Diversity

BLOG

Our blogs are original pieces contributed by our team, program advocates and podcast listeners. We invite you to share your personal journals, creative writing or artwork that sheds light on our diaspora stories and experiences. If you would like to contribute, please submit here.

Tracy Dong

Jul 10, 2023

2 Years, 2 Weeks, 2 Hours

My parents spent most of their adulthood escaping terror, living under governmental oppression, and hanging on to their lives. There was no

Paulina Vo

Apr 3, 2023

Fish Sauce

My sister was proud, because her house didn’t smell like fish sauce. I lived with her so I did too, because we both knew, kids in school

Alison Hong Nguyen Lihalakha

Nov 22, 2022

Cinnamon Spaghetti

Thanksgiving is here, and every year on this holiday, I think back to my childhood when I saw on television and in magazines the incredible

Brian Hoang

Feb 1, 2022

The Year of the Tiger Through Art

Most of the Asian art I saw in pop culture or art class growing up was Japanese and Chinese. At the time, I generalized it and just thought

Elwing Suong Gonzalez

Jan 19, 2022

My People

Growing up mixed-race in a Vietnamese refugee family in Los Angeles in the era of "Vietnam" = Vietnam War, the legacies of the war,...

vy4744

Nov 3, 2021

Về Nhà

Identity in high-school was this: a page long resume full of the things that you'd done, and a series of answers to an even longer...

Việt Kiều: foreigner in a familiar country

Brandon Nguyen

Sep 14, 2021

Việt Kiều: foreigner in a familiar country

The word việt kiều means “Overseas Vietnamese” according to Google Translate, but the word carries so many layered connotations depending on

Phoung-Cac Nguyễn

Jul 27, 2021

Say My Name

I hadn’t fully grasped it until most recently, but my identity has always been amorphous. When I came of age in Southern California,

Kwinnie Lê

Jul 14, 2021

a father's passport

my father does not know me by my name / from that moment on / all was forgotten / I watch him burn his passport / headfirst into fire / male

Jackie Reed

Jan 12, 2021

A Rough Transition Into A New Year

Like many Americans last week, I watched thousands of rioters invade the Capitol building and shred us of our nation’s dignity. As an...

Jenn Nguyen

Nov 17, 2020

Lessons of Intergenerational Trauma

Anger helped raise me. As a child, I felt my dad was always angry. He has propelled into a yelling fit over dirty cups in the kitchen sink,

Jackie Reed

Oct 28, 2020

Wishful Thinking

The Vietnamese zodiac is a repeating 12-year cycle based on the lunar calendar. The Vietnamese zodiac resembles the Chinese zodiac, but...

A Future Outside My Parents' Imagination

Wind Meets West

Oct 20, 2020

A Future Outside My Parents' Imagination

It's December in New York City, it’s cold in the Uber coming home from Williamsburg at 5am. I drank too much again, cigarettes and alcohol..

Tracey Nguyen Mang

Oct 13, 2020

Happy Birthday to Us

Two years ago, on Oct 10, 2018 I published my first podcast episode 'Prelude', a ten minute soliloquy of what it was like growing up ...

Tracey Nguyen Mang

Sep 22, 2020

Thank You 2020 Ambassadors

As our 2020 Ambassador Program comes to a close for the year, we want to thank this amazing group. They joined our team at the height of the

Immigrants (and their children), we get the job done

Meghan Coyle

Sep 1, 2020

Immigrants (and their children), we get the job done

I’ve had as many jobs as most people twice my age. In fifth grade, I started walking my neighbor’s dog every day for $10 a week. At the...

Cuong Quy Huynh

Aug 25, 2020

From Refugee Camps of Malaysia

In September of 1979, my family and I left the refugee camps of Malaysia to travel to the airport...How lucky I felt to be leaving...

jhoang0352

Aug 18, 2020

Pride

I also think about the hard times endured, such as instances of racism and trying to find my place in a majority white organization.

Valerie Nguyen

Aug 11, 2020

What is in a Name?

I hated my last name “Nguyễn.” In grade school and even in college, my name was butchered and no one made the effort to ask me...

Independence and Identity during the Black Lives Matter Movement

Bella

Jul 3, 2020

Independence and Identity during the Black Lives Matter Movement

Today, 244 years later, with the Fourth of July only a few days away tears are falling down my face as I type - I am sad. I am disappointed.