Hello World,

I am Stephen Huong Kim Binh Nguyen. A founder, twice President, Internal Vice President, and External Vice President, former advisor, and alumnus of The Mid-Atlantic Union of Vietnamese Student Associations, MAUVSA, Liên Hội Sinh Viên Việt Nam Mid-Atlantic, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, community-based organization I helped found with several peers in 2007. Born in Chantilly Virginia, I am the son of Hong-My Tran, Nha Trang, and Huong Thuy Nguyen, Saigon, both immigrants arriving in the United States with nothing. I am a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Philosophy in Public Policy and Ethics now working as a developer evangelist, software engineer, and entrepreneur in San Francisco, California. I’m writing this post today to explain why I donated $50,000 to MAUVSA.

MAUVSA’s Mission
MAUVSA serves the Vietnamese American community, unifies the VSAs of the Mid-Atlantic region, and empowers young Vietnamese Americans by fostering cultural awareness, promoting social justice, and developing leadership.

MAUVSA is the community and support system that I wished had existed while I personally struggled through high school, university, and searching for a job. In fact MAUVSA is the support system I needed to help me stay focused to graduate from my university and pursue my professional dreams. As a High schooler and early freshmen at college, I was directionless addicted to playing video games and lacking in motivation. By committing my energy towards leadership development, fundraising, organizational development, teamwork, and growing my peers, I developed my own personal confidence to confront my challenges and pursue my dreams. I titled this post with the word “reinvestment” Because I strongly believe I have benefitted from this organizations existence and want to “pay it forward” per say.

Donating to MAUVSA is a means to strengthen our Vietnamese community’s most critical players, the college educated youth and young professionals. They are a focal point to bringing mentorship to our younger brothers and sisters and guidance for our elders who sacrificed so much to see then work towards higher education.

I’m no stranger to donating and working to raise funds towards causes involving human and sex trafficking of children, education, and disease all of which are important causes. I have worked steadily with our organizations, The Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations, UNAVSA, Liên Hội Sinh Viên Việt Nam Bắc Mỹ Châu, and MAUVSA, and other UVSAs have collectively raised approximately $700,000 for 10 different nonprofit humanitarian organizations over the last 10 years. Humanitarian efforts are important I however it is imperative that we also focus on the importance of empowering and developing our youth with skill sets in leadership, financial development, and social justice.

I chose to personally donate $50,000 honoring the 10 year anniversary of the founding of MAUVSA as a signal to others that re-investing time, talent, and money into our community is a worthwhile endeavor. These funds will be used to ensure stability of current programs, grow new ones, and expand MAUVSA’s ability to serve our Vietnamese American youth. A return for my investment will be in the form of a Vietnamese American youth ready for the challenges of tomorrow, more young Vietnamese woman and men in top leadership positions in our governments and corporations. I ask of our parents and elders, to encourage your children from joining, interacting with, and working with VSAs and MAUVSA as it will grow them as individuals personally and professionally.

I know my younger cousins, nieces , nephews, children, and their children’s children will benefit from a Vietnamese American community that is more prepared for the challenges of the future. I am proud to be a Vietnamese American and a proud founder and alumni of MAUVSA.

Thank you Co Tuyet Mai who pushed me start writing something publicly.

Learn more about our 10 year Anniversary and history by reading “The Mid-Atlantic Union: 10 Years and Beyond”

With the best regards for our beloved community,

Stephen Nguyen

“If you have done well in whatever business you are in, it is your duty to send the elevator back down and try to help bring up the next generation of undiscovered talent.”

Kevin Spacey

edit*

MAUVSA decided to develop a Fund and Grant program to give foundation for projects and events. Learn more

Paying it Forward: A reinvestment towards the Vietnamese American Youth. was originally published in MAUVSA Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Crysta Tran, MAUVSA’s current President, asked me to give her a quick overview of MAUVSA’s history, to which I optimistically replied, “Sure!” What follows is an overview of MAUVSA’s conception and development, divided by year and grouped by season to showcase all notable events in MAUVSA history.

MAUVSA’s history is scattered across many mediums: Wordpress, Facebook, Instagram, memory cards, cell phones, and hard drives. As it becomes easier than ever to create memories, it gets harder and harder to look back.

-Stephen Nguyen

2006 — Fall “The Beginning”

• While searching for a better philanthropy for his own VSA to fundraise for in late August, Stephen Nguyen stumbles upon UVSA SoCal and UNAVSA on the internet. Kevin DC Nguyen and Stephen Nguyen then setup an AIM chat room joined by several curious leaders from other VSAs in the Mid-Atlantic region. Most notably in attendance was UVA VSA’s president Regina Mai Nguyen.

“Prior to this meeting interaction between our VSAs was informal infrequent and for most purposes competitive. The VSAs had a higher rate of turnover and failure and rebuilding cycles in which leadership would leave or a VSA would go dormant only to be picked up from square one by the next leader. MAUVSA changed the environment into one of continual growth of our VSAs as well as individuals leaders. — Stephen Nguyen

• October 14, 2006 — The first summit meeting of the VSA presidents and leaders at VCU. UNAVSA executives flew down to facilitate early brainstorming and organization within our region. Everyone’s first impression was, “What are we doing here?”

History: On September 26, 2006, Facebook was from exclusively to universities to the general public facilitating easier communication and awareness.

“Facebook in my opinion served as the medium on which our community was able to accelerate our growth and communication much faster than any previous generation had before.” — Stephen Nguyen

Later that fall:

• MAUVSA continues to hold monthly summits at different schools to establish our constitution and continue building connections between schools

2007 — Spring

• Kim Vu and Stephen Nguyen volunteer to represent the Mid-Atlantic Region to UNAVSA as Co-CoRR (Council of Regional Representatives)
• MAUVSA constitutional summits continue
• This spring saw a large uptick in friendly Culture Show visits and invitations from across the universities.
• MAUVSA constitutional summits continue(revising mission, structure, and networking)
• VCU hosts a regional Charity Ball to celebrate early collaboration and to collectively fundraise for the CPP Beneficiary, The Catalyst Foundation. $7,000 was raised.

Note: This was the precursor to MAUVSA Advance Conference MAC which would not happen for another 4 years)

2007 — Summer “MAUVSA Established”

• July 21, 2007 Constitution officially ratified by the standing VSA presidents at the time.
• ELECTION: First MAUVSA Eboard is elected.

President Mai Nguyen, Internal Vice President Linda Ha, External Vice President Pha-Le Le, Treasurer Long Nguyen, Secretary Julie Ha

• July 26–29, 2007 MAUVSA delegation and board travels to UNAVSA in New Orleans for the first time as a new region.

2007— Fall “Our mission is set, Lion is ready to roar”

October 21, 2007 summit. The biggest debates were the clarification of MAUVSA’s mission statement and design of our organization’s logo.

Mission Statement:

MAUVSA seeks to unify the Vietnamese American community, facilitate communication and cooperation among the various schools, empower and develop young leaders, foster cultural awareness and education, and promote social justice.

MAUVSA votes on it’s first official logo, designed by Julie Ha (now Mrs. Julie Shek)

Special note: The lion came from the mispronunciation of our name as MAUVASA which sounded like Mufasa from the Lion King. However, the lion is also a symbol of strength and pride, and a pack of lions is called a pride. This logo choice was tongue in cheek and was met with some eye rolling until a logo re-election was held in 2011. [See 2011 section for logo update]

2008 — Spring

MAUVSA holds first 1 day regional retreat for all VSA members in the region at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT)

Note: This was the precursor to MAUVSA Advance Conference (MAC) which would not happen for another 4 years)

• April 4th-5th — VASCON4, Planting Seeds, hosted at Georgetown University in Washington D.C

2008 — Summer

Stock Market Crash of 2008 throws US economy in turmoil. Housing prices implode and jobless rates increase dramatically.

• MAUVSA holds 1st Charity Ball on June 7, 2008 in Maryland to support of UNAVSA’s CPP’s, VOICE

• ELECTION: 2nd MAUVSA Executive board elected

President Long Nguyen, Internal Vice President Stephen Nguyen, External Vice President Anhnie Nguyen, Treasurer Nam Nguyen, Secretary Hoainam Nguyen, Historian Sandra Vuong, Alumni Association Chair Diana Nguyen

2008 — Fall

Barack Obama is Elected President of the United States of America. Obama won 52.9 percent of the popular vote to McCain’s 45.7 percent.

Monthly summits continue

What is a Monthly Leadership Summit?

The primary activity for MAUVSA is a series of monthly leadership summits. Each summit provides the opportunity for students to exchange information, establish relationships, evaluate activities, and coordinate programs at the campus level. The summit series also provides a forum for student leaders to discuss common organizational challenges such as membership recruitment, membership retention, conflict resolution, and project management.

2009 — Spring

MAUVSA’s 2nd Annual Members Retreat hosted at Virginia Commonwealth University in January 2009.

ELECTION: 3rd MAUVSA executive board election.

President Long Nguyen, Internal Vice President Nam Nguyen, External Vice President Anhnie Nguyen, Alumni Association Chair Hoainam Nguyen

2009 — Summer

• ELECTION: 3rd MAUVSA Executive board Long Nguyen elected President

President Long Nguyen, Internal Vice President Nam Nguyen, External Vice President Lan-Anh Nguyen, Treasurer unfilled, Secretary unfilled ,Alumni Association Chair Hoainam Nguyen

2009 — Fall

Monthly summits continue

2010— Spring

MAUVSA’s 3rd Annual Retreat hosted at George Mason University

2010 — Summer

• MAUVSA hosts the 7th Annual UNAVSA Conference, “Uncommon Power for the Common Voice” from July 29-August 1, 2010 in Crystal City, Arlington, VA.

This conference is notable for having the record for the most registrants and attendees to date (2016).

• Long Nguyen and Anhnie Nguyen become the first member of MAUVSA elected to UNAVSA’s Board

• ELECTION: 4th MAUVSA Executive board elected.

President Nam Nguyen, Internal Vice President My-Ha Moon, External Vice President Stephen Nguyen, Treasurer Christina Duong, Secretary Kathe Tran, Alumni Association Chair Mai Nguyen, Historian Long Nguyen, Webmaster Jason Kuo

2010 — Fall

Monthly summits continue

2011 — Spring

MAUVSA hosts it’s 4th Annual Retreat at University of Virginia

2011-Summer

• ELECTION: 5th MAUVSA Executive board Stephen Nguyen — President, Tuan Duong — EVP, Vicky Nguyen — IVP(resigned), Tin Nguyen — Treasurer, Michael Ngo — Secretary, Alida Huynh, Christina Duong

President Stephen Nguyen, Internal Vice President Vicky Nguyen(resigned), External Vice President Tuan Duong, Treasurer Tin Nguyen, Secretary Michael Ngo, Alumni Association Christina Duong, Historian unfilled, Webmaster Alida Huynh, Advisors Hoainam Nguyen, Linda Ha Long Nguyen, and Regina Mai Nguyen

Notable Stephen Nguyen speech quote during elections: “Why retreat when we can advance!” This becomes starting point for rebranding and creation of MAUVSA’s Advance Conference (MAC).

• MAUVSA’s 4th Gala, Letters to our Future ask members to write letters to the future 5 years from now.
• MAUVSA as a region raised the most funds for UNAVSA’s CPP raising~12,000 dollars for the CPP Beneficiary Blue Dragon’s Children’s Foundation.
• MAUVSA Attends UNAVSA-8 in Denver, Colorado

This Mailbox full of memories and letters is currently lost. please email MAUVSA if you know of it’s whereabouts

Noteworthy: The late Nguyen Ngoc Bich (above), a renowned community leader who worked closely with MAUVSA in 2011, contributed a video to the Letters to our Future Campaign. He passed in 2016 of a heart attack while in the Philippines speaking on the independence of the South East Asian Seas.

2011 — Fall

At a summit hosted at UVA a logo contest was held and a new logo was chosen. Designed by My-Ha Moon the New Logo symboplized the DMV’s crossing highways and issued a star representing the founding schools. It was later revised by Stephen Nguyen.

“MA ALL DAY” T-shirts first printed (special credit to Tuan Duong for designing, printing, and creating these)

MAUVSA increases efforts for external outreach and community building. MAUVSA, in an attempt to strengthen neighboring regions, travels to the Northeast to help host a NEUVSA summit. The primary goal was to provide guidance to help establish an early foundation for the fledgling region.

• Planning begins for MAUVSA’s first multi-day regional leadership retreat, the Advance Conference.
• Hoainam Nguyen volunteers to serve as the conference’s Executive Director and all leads planning and coordination for the conference

2012 — Spring

MAUVSA hosts its inaugural multi-day regional leadership retreat, the MAUVSA Advance Conference, in Columbia, Maryland. The conference theme was “One Vision, One Movement.”

• MAUVSA’s First Advance Conference I, “One Vision, One Movement”

• MAUVSA hosts its inaugural multi-day regional leadership retreat, the MAUVSA Advance Conference, in Columbia, Maryland. The conference theme was “One Vision, One Movement.”
• MAUVSA’s first involvement with the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI)
• MAUVSA opens a office in Eden Center for storage and meetings. (Stephen’s note, The office cost us nothing however it was not officially leased by Eden Center, as a result of the loose contract MAUVSA had to close down it’s location in the fall of 2012.

“ “Grand opening, Grand Closing” said Jay-Z… Sigh…It was sweet while it lasted. I still dream a day when we have a central location to store and build our history” — Stephen Nguyen

The Office spawned a series of photos of various members standing in front of the MAUVSA Teal wall which featured MAUVSA’s mission statement. You might recognize some leaders in the collage below.

2012 — Summer

• ELECTION: 6th MAUVSA Executive board 5th MAUVSA Executive board Stephen Nguyen — President, Mary Ta — IVP, Frank Huynh — EVP, William Dang — Secretary.

President Stephen Nguyen, Internal Vice President Mary Ta, External Vice President Frank Hunyh, Treasurer unfilled, Secretary Willy Dang.

• MAUVSA 5th Gala, “Passing the Torch to a Brighter Future,” held on June 8, 2012 at Fortune Restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia

2012 — Fall

With 51.1 percent of the popular vote against Mitt Romney, Obama became the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to twice win the majority of the popular vote.

Monthly summits continue

2013— Spring

MAUVSA hosts it’s 2nd Advance Conference MAC II in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Tin Nguyen being the Executive Director.

ELECTION: 7th MAUVSA Executive board Tuan Duong elected President

President Tuan Duong, Internal Vice President Mai Pham, External Vice President Emily Duong, Treasurer Donna Huynh, Secretary Amber Nguyen, Alumni Association Chair unfilled, Historian Virginia Thai, Webmaster Christina Bui.

This is the first election that was not held at a Summit rather at the Conference itself. Stephen’s note: This change was in an attempt to make sure that elections were more visible to the wider membership and to inspire more general members run. Election participation and involvement had hit a all time low in the summer of 2012. This change was viewed by many as a much more positive step in involvement and participation of our members at large. The previous term would overlap the incoming term to help with passing of information and planning.

MAUVSA narrowly avoided a conference canceling snowstorm this year

2013 — Summer “MAUVSA goes to Camp”

• MAUVSA’s 6th Gala, rebranded as the Inauguration & Benefit Gala.

This is notable moment in which the new Executive board elected at the Advance Conference months prior actually start their term, hence “inauguration” gala.

• The First MAUVSA Leadership Camp (MLC1) is held at Summit Lake, Emmitsburg, MD

• MAUVSA attends UNAVSA 10 in Southern California

• MAUVSA rose to become the 2nd highest contributor to UNAVSA’s CPP “MEMO”
• GMU VSA raised the most money as a individual VSA for CPP beneficiary “MEMO”

2013 — Fall

Monthly summits continue

2014 — Spring

• MAUVSA’s 3rd Advance Conference (MAC III),”Mapping your Routes,” hosted in Front Royal, Virginia
• Executive Directors: Crysta Tran & Amber Nguyen
• ELECTION: 8th MAUVSA Executive board. President Tuan Duong, Internal Vice President Amber Nguyen, External Vice President Christian Nguyen, Secretary Dennis Truong, Treasurer Vinh Ngo (resigned)

2014 — Summer

• MAUVSA’s 6th Annual Inaugural Gala

• MAUVSA Attends UNAVSA 11 in Dallas Texas
• 2nd MAUVSA Leadership Camp (MLC2)

2014 — Fall

November 29, 2014 — Vietnamese American Appreciation Day and Book Signing

Second Generation Vietnamese Americans: A Comparative Perspective” written by Vy Thuy Nguyen

This book is the third in the series on the Fairfax County Asian American History Project (FCAAHP). It is a collection of stories in print and in pictures of those who were born as American citizens, who share a common Vietnamese ethnic origin, and who primarily grew up or chose to come and live in the Northern Virginia, D.C., and Maryland area

-Vy Thuy Nguyen

Monthly summits continue

2015 — Spring

• MAUVSA Advance Conference IV

• ELECTION: 8th MAUVSA executive board elected. President Amber Nguyen, Internal Vice President Crysta Tran, External Vice President Christian Nguyen, Secretary Dennis Truong, Treasurer Christine Tran (resigned)
• North Carolina State University joined MAUVSA as the 10th member school on Saturday, March 7th, 2015 during MAUVSA Advance Conference 4.

2015-Summer

• MAUVSA attends UNAVSA-12 “Momentum: Ripples of Progress” in Seattle, Washington

• MAUVSA’s 7th Annual Gala

• 3rd MAUVSA Leadership Camp (MLC3)

I hold MAUVSA right next to my heart. honored and proud each and every day to have been part of this organization. #maallday — Tuan Duong (fb caption for photo above)

2015-Fall

Monthly summits continue

2016 — Spring

ODU VSA joined MAUVSA as the 11th member school on January 30, 2016 at Virginia Polytechnical Institute & State University’s summit.

• MAUVSA Advance Conference V held February 26–28, 2016 at the Westfields Marriott Conference Center in Chantilly, Virginia\
• Co-Executive Directors: Tiffany Nguyen & An Ho

• ELECTION: 8th MAUVSA Executive board Crysta Tran — President, Dennis Truong — IVP, Daniel Luu — EVP, Tiffany Nguyen — Treasurer, Tina Nguyen — Secretary

2016 — Summer

• MAUVSA becomes the #1 fundraising region for UNAVSA’s CPP “Kids Without Borders”

• MAUVSA Gala 2016 : photos

• 4th MAUVSA Leadership Camp (MLC4) [photos]

• MAUVSA attends UNAVSA’s 13th Conference“Light the Way” in Boston, MA

2016 — Fall

MAUVSA attends Miss Vietnam DC 2015 — a notable Midwest alum, Jessica Phan, wins!

10th Anniversary of first meeting to plan the union.

2017— Spring

MAUVSA Advance Conference VI: Making Waves

February 10 — February 12 at the Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park

2017 — Summer

10th Anniversary since the establishment and signing of MAUVSA’s constitution.

Special Thanks

Crysta Tran for asking the question that kick-started this post.

Hoainam Nguyen for historical corrections, accuracy, and taking the time to parse through my own historical mis-rememberings of dates. double thanks for double checking this after I had published. (probably triple checked after posting again)

Tiffany Nguyen for filling in the the gaps in the most recent years and providing me with links to photos and more.

Long Nguyen for always taking pictures and being there for the community.

Tuan Duong for supporting the organization, community, and myself as a great friend and brother.

Everyone who made their photos available online and on facebook for me to include.

All the leaders and members who’ve made these last 10 years a absolute joy for our community through smiles and hardwork.

I am only a human with fallible memory. Please email me at nguyenhstephen@gmail.com if you would like to add, correct, and format this post. (I will give you permission and instructions to directly edit).

Fin?

The Mid-Atlantic Union: 10 Years and Beyond was originally published in MAUVSA Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are the fastest growing ethnic group in the country. For this reason, our voices are more important now than ever in building an inclusive American society for our community. In a world where health care, immigration, and education policies have an increasingly profound impact, we must ensure we understand how these policies affect our friends and families, especially as these policies are being evaluated throughout the next several months on a national level. Here are a few important such policies:

• The Affordable Care Act (abbreviated as ACA or known as “Obamacare”), which has granted an estimated 20 million Americans easier access to health insurance coverage, even for those with pre-existing conditions.
• The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which has given undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors an opportunity to attend school and to work without fear of deportation.
• The Trump administration’s school choice proposal to vastly expand charter and private school options by implementing a voucher program, which, according to the Government Accountability Office, would “exacerbate inequity by directly draining critical funding ($20 billion) away from public schools — often the schools that need that funding most.”

One of the most meaningful ways we Vietnamese Americans, as part of the AAPI community, can take charge of our political awareness is through civic engagement: working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivations necessary to make that difference. As defined by Stanford Professor Thomas Ehrlich, civic engagement means “promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.” Youth organizations like Vietnamese Student Associations (VSAs) and larger network community organizations such as Unions of Vietnamese Student Associations (UVSAs) can make a significant impact in Vietnamese communities across the country by educating and priming their members to become civically and politically engaged leaders within their respective communities. What notably makes these organizations special is the opportunity for their alumni to come back and be a part of that preparation for future leaders.

We, as alumni of several different Vietnamese youth organizations across the country, ask everyone to prioritize the creation, strengthening, and incorporation of civic engagement activities as part of your core leadership development efforts — both at the local and national levels. We believe increasing civic engagement educational opportunities should be a fundamental component of local, regional, and national Vietnamese leadership conferences and summits. We also believe this is essential in helping constituents become more civically and politically engaged. In a political climate with highly elevated tensions, now more than ever is the time for Vietnamese Americans to unite and work at the forefront to ensure our communities are informed and prepared to address possible changes.

The Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations (UNAVSA), UVSA, and VSA conferences and summits have been the cornerstone of leadership development and have served as an inspiration to Vietnamese American youth across the nation. These spaces provide a great opportunity for our constituents to be exposed to, learn about, and participate in civic engagement. Civic engagement is essential to leadership development as we strive to nurture leaders who are well-informed and are capable of advocating for our communities.

The nature of civic engagement activities need not be partisan, and would ideally address the pressing issues our community face today, including the aforementioned health care, immigration, and education policies. The first step is understanding the policies that affect our communities: we need to be able to interpret policies, discuss issues with our peers, and develop the skills and competencies to influence policy decisions. When we have a better understanding of key issues and their effects, we are able to better advocate for our communities.

If you are looking to be more civically engaged, please reach out to your local VSA, UVSA, or related Vietnamese youth organization and help build and start the momentum on civic engagement activities. For those who hold a leadership position within your youth organization and are interested in starting discussions around civic engagement, the following are some examples of how you can incorporate civic engagement within your organizational programming:

• Host a workshop on the foundation and importance of civic engagement, with historical examples of where desired changes have followed as a result
• Convene a roundtable discussion on the possible impacts of civic engagement with community advocates, elected representatives, etc.
• Run a simulation on creating and running a campaign on a college campus, including petitioning and garnering support for a student issue

Additionally, if you are interested in offering yourself as a resource to Vietnamese youth organizations, whether to speak, present a workshop, or provide additional information and resources on civic engagement, please complete the form at the following link to be entered into our civic engagement contacts database at http://bit.ly/signcivicopenletter.

You have a large resource of veteran members from various community organizations who are willing and eager to provide you with the support you need to accomplish this goal. Should you require any assistance (e.g., finding speakers to discuss civic engagement, finding topics to discuss with your group/organization, etc.), please feel free to reach out to us using our emails — we are here for YOU.

It is more important than ever for our community to be vigilant, unwavering, and united.

Sincerely,

Dedicated Alumni

Amber Nguyen, Former President, MAUVSA

Anh Nguyen, Former President, UNAVSA

Arlene Ho, Former Secretary, UVSA of Southern California

Bao Nguyen, Founder, VIA-1 Conference

Brian Vo, Former President, UNAVSA

Chan Huynh, Board Member and Former President, UVSA Midwest

Crystal Huynh-Kim, Former President, UVSA of Northern California

Dan Huynh, Former President, UNAVSA

Dat Nguyen, Former External Vice-President, UNAVSA

Frank Huynh, Former External Vice-President, UNAVSA

Elaine Hang, President, Asian Pacific Association at Dickinson College

Eric Nguyen, External Vice-President, UVSA Midwest

Gee-Wey Yue, Founder & Former President, UVSA South

Hoang Nguyen, Former President, UVSA Midwest

Hop Hoang, Former Treasurer, UNAVSA

Huy Tran, Former Internal Vice-President, UNAVSA

Jacklin Nguyen, Former Internal Vice-President, UVSA Midwest

Jessica Phan, Chairwoman and Former President, UVSA Midwest

Kathy Trieu, UVSA Midwest

Kim Vu, Former External Vice-President, UNAVSA

Long Nguyen, Former President, MAUVSA

Lucy Tran, Former Internal Vice-President, UNAVSA

Lyana Ton, Former Internal Vice-President, UVSA of Southern California

Michael Nguyen, Former Internal Vice-President, UVSA of Southern California

Minh Tanh Nguyen, Former External Vice-President, UNAVSA

My-Ha Moon, Former Internal Vice-President, MAUVSA

My-Phuong Ly, Former President, UNAVSA

Nick Ngo, Former Secretary, UNAVSA

Phong V. Ly, Former President, UVSA of Southern California

Phong Nguyen, Former President, SWUVSA

Regina Nguyen, Former President, MAUVSA

Rich Tran, Mayor, City of Milpitas, California

Stephen Nguyen, Former President, MAUVSA

Steven Huynh, Board of Advisor & Former President, UVSA South

Tam Phan, Former President, UVSA of Northern California

Thoa Kim Nguyen, Founder & Former President, SWUVSA

Thuc Nguyen, Founder, UVSA Midwest

Tieu-Y Ng, Former Treasurer, UVSA of Southern California

Tina Li, Former President, SWUVSA

Tu-Anh Dang, Former Internal Vice-President, UVSA of Northern California

Tuan Duong, Former President, MAUVSA

Victor Nguyen-Lieu, Former Secretary, UNAVSA

Vinh Tran, Former President, IVSU

Vu Dinh, Former Internal Vice-President, UVSA of Southern California

Vu Thai, Former Executive Secretary, UNAVSA

To sign this letter, please visit: http://bit.ly/signcivicopenletter
To contact any alumni listed here, please visit: http://bit.ly/contact-alumni

—

This letter was conceived, written, and edited in collaboration with peers in the AAPI Action Slack group. These words are as much mine as much as they are the signers to this letter. Contribute to the conversation by joining us on slack at http://aapiaction.org

Open Letter for More Civic Engagement was originally published in OpenAAPI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I’m not wearing black at the moment…

nor have a blacked out profile picture, or have something scribbled on my wrist. These are absolutely valid methods of paying remembrance, building solidarity, and building awareness, just not the way I choose to see today. The historians see today in many lights, the day Saigon fell to the communist government to be later officially renamed as Ho Chi Minh city, the day that United States engagement in the Vietnam War officially ended.

Wikipedia has it defined in Vietnamese the following ways.

• “Ngày mất nước” (Day we Lost the Country)
• “Tháng Tư Đen” (Black April)
• ”Ngày Quốc Nhục” (National Day of Shame)
• “Ngày Quốc Hận” (National Day of Resentment) by Overseas Vietnamese.

For me today historically is the as the approximate date where it was finally “official” that the shit truly hit the fan for hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese people regardless of political leanings and involvement.

I didn’t wink into existence until 12 years after April 30th, 1975, so the past is best told in short through my parent’s very abbreviated story .

My father, the youngest of 7 children left Vietnam several years prior on a plane, his elder siblings being educated in America were able to see the writing on the wall and had the resources and advise from mentors in American to make moves early. On the other hand, My mother found herself stuck in Nha Trang, a beach town due north of Saigon, where she stayed attempting to finish up her high school education, which would be crucial to her survival as she was the oldest of 9 siblings who would migrate to America. It wasn’t for several years passing that she was convinced by friends to make the exodus that lasted 1 year and nearly killed her at one point and stranded her in the Philippines at another. Vietnam will always be their home and by that extension my own ancestral home.

It’s been ~40 years since they both originally left

That year my parents lost the stability and a hope of a democratically governed Vietnam but found that with each other and a little bit of luck, endless hard work, and great attitude you could rebuild and create your own happiness, despite the uncertainty that lay ahead. It’s been ~40 years since they both originally left and they are still smiling and taking each day as it comes with a sense of optimism. My dad, a retired architect from Dewberry Davis, is still drawing up plans for new construction in his free time and my mom, an entrepreneur, is still running a successful nail salon that is nearing it’s own 20 year anniversary. They took a poor situation and built nothing but happiness and family in a new location.

Today & Tomorrow.

I never get nostalgic about all that came to pass or “could’ve been”, it’d be ridiculous to do so, I wasn’t alive during the time. These thoughts are rarely helpful in guiding me forward.

Today, represents a moment where my family and relatives proved they could persevere forward past that chaotic event.

Tomorrow, I see as a day where we will continue to do so despite what comes our way.

-Me

let me know if you think something from this + grammar (I can write code but can barely english)
nguyenhstephen@gmail.com or twitter @stephenitis

afterthoughts #

why take so much effort into blogging and adding photos to my thought when I could just silently reflect by myself?

This is really for my children and family to see and read one day if they ever decide to look back and wonder what their father, uncle, or great grand cousin thought about his existence as a second generation Vietnamese American. It’s how, I, as a mid 20 year old choose to express myself and hope that these thoughts live on and persist to hopefully shed some light on who I am and how I hope to live. The stories of my elders are seldom recorded and thus risk becoming lost. It’s important for me to snapshot my thoughts for those that come after me so they can disagree, love, hate, and maybe understand who I am and the actions that follow.

pay it forward #

Pay it forward and volunteer for your local community w/ volunteer match where you can.

Here are some organizations that have proven to me how awesome they truly are donate, volunteer, or just read their blogs and follow them!

• Catalyst Foundation (Minneapolis, MN — fights trafficking and runs a culture camp you can volunteer for in the US)
• MAUVSA (DC, VA, MD, and NC — building confident young Vietnamese American leaders across the Mid-Atlantic)
• Children of Vietnam (North Carolina, USA — serves the disabled, ill, and homeless families regain dignity and independence)
• Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation (Sydney, Australia — helps save trafficked children, check out their blog)

“Here is to the future.”

Dear Amber, Crysta,

I found it absolutely refreshing and fitting to see that our community has two extremely talented ladies stepping up to lead MAUVSA. Gender diversity in leadership and teams is greatly undervalued in many professional environments and I’ve seen this very painfully first hand in a great majority of technology companies. Having strong women and men bringing ideas to the conversation is a truly understated competitive advantage.

So often we fail to reflect and connect dots that are our skills and experiences within MAUVSA to those outside in our professional careers. Tuan has shown us very clearly that you can bring ideas from a separate world into MAUVSA and build an enduring culture that has really redefined the experience. I look forward to seeing you both connect those dots and continue to move the ball forward.

You have my fullest support in the decisions you make and the teams you build over the next term. I hope that the rest of your board and staff fights… truly fights for that opportunity to sit at your table because you both have worked very hard.

In case I don’t express it enough. I am very proud to be your friend ever since we first met many years ago.. Just in case you forgot lets take a quick ride down memory lane.

Enjoy the ride in the driver seat & cheers to the Future of MAUVSA!

Stephen Nguyen

To The Future. was originally published in MAUVSA Momentum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How current challenges in the next 2 years might shape the next 20 years.

The Union of North American Student Associations (UNAVSA) is heading into it’s 12th Year. With the steadycomes some large difficult financial challenges.

tldr. UNAVSA manages growing funds but have very few personell to attend to it. Hop needs to build processes. Rising expenses are big threats to keeping conference cost manageable. Sustainable solutions are wanted.

Show me the Money.

UNAVSA moves around a surprising amount of Moolah, aka $$$, aka money. The annual conference takes months of planning, coordination amongst dozens of teams, and can cost can vary anywhere between $40,000 to $70,000 in recent years by my rough estimate.

The Collective Philanthropy Project, CPP, annually kickstarts another nonprofits dreams with funds anywhere from $50,000 to a jaw dropping $85,000 for One Body Village, an organization whose mission is to combat child sex exploitation and trafficking. CPP funds have to be funneled from grassroots Vietnamese Student Organizations into UNAVSA and then audited to ensure the hard raised promise is fulfilled upon.

These two big ticket items on top of general operations make finding time to improve financial processes a CFO’s nightmare.

In Hop We Hope.

This board brings a familiar face in Hop Hoang having worked on critical infrastructure such as the online conference registration system and served previously as conference sponsorship director. He brings two important skill sets, technical know how and a broad perspective on UNAVSA’s financial picture. It’s yet to be determined if a worthy successor to lead sponsorship has been found but it surely leaves me wondering who will fill his shoes to bring in sponsor revenue for the years to come. Financial procedures and process building faces rocky transitional periods from one Finance Officer to the next. Best practices easily get lost in translation and knowledge is scattered across several individuals, paper documents, and various spreadsheets over the years.

“UNAVSA’s GuideStar Account, a universally trusted online resource in nonprofit accountability, was last updated 3 years ago in 2011.”

Another hurdle to the Hop’s job is the inflation of cost across all categories and the growing demand to broadly reimburse more expenses covered initially by willing donors.

Plan for the worst

“BUT BUT STEPHEN! UNAVSA is still here, its gotta be in the all green right?”

The most uncounted expense to UNAVSA is in-kind travel by UNAVSA’s own staff to leadership training, retreats, and the conference itself. Conference Staff itself is huge but it has been general prior policy to partially cover registration cost for the multitude of volunteer staff who still have to calculate hotel, transportation, and food.
UNAVSA conference itself experiences financial uncertainty due to hosting the conference in unique and challenging new settings every year and work hotel contracts with new hotel event staff. The contract for space alone for a 400+ person conference of this magnitude are astronomical and to my estimates can reach $40,000 alone.

“The contract for space alone for a 400+ person conference of this magnitude are astronomical and to my estimates can reach $40,000 alone.”

Traveling from region to region has enabled UNAVSA to spread it’s message wide and clear to fresh audiences. Having the logistics and finance committees go through that experience of scouting, vetting, and negotiating a new location each year may be a positive developmental skill. With a shrinking list of regions actively bidding to bring the conference to their backyard it becomes increasingly attractive thought to bring repeat business back to previous host hotels that provided excellent service at more reasonable rates.

“As a broke college student, my life would be drastically different if the cost to attend conference was $100 higher in any way in 2007.”

Students != $$$

It is absolutely an amazing experience to participate in a UNAVSA conference but the cost for a single attendee can range from several hundred to nearly a thousand dollars depending on variable prices, location, and responsible spending. This organization in many ways has changed my life in ways unthinkable and I have much to owe the UNAVSA/MAUVSA community for my own personal growth. At UNAVSA’s 4th conference the words “Be ready to take a seat at the table when given the opportunity” stuck with me and led me to challenge myself to grow my own skills, leadership and otherwise. As a nearly broke college student, my life would be drastically different if the cost to attend conference was $100 higher in 2007, I would’ve just stayed home.

I can only imagine the worse when it comes to a student with today’s debt and cost of tuition rising faster than inflation. I fear that conference fees can rise to a point where it is prohibitive for people to pay for the flight + registration + hotel + food expense. How many leaders will the organization fail to reach as a result? We will never know because they just won’t be there to take a seat at the table. UNAVSA has made efforts in providing resources to assist in helping a student self fund their own expenses but this is hardly a catch-all solution.

“Who cares”

Seriously who gives a carebear? If you don’t have all the facts in hand it becomes hard to truly empathize with a organization’s needs. There are visible gaps in the community stakeholder’s knowledge about the current financial needs of UNAVSA and it’s constituents. If the board can provide more consistent reporting to current and potential donors it may align to open the floodgates for more consistent individual, corporate contributions, and possibly grants. UNAVSA’s GuideStar Account, a universally trusted online resource in nonprofit accountability, was last updated 3 years ago in 2011 and that last snapshot paints a portrait of tight margins of survival. The long term consequence of opacity is leaving promising new initiatives without the budgetary foundation to have a fighting chance.

There are glimmers of light outside of the immediate control of the Executive Board in the alumni who invest in our community. Financially successful individuals such as Anh Nguyen, former UNAVSA President and State Farm owner, is a consistent supporters and banner sponsors. Huy Duong, Technology Entrepreneur, established a visionary scholars program bringing a special students from around the country covering room, board, and providing extra mentorship. The Executive board’s biggest advantage is it’s ever interested and invested alumni network which it has been getting better at engaging with by building funds such as the the alumni registration scholarships.

The question is truly around sustainable funding . The 2 year revolving door of elected leadership lends itself to some variability in fiscal responsibility. The often overlooked role of finance is surely critical to the health of UNAVSA and yet it is the least contested elected seat in UNAVSA board. If more fiscal leaders don’t step up the the plate ready to serve with ideas and talent who knows if the organization can weather the future. This all lent me to go down this winding road to draw up this post about the real dangers and to begin the discussion around how to address them.

Tell me how you feel tweet me at @stephenitis I’ll make public note of edits and apologize ahead of time if I got details wrong.

About Me: This is a independent blogpost on my thoughts, fears, and hopes for a organization I hold very dear. Thoughts expressed in this blogpost are my own. I’ve attended several conferences, led in various positions in MAUVSA’s executive board and served on various conference committees with a focus on the Collective Philanthropy Project.

and all I got was an apology from Facebook.com…

I have been surprised to hear anecdotally and sometimes through screenshots or copy paste events the versions of events that Joseph Nam Do decides to tell.

I do not deny or even disparage that Joseph has been an active individual in the local Vietnamese American Community. I do take issue with the harm that he brings to the community by privately spreading information and conversation points that is more akin to outright WAT? worthy.

Three bits of useful community advice because its nice not to have a hate-filled rant of a blog post.

1. Be humble. Leading our community is not about taking individual credit for every organization or event you’ve helped. It’s lovely to be recognized and appreciated for volunteer work but great work can and should nearly speak for itself. The best leaders in general publicly promote the work of their peers. With any good event or organization there is a team of people who sacrifice and work tirelessly. It’s not a one man army, if it is you are doing it wrong.

2. The Internet Never Forgets. Be careful about disparaging other community leader’s work. What you say online, offline, and through asynchronous communication like email and facebook chat will leak. If it isn’t productive don’t bother saying it out loud.

3. Be inclusive. Our community is full of diversity from recent immigrants, 1st/2nd/3rd generation vietnamese, individuals exploring their past, or just loving their culture. Speaking Vietnamese is in no way is required to being apart of the Vietnamese community. The goal should be to make sure the community organizations are open and inclusive for all those who wish to play a part, yadda yadda coalition building. I can speak Vietnamese, I’m not giving any speeches anytime soon, but that does not make me any more or less “vietnamese” than you yourself.

4. What is your motive, mission? You may not know it but if people around you are constantly wondering what your motives are, the whys, behind your community involvement they will always keep you at arms length. I know I have.

The ceiling to being a “friend” nowadays on Facebook is extremely low. Just be a friend of a friend at a party at a meetup who knows a friend of a friend. The barrier to being blocked on Facebook has always been much higher, I can probably count the names (whom I’ve forgotten by now) on one hand. When someone shows consistent irrationality what else can I do? Maybe we should all filter the bad noise more often.

Facebook I accept your apology.

I’m located in San Francisco, California now after living 25 years of my life around Virginia enjoying my passion for community building. My motive and self perceived role is to serve as role model and/or thought leader to other fellow Vietnamese individuals to be creative, honest, and follow their entrepreneurial endeavors. I hope you find my thoughts thoughtful, rational, and reasonable if not send 140 chars to @stephenitis.

If you are interested in Startups, Technology, Education. Feel free to send me a YO! my username is STEPHENITIS.

FACT: We are all have ADD tendencies when surfing the internets. Its how you go from “lets wikipedia that character on game of thrones” to being a expert of Westeros and the 7 kingdoms in 10 hours and 99999 links later.

Content’s primary job to be done is “TO BE READ AND UNDERSTOOD”. Content that has less distraction and focuses the reader does a better job.

Sendgrid, the literal USPS of the internet deliver emails like a boss, made their blog post 100pixels more readable and less distracting and as a result has 100pixels more of my hard earned developer ADD prone focus.

But… What about the other 99 links I want to send them to?

Don’t. All the options of navbar and header are somehwat helpful when a user lands on blog piece but not after they decide to consume your content. If you give them 99 the warp pipes they may never come back.

Case: Sendgrid’s blog.

This is a great example of giving a user everything on the outset.

All I see are exit signs.

before I have a chance to process the headline yet alone the opening paragraph I’m bombarded with exit signals and distractions.

They recently implemented hiding the navbar on scroll down which makes their content a bazillion times better when I want to focus in.

The moment the reader wants to exit they just have to make the move to scroll back up again. An additional improvement might be if they subtly centered their content and slightly hid their side widgets. (I’m looking for a good example out there that does this)

Case #2 : Safari on IOS

Want to read? Menus disappear like magic.

There are some simple libraries that will help you implement this behavior on your site. a recently popular one is headroom.js is that it hides the distraction when they make the simple decision to scroll down.

Last Case: Medium

Medium, this site you are reading this one, does one of the best jobs at not distracting you. Seriously, did you even notice the navigation options? Did you click on another relevant article until you hit the bottom which you are about to do? Did you hit 99 other links before getting to this sentence? probably not. simplify the cruft around your content. We have enough distractions already IRL.

tldr — hide header when I scroll down and want to view the content

p.s nice job sendgrid, apple, and medium