Dear uNAVSA Community,

uNAVSA-6 served as a monumental conference last week as it recorded the most diverse numbers of attendees ever within conference history. Fueling the conference atmosphere with energy, excitement and the thirst to learn, 350 Vietnamese students and young professional, from 39 different states and Canada, attended conference at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

For the past seven months, the uNAVSA staff dedicated their time and effort into organizing a successful conference. The goal was to provide groundbreaking workshops and speakers, high-performance entertainment and a venue for the Vietnamese American youth of North America to meet, connect and learn from one another.

“Pursue your passion, define your path,” served as the driving force behind this vision to create a memorable weekend. This year’s theme laid the foundation for Vietnamese American youths to look within them selves and find what empowers/motivates them. Our vision was for the conference to help enable Vietnamese American students and young professional along with providing resources and knowledge for them to use in their personal/professional lives and to take back to their communities.

One of many highlights at this year’s conference was the selection of uNAVSA’s next Collective Philanthropy Project recipient. uNAVSA would like to applaud and congratulate the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation as this next year’s CPP.

VAHF’s mission is to document, preserve and promote the heritage of the Vietnamese American community. Their work includes gathering the stories and experiences of the Vietnamese American community.

“The Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation celebrates and promotes our pride as Americans of Vietnamese descent. The Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation provides opportunities for Vietnamese American individuals or organizations to contribute to the betterment of the American society and Vietnamese American community through the understanding of our unique history and heritage” (www.vietnameseamerican.org).

uNAVSA will work with VAHF to support their “500 Oral History Project.”  The project encompasses collecting 500 personal stories of Vietnamese Americans, archiving it and publishing it as an anthology. “So that younger generations of Vietnamese here and in Vietnam, and the American public can hear our side of history, and for American teaching institutions to teach our history” (VAHF).

For more information, please visit VAHF’s website. Please feel free to view one of their accomplished works here VAHF video.

On behalf of the uNAVSA Executive Board and conference staff, we would like to express our gratitude and appreciation for the support from our attendees and the Atlanta Vietnamese community. This year’s success and accomplishments was due to their active involvement within our conference and for the Vietnamese American youth. On top of that, the eBoard would like to thank this year’s conference staff as it was their creativity and hard work that made such a successful conference.

We look forward to seeing old friends and making new friends at next year’s conference, uNAVSA-7.

Nick Ngo
uNAVSA Secretary