Tenth Annual Vietnamese-American Youth Excellence Program| Date: | Sunday August 6, 2006 |
| Time: | 11:00am - 2:30pm |
| Place: | Kim Son Ballroom 1603 St. Emanuel, Houston, Texas |
Featuring Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Huong Tran Nguyen, Faculty of Education, California State University
After 1975, there have been large waves of Vietnamese refugees escaping from Vietnam to the United States, Canada, and other western countries. Since then, the Vietnamese-American population has grown tremendously and contributed a great deal to the adopted homeland. With a population of more than one million, the Vietnamese-American communities in the United States have started building their lives and contributed to the society in all different fields. The second and third generations of Vietnamese-American have increased in population and comprised a major part of these communities.
In 1997, The Vietnamese Culture and Science Association organized the first Vietnamese-American Youth Recognition Luncheon to recognize the academic achievement of 13 Vietnamese-American students who graduated from more than 40 local high schools in Houston as Valedictorians or Salutatorians. Mayor Lee Brown was the Keynote Speaker for this event. The event has been very well received by the community and had a very positive impacts on the Asian youth in general and the Vietnamese-American youths in particular. The event emphasized the importance of education and encouraged the youth to excel in the academic field. In 1998 and 1999, we continued this program in an Annual event of our organization. The event recognized excellent academic achievements of Vietnamese-American students from local high schools.
This year, Vietnamese Culture and Science Association is proud to present the Tenth Annual Youth Excellence Recognition program. In this event, we will also celebrate a great milestone: the 10th anniversary of this meaningful program. We will invite the past 140 honorees to come back and join us at this celebration. There will be a video presentation to feature highlights of these programs in the past 10 years. We also would like to encourage the younger generations of Vietnamese-Americans to excel in education by recognizing the outstanding academic and leadership achievements of the Vietnamese-American high school students in the Houston and vicinity areas, who graduated as Valedictorian or Salutatorian of their respective schools. We will also include some cultural performances related to the Vietnamese culture during the Luncheon.
Since the fall of 1998, Dr. Nguyen has been a faculty member of the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach. Her research interest is in how race, language, culture, and identity impact the development of ethnic minority teachers
-- particularly foreign-born -- in U.S. contexts. She has been teaching foundations of education courses and post-baccalaureate credential courses for Single Subject (secondary) and Multiple Subject (elementary) teacher candidates. In addition, she has been supervising pre-service teachers seeking the Cross-cultural, Language and Academic Development (CLAD) or Asian Bilingual Cross-cultural, Language and Academic Development (BCLAD). In her teaching and supervisory roles, she has dedicated herself to recruiting, developing, and retaining candidates from minority backgrounds, particularly Asian Americans, to diversify the teaching force to reflect the student population in California public schools.
Prior to coming to CSULB, she had been a classroom teacher for over two decades, at the elementary, secondary, and adult levels in three different California urban school districts (Chula Vista, San Diego, and Long Beach). She had also served as a central office administrator both in San Diego and in Long Beach.
While teaching at a high school in Long Beach, she was nominated by her peers to be the 1994 National Outstanding Teacher of the Year and the National Outstanding Teacher in Foreign Language/English as a Second Language. This yearly event was sponsored by the Walt Disney American Teacher Awards.
Other awards:
** Who’s Who of American Women, 1994-to date
** Who’s Who in American Education, 1996-1997.
** Achievement Award, Southeast Asian Resource Action Center, Washington, DC,
September 2005. Celebration of the 30th Anniversary of Southeast Asian refugee
resettlement in the U.S. and the 25th Anniversary of the Refugee Act.
In 1995-1996, Dr. Nguyen was appointed as a Senior Fellow by the Clinton administration. She served at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. in the Office of Bilingual Education and Language Minority Affairs (formerly OBEMLA, now OELA), under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. In this capacity, Dr. Nguyen had the opportunity to lend a teacher’s voice to Goals 2000 policy initiatives, specifically strengthening teacher quality, enhancing professional teacher development programs, and improving the quality of educational opportunities for English language minority students.
Dr. Nguyen has had to overcome multiple barriers to assume leadership roles in a variety of educational domains. She truly understands the tremendous challenges non-mainstream individuals face, both personally and professionally, in gaining membership into U.S. society and into their profession. She is committed to improving the quality of education and opportunities for all students.
VALEDICTORIANS AND SALUTATORIANS
2005-2006
Acknowledgement
The Vietnamese Culture and Science Association would like to recognize the contribution of the following corporation, businesses and individuals for their generous sponsorship of our Sixth Annual Vietnamese-American Youth Excellence Recognition Luncheon
| Underwriter |
| Washington Mutual |
| Benefactors: |
 |
| United Parcel Sercies (UPS) |
 |
| Kim Son restaurant |
| Patrons: |
| KT Printing |
| Re/MAXand Danny Nguyen |
| Dr. Robert Quang Le |
| Dr. Danh Le & Advanced Spinal Treatment |
| ExxonMobil |
| Sponsors: |
| Dr. Thai Nguyen |
| Dr. & Mrs. Do, Hoang Y |
| Ms. Nicole Cao |
| Houston Saigon Radio 900AM |
| Little Saigon Radio |
| Ngay Nay Magazine |
| Saigon Tex News |
| Friends: |
| Dr. Mai Tram Nguyen |
| Shell Oil Company |
| Mr. & Mrs. Ha Ngoc Cu |
