignorant I was back then. But I have a passion as you can see, I have a passion for youth leadership development. I have a passion of serving and I think I um I

01:16:31.010 - 01:16:45.780

serve on a couple of, a couple of boards uh in a national organization called SEARAC, South East Asian Resource Action Center, that advocate for Asian American—eh South East Asian Americans and also I serve on some

01:16:45.780 - 01:17:00.190

other like uh, the um, uh the Coalition Alliance of uh Social Services Agency or something like that. So, I serve a few different uh organizations on the board for about six years.

01:17:00.510 - 01:17:14.830

So, maybe from that work, and I once I serve on the board, I always did something. I create new things or if I saw a need that there is a problem or there is something that need to be built but nobody has built it, then I build it.

01:17:15.520 - 01:17:29.530

Uh, I'm an action m—mover, that I want to build, I want to develop, and maybe I was notorious for that, or somehow so somebody nominated me for the position. I did—I was not even aware who did that.

01:17:29.930 - 01:17:46.200

They didn't tell me, but when I was contacted by the White House and it went through a uh, vetting process that lasted more than a year to make sure that all background check and everything before is actually appointed by the president, but it's a tremendous honor.

01:17:46.810 - 01:18:00.410

It change my life. It change my life and e-e, solidified my commitment to Vietnam in terms of the Institute for Civic Education work in Vietnam were, I saw that this happened for a reason.

01:18:00.990 - 01:18:11.040

So, God sent me this assignment so that he's telling me 'stop your corporate job! This is the time to serve. Go and serve before you die! ', so that's what I do.

01:18:11.480 - 01:18:25.580

And I intend to do until the last, the last breath of my life. Mm-hmm. Um, can you tell us more about your work for the Institute for Civic Education in Vietnam? Ok, so basically we do uh—uh four things.

01:18:26.230 - 01:18:40.860

We do first the translation. The translation is the department of uh online libraries, so we have online library, and we also, some of these translated works is being uploaded on the online library and everyone in Vietnam can download and

01:18:41.030 - 01:18:51.850

read it for free, so that is one. We also printed books here, and we do book signing event you know, go to different community, because we need to recruit more.

01:18:52.230 - 01:19:05.490

You know, if we want to translate a hundred books, you know, the uh it's a, it's a, some of the, my members is the thing about machine learning and how you can speed up the process. That is a project that I'm very interested in because I'm a

01:19:05.550 - 01:19:22.200

computer scientist right, so uh, that may be another project when I have time to tack on. But, uh, it's very promising with the machine learning, deep learning right now, artificial intelligence and natural language processing, uh Google, Facebook, all of the big company they are

01:19:22.220 - 01:19:36.730

on the front line. Because it will speed up you know, you know the, uh, the, the War and Peace book, they were translating in only 15 seconds. The whole book, from uh Russian to English!

01:19:36.780 - 01:19:48.570

I don't know how, but that's what they told me. But anyways, so come back to that translation department is one. And then we have online education that focus on civic education, which

01:19:48.570 - 01:20:01.320

is uh how to become a good citizen. And the civic education class is taught using the current uh social Vietnamese publi-Republic of Socialist Vietnam, which is the current government.

01:20:01.760 - 01:20:16.120

So we, we, we, we nothing illegal. Everything is legal. We follow the constitution and the what the government has, but we um, enable the student to use critical thinking and look at this and how they

01:20:16.120 - 01:20:30.720

can practice the rights and, and how to become a good citizen by engaging, by you know um, being a more active person in, in the society. So, we also have business entrepreneurship which is a

01:20:30.920 - 01:20:43.820

very popular class, to teach you how to start business, how to sustain and learning all the stuff like management, human resource, how to build the team, and how to have a business plan.

01:20:43.820 - 01:20:58.820

Uh, and some strategic planning so that you can, you can prepare yourself and get other funder to fund you, so that's entrepreneurship. Uh, I was working with another BBA um degree of fellowship to design what is called

01:20:59.010 - 01:21:12.210

Start Up 101. I think it's going to be a hit. So we will interview CEOs, you know all the people that successful in Vietnam, because it had to be in Vietnam to be relevant, right? And uh and teach the students for free!

01:21:12.830 - 01:21:27.100

Li—we don't, we don't charge. We don't charge the, the the fee for this, because we, we want to have the to take, so some entrepreneurship and also some economics. Um, a second program that we just launched two years

01:21:27.240 - 01:21:36.720

ago is about personal development, so you talking about critical thinking is lacking. So, we teach critical thinking, and I did g. r. a. c. e. The g.

01:21:36.720 - 01:21:47.020

r. a. c. e. class, and I can't wait to do another g. r. a. c. e. class in English. So, I did the g. r. a. c. e. class in Vietnamese first, but it's so funny because I use English, I

01:21:47.020 - 01:22:01.120

translate into Vietnamese to teach this, and now I want to bring it back into English, because uh people here need g. r. a. c. e too. So uh, my plan is, is opening g. r. a. c. e classes, webinar online, uh through

01:22:01.520 - 01:22:15.490

YouTube channel and create a movement so uh, and also partnership with the local independent school districts so that we can start having g. r. a. c. e. being taught at the elementary level up to

01:22:15.560 - 01:22:30.170

K1-12. So, that's one of my dream. Now, I need help for that because I cannot do it all on my own, but that's that's my aspiration. Uh, what I want to do you know from now until the end of my life.

01:22:30.950 - 01:22:43.570

And uh, another thing is um, so that would be uh personal development and then another arm that we have not really built, but we want to do is research grant.

01:22:44.580 - 01:23:00.340

Research on Vietnamese uh Americans, Vietnamese Canadians, and even Vietnamese Vietnamese, um to see some trends in U. S. about cultural change, the change in culture, how

01:23:00.430 - 01:23:14.180

all of these in effect, but we all to relate back to the human development, personal development. So that, the research grant that we have not uh, explain this. And the goal of Institute for Civic Education in

01:23:14.180 - 01:23:29.780

Vietnam in 10 years we want to become an accredited U. S. accredited liberal art college. The very first one in Vietnam, in South East Asia we did that. Because in English, everybody can take uh the degree uh online.

01:23:29.780 - 01:23:45.820

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, since you've been involved in so many projects can you tell us about your either favorite or most successful project? My favorite project is always the Youth Leadership Development .

01:23:45.820 - 01:24:00.210

And uh, I—I went, I always love leadership development, so when I was in Canada, I was uh a scout master right, so I promote, I create a leadership development camp.

01:24:00.740 - 01:24:16.180

It last only 2 days, and it was very successful, but the, from the youth center that I founded. So when I move to United States, I didn't see that, I didn't see any program that serve that need. So I proposed to the board, I said 'I can

01:24:16.450 - 01:24:24.200

spearhead this'. So, I create the leadership development program from scratch. And, again, it start with a dream.

01:24:24.890 - 01:24:38.540

And, and um, I'm very lucky because I got a lot of support from the board, from my supporter from my you know friends, but they are just like my brother and sister, and they went through with me for the whole journey,

01:24:38.730 - 01:24:52.260

and guess what? Has been twenty one years. And when I saw, and right now, I didn't have to do anything operationally; we already have a team of volunteers and can you imagine every year we got 50 to 60

01:24:52.260 - 01:25:05.570

volunteers. And it’s volunteer-based, right? Volunteers who actually spend 6,000 hours to, to plan because we have to plan like 6 months in advance, and then deliver the camp and after the camp you have

01:25:05.680 - 01:25:18.430

something to do as well. Like fundraising, planning, and the whole nine yard. So, my vast experience is seeing all the youth leader that I helped to coach, have to mentor become the leader.

01:25:19.240 - 01:25:34.670

They become the leader, I can never be so happy you know and some of the uh, some of the um mentees that I, when I first work they very shy. They kind of not believing in themself, and how I saw them

01:25:35.120 - 01:25:51.570

get out of their shell and connected with their best self and I saw first hand, the power of being the best version you can be, you can achieve anything. And I have seen so many success story I can tell you all

01:25:51.570 - 01:26:06.540

day about all the impacts the camp has created, and I'm very um proud of um the result of camp. And um, I think that's my favorite project. Mm-hmm.

01:26:06.670 - 01:26:24.390

Um, in your opinion, what components of a community service project are most important to being success—making it successful? Um, the leader of the project needs to put the cause bigger than, themself.

01:26:25.480 - 01:26:44.860

So, whoever lead the project, I know that everyone has ego, right? Especially leader, strong leader, they have strong ego. But, in order for the team to success, you- to successfully deliver uh, the leader need to

01:26:45.020 - 01:27:03.780

really understand the team and bring out the best in each team member so that collectively, the synergy he or she created can be much, much bigger than every single team member.

01:27:04.270 - 01:27:20.360

So, if you can create that teamwork empowerment, so you actually the leader does not have to do from A to Z. The leader is there, of course you—you draw a vision and you persuade everybody this vision

01:27:20.940 - 01:27:37.100

is achievable. And, and you inspire them so everybody got so inspire, they believe that they can do it. But then the leader need to step back and really understanding each team members' strength and

01:27:38.050 - 01:27:53.980

find a way to really bring that strength out, and really minimize the weakness. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses so, one of the most important abilities of a leader is the ability to utilize the resources

01:27:54.030 - 01:28:04.840

most effectively, and communication. And vision. You have to have to know the vision where you want to go and let go of your ego.

01:28:04.840 - 01:28:16.020

That's the toughest part. Sometimes you know, organizations got break down, got broken down because of that. If you believe in some good cause and you know that there's a bigger purpose than yourself

01:28:18.650 - 01:28:35.910

then—like President Re—Reagan has said, if you don't care who gets the credit, you will be, you uh ok what did he say? He said that uh, you can go, you don't how far you can go if you don't really care who gets the credit.

01:28:37.090 - 01:28:53.120

So, um, I think that's what the good leader needs to be. Um, what are some of the biggest challenges you've encountered in your career? Um, being a woman, being an Asian, and being the

01:28:53.200 - 01:29:06.420

youngest person in the team. All of those three was when I started uh at this consulting firm, uh, in U. S. I was the youngest member in the team. Now, I no longer young, but back then I was.

01:29:07.230 - 01:29:17.760

I was the youngest one, I was the only woman in the team, and I was the, one of the two Asians in the team. The team is about ten people. So, those

01:29:17.760 - 01:29:30.610

challenging because, and then, but I, by, I was very lucky because I got a really wonderful boss. So my boss believe in me, and he said 'Anhlan, I saw that you have leadership, let me coach you'. So, he actually

01:29:30.680 - 01:29:43.880

coach me, and he assign me as the supervisor for all of these ten consultants that working at our side. It scare me off! It really freak me out but uh because I believe in my boss, and

01:29:44.490 - 01:29:59.320

and when he he believe in me I don't want to turn him down. So, I—I was uh I was open to learn, you know, and um, I found that you know, through some, to some degree, the

01:29:59.320 - 01:30:12.130

way people look at you initially uh, it can be very bias, um and of course I cannot change my skin color. I will always be an Asian. I always have the

01:30:12.330 - 01:30:30.010

yellow skin, right? I will always be a woman, I will always, well I will no longer be young, but again, so all of those are a challenge, but again, the key thing is you consistent, and you put, you really put forth not

01:30:30.520 - 01:30:47.830

the feeling that you being discriminated or the anger or the bad uh feeling about being judged. You replace all of those emotions by the emotion of focus on the what you could do in this situation.

01:30:48.170 - 01:31:03.000

Focus on how to best communicate with each person in the team so that for example, I got um a person that older, much older than me. He he said 'Anhlan, you my boss, but let me tell you you just like my daughter!'.

01:31:03.530 - 01:31:15.610

You know, so things like that. So, I play daughter and daddy with him. I—I don't feel offended. I just you know I focus on how I can communicate with him so he

01:31:15.650 - 01:31:26.420

could accept the performance and review or he could accept some of the things I suggested. So, I learn that by and that's why you practice respect, you practice G.R.A.C.E.

01:31:27.330 - 01:31:38.770

You practice that you become invincible because you can become any leader you want. And that's why it all led back to the work that I'm doing, which is I teach emotional intelligence and G.R.A.C.E..

01:31:39.620 - 01:31:58.060

Because, I think EQ is one of the key competency that everyone of us can develop to become a good leader. Ok, so, now we'll be asking about Vietnam again, so um, how many times, er how often have you

01:31:58.060 - 01:32:10.720

returned to Vietnam since you left? I only returned twice. Oh ok. So, I only returned when I was appointed by President Obama, and I serve on the board, and the first

01:32:11.250 - 01:32:23.120

year I came back was 2013, so it was 29 years that I slept-since I left. It was very emotional but um, I felt the love connection right away.

01:32:23.430 - 01:32:40.870

I didn't feel alienated or anything because I was connected not with the people only, I was connected with the Earth, with the environment, with the trees, with the weavers, with which something that's sacred, that it just awakened inside of you

01:32:41.460 - 01:32:55.900

as soon as you set your foot on the ground. You don't need any uh , um uh realization that you are in Vietnam. You just like, it's all in

01:32:56.470 - 01:33:09.840

there already, it's in your mind. I live there, I was born there so I came back and just like you come home. So there's no-regardless of how many years you have been out as soon as you home, you home. Yeah.

01:33:10.510 - 01:33:23.300

So I was only twice, so the first time was um when I first joined the board, they send me to Vietnam just on a trip to observe. I went with fifteen uh U.S. professors to come to interview uh the

01:33:23.340 - 01:33:37.620

candidates for the fellowship, because they provide a fellowship for Vietnamese national students to go to U.S. to study uh PhD or master program in STEM, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

01:33:38.310 - 01:33:52.280

And uh, it was really a good experience and then the following year, 2015 I was elected board chair, and I came back a—again. And this time, I had the opportunity to really have meetings with the top uh

01:33:52.500 - 01:34:06.590

level management of governmental agencies. So, I met with uh, decision makers on the governments and that; lots of meetings with departments of educations, with the president of all the VNU universities and other

01:34:06.710 - 01:34:24.600

university. So, I had a lot more knowledge about what was the current landscape of education in Vietnam, and that really solidifies uh my belief that uh the ICEVN, the Institute for Civic Education award is truly important and strategic to help

01:34:25.410 - 01:34:41.460

uh Vietnam to further in the cause of education. And i—it solidify my commitment and make me more committed to quit my job to do this full time. Would you say there's a reason you didn't visit before then, since it'd been so long?

01:34:42.000 - 01:34:56.770

Um, you know, like I'm the type person when I see a problem I wanna solve. And—and I know that there's a lot of problems in Vietnam. Uh, all kinds of different issues, and I didn't

01:34:57.130 - 01:35:11.360

want to spend money; the money that I would spend I go back to visit Vietnam, I could have used it for some charity purpose, helping some scholarship for some kids in Vietnam, or helping some elderly that

01:35:11.550 - 01:35:25.100

have no relatives or need help. I would rather use that money to help than spend on a trip to go back to Vietnam and see all the issues or problems that I could not, I didn't, I couldn't involve at the time.

01:35:26.310 - 01:35:40.370

It would make me so frustrated, so why did I spend money to go back and feel frustrated and go back home? So, to me it's not a good investment. I would rather wait until the time, like when I when would be yeah, when I have some uh

01:35:40.750 - 01:35:52.810

leverage, right? I representing the President of United States to come to this country as an American citizen, and I have some say in you know with

01:35:52.890 - 01:36:08.420

the decision maker in the government, then I, I would go. But if I go as a tourist, and I witness all of this issues, you know my heart would be full of uh, the uneasy feelings and I would not, I would not do it.

01:36:09.130 - 01:36:24.790

But I'm very close to uh getting the updates from home, from uh from uh Vietnam, uh I built a network of uh people who come back to do charitable missions. Uh, we have the something called

01:36:24.830 - 01:36:39.210

the VANGO network, Vietnamese American NGO, Non-Governmental Agency network, about 37 organizations. So, we very connected and we know where the problems uh in terms of you know all kinds

01:36:39.210 - 01:36:55.980

of different issues that we need to resolve and each organization focus on 1 or 2 issues. Um, when you've been to back to Vietnam each time did you ever meet any family? Yeah. I met uh, uh my uncle who I have not met for

01:36:56.020 - 01:37:09.490

37 years. It was surreal oh my goodness. And again, I went back because I was on, you know on uh, uh board member position and I was going

01:37:10.340 - 01:37:19.840

uh on behalf of the state department so I was not allowed to have so much personal time. So, I only have some very limited time off.

01:37:20.390 - 01:37:33.500

So, I didn't have the chance to really go and do any tour or any, I just basically spent all of the two weeks there mostly missed meetings, and then meeting, but I had time for meeting my families which is really wonderful.

01:37:34.470 - 01:37:49.840

And I met my uncle who I have not met for a long time, and uh, I met another uncle, so two uncles, yeah. Um, in your opinion what do you hope the future of Vietnam looks like and do you think the country is on a good path?

01:37:51.670 - 01:38:02.340

I think there's a lot of potential in Vietnam right now and um, I love people. The future generations they very um, energetic.

01:38:02.900 - 01:38:21.040

They are very eager to learn but I think the infrastructure was not good enough and I really um have issues with the—the—the mentality of short term thinking. Uh, you

01:38:21.040 - 01:38:34.560

know when you handle a problem you only think short term, you never think long term. So, sometimes you, you sacrifice the long term gains so that you can have the short term gain. And and that, does not

01:38:34.560 - 01:38:47.360

help the country. You wanna have the good leaders looking further. You got to build that strategic thinking into your head, and critical thinking, those are the two that severely lacking. Uh but overall, the

01:38:47.360 - 01:39:04.610

energy's there. They very extremely friendly, um of course um, you know that um the government has a lot of work to do, because uh in country that you do not allow uh freedom of expression or freedom of uh, uh the press, or even freedom of

01:39:04.670 - 01:39:17.570

religion is—is—is hard to foster the diversity and make the—the society stronger. So I just, I just wish that um hopefully with you know, but we start from the people.

01:39:18.440 - 01:39:30.300

So, you got to develop the people up to the point that the society is strong enough, the foundation is strong enough. Then the necessary changes will happen, you start with the

01:39:30.350 - 01:39:43.790

people, and with people you never wrong. You always want to give the best human potential for each individual living in a country. Ok, so since you've lived uh in the U.

01:39:43.950 - 01:39:56.330

S, Canada, and Vietnam, would you consider yourself Vietnamese-American, or Vietnamese-Canadian, or just Vietnamese, or what? Or, just what would you label yourself as? Right now I'm a Vietnamese-American.

01:39:56.400 - 01:40:17.400

Yeah, uh I strongly believe in the um you know in the, federation, uh I mean the constitution of United States of America, and I'm a very proud uh American citizen. Looking back uh, looking back I uh now Canadian,

01:40:17.490 - 01:40:33.120

now used to be Vietnamese- Canadian but when I um, you know, I swore on to become American citizen, I'm committed uh to this country. And Vietnamese always close to my heart because

01:40:33.600 - 01:40:47.640

that's when I was born, it's in my blood that I'm a—a proud Vietnamese-American. That's what I see myself. Um, do you think you maintained your Vietnamese culture/the traditions during your time in C—

01:40:47.860 - 01:41:03.610

Canada and America? Yeah, I do, I do. Um, a lot of things is um, and again culture itself is a evolving thing, so you don't have a fixed culture so for some tradition that I love, especially on my um uh

01:41:04.740 - 01:41:23.610

husband's side, a big family, we have a Tet tradition which is the Lunar New Year, right um? Regardless which year, except I think in my 20 years of working in corporate world, I only not able to take off the day of the first day of the Lunar New Year once, because of production

01:41:23.670 - 01:41:39.140

roll out something. The rest every year, I took off. If it's a one work day, I took off the New Year day, and we all have celebration during the New Year's Eve, and then the New Year day I went to visit the pagoda, praying and

01:41:39.280 - 01:41:52.510

the whole day is just dedicated for family, for appreciation, being thankful, and uh sending love and wishes to all the families and friends. I keep that tradition until now.

01:41:52.660 - 01:42:13.400

Uh, second, I always take time to really uh focus on how I can best representing my family and, and the roots that I coming from which you mean, I do not allow myself

01:42:13.400 - 01:42:27.540

doing something that would bring shame to my parents, and my family and except a very strong commitment inside of myself. So, before I do something that illegal or something bad, it always

01:42:27.590 - 01:42:43.900

become the strongest force that keep me not to commit a crime or doing the things badly because you know, it is the uh, it is a custom in our family that very strong in terms of you want to become a good person and you don't want to, you want to

01:42:43.960 - 01:42:56.960

honor your parents with your good deeds. You never want to shame your parents because of something that you don't do right. So, those are the thing that keep me uh continue on to uh live and to contribute

01:42:57.850 - 01:43:14.400

um. I guess that's the—the main tradition and I learn to let go some that is not uh very helpful, for example the—the limitation of girls supposed to stay in the family until they got married.

01:43:14.450 - 01:43:32.310

That's kind of you know, that's a very old tradition things, and I guess most of my sibling with their children, they don't, no longer hold that kind of you know, a paradigm um and I adapt to the new society now, with the

01:43:32.450 - 01:43:46.050

thinking in American way, so to me keeping the tradition is learning what are the values you want to keep, right? And honor because those make you stronger, make you—I plan to

01:43:46.050 - 01:44:02.550

write a book about Vietnamese women, because, it just, it just amaze me to see how many stories I gather here from Houston of Vietnamese women who went through hardship. Their resilience, like my mother-in-law is one, but

01:44:02.640 - 01:44:15.110

there's so many people and, and it's just like when there's some catastrophe or something happen, they are the rock of the family, yeah. So, those you wanna keep.

01:44:15.380 - 01:44:32.780

Um, what do you think the next generation of Vietnamese-Americans can learn from your experiences and what's one piece of advice you'd like to give them? I think the—the important one is to uh, you want to know where

01:44:32.820 - 01:44:45.580

you come from? You wanna— regardless of how far you are, how Americanized you are, the Vietnamese blood is in your vein. You can deny it, but it is a reality.

01:44:46.380 - 01:44:58.720

And there's so much potential in that blood. Uh, being Vietnamese, being American, you are much, much richer than your fellow Americans, which is you know, might not have

01:44:58.770 - 01:45:09.350

the root as strong as you are. So, I would recommend all Vietnamese Americans, younger generations to not let go of your culture and language.

01:45:09.940 - 01:45:26.570

Learn the language, maybe you can not be proficient, but at least invest some time to learn so you can converse with your parents, your grandparents. And uh it's beautiful by the way, and—and—and if you have some time, come and visit the country once or twice.

01:45:27.160 - 01:45:43.090

Interact yourself with other fellow Americ— uh Vietnamese, and um learning the richness of the values of uh Vietnamese culture and then combine with the richness and values of American, you will become a

01:45:43.140 - 01:45:57.200

combination that is much stronger, much richer. So to me, that what it is and know who you are! And uh know your roots. And be confident about yourself in this world.

01:45:58.530 - 01:46:14.270

Alright, so um last question. Uh, I know you already said this, but can you say in a few words, what are you most proud of and what's your biggest regret? Mmkay, so I'm most proud of the leadership camp, development camp, and I almost

01:46:14.740 - 01:46:28.350

proud of uh my experience with the Vietnam Education Foundation when I was so privileged to connect with so many wonderful people, from the faculty scholars, uh

01:46:29.700 - 01:46:45.240

hundreds and hundreds of Vietnamese scientists, young scientists, so much potential. And also to the level of all the people I met throughout that journey, those 4 years are the best 4 year for me.

01:46:45.240 - 01:47:00.600

And it awaken in me a strong desire to serve. A strong desire to say that. I need to use my gift to serve, and to help the future generations of Vietnamese.

01:47:00.940 - 01:47:12.650

Being Vietnamese- Americans, being Vietnamese-Canadians, or Vietnamese-Vietnamese. Alright, I guess that's it. And I have no regrets! Yes, regret.

01:47:13.420 - 01:47:29.360

The only regret, I shared with her, but is not that major, it is uh um, I didn't major in psychology when I was in college. That's the regret because I found that psychology is one of the best subject, the study of the mind, so...

01:47:29.440 - 01:47:33.210

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.