Monday, October 28, 1996
CONFERENCE:
VSU shares information on campus life, financial aidBy Linda
Yoon
Daily Bruin Contributor
Early Saturday morning, volunteers from the Vietnam Student
Union and about 200 students from various high schools gathered in
Young Hall for the 13th Annual Vietnamese Refugee Aids Committee
High School Conference.
Established in 1983, this conference was created by Vietnamese
Refugee Aids Committee (VRAC) to inform and aid the Vietnamese
youth group on the subject of higher education.
Last year, VRAC and the Vietnamese Student Association combined
efforts, became known as Vietnamese Student Union (VSU), and are
presently targeting "at risk" students and exposing them to the
options of colleges and universities.
"We want to target students at risk of dropping out and
hopefully, by bringing them to campus and showing them other
aspects of college life and what it is has to offer … it’ll show
them that when you go to college, you have more options open to
you," said An Le, a third-year Political Science/Asian American
Specialization Studies student and one of four coordinators of the
conference.
According to a 1990 report by the National Association for
Education and Advancement, 38.8 percent of Vietnamese between the
ages of 18 and 24 have less than a high school diploma.
The program hopes to provide high school students with
motivation and assistance, organizers said.
"We want to show them that if they go to college, there’s going
to be a support system there," Le said. "We want them to have
motivation and provide them with role models."
The conference consisted of skits, games, speakers, and
discussions which provided information on financial aid and the
admissions process, followed by a campus tour.
"A lot of students here don’t know what’s going on in terms of
financial aid and how they can get into college, but I think the
program is good in that it helps them be aware of ways to get in
school and ways to get money for school. That’s a big drawback,
especially in the Asian community," said Phuong Huynh, a fifth-year
biochemical student and a volunteer at the conference.
Amanda Morgan, a senior at Bolsa Grande High School, attended
the conference to familiarize herself with college life.
"I wanted to know more about college, I didn’t want to be lost
on the first day on campus, not knowing what’s going on exactly, to
get a little taste of the experience," she said. "You get to know
about the real world, what it’s about, and get to live real life,
not a fake one that people try to make in high school."
According to Le, the main reasons why Vietnamese youth are
reluctant or unable to progress to a higher education level are
parents, cultural clashes and peer pressure.
Most Vietnamese students who attended the conference are first
generations; their parents are immigrants and steeped in old
traditions, according to Le.
This gap between the parents’ traditional beliefs and the
children’s "Americanized" beliefs causes miscommunication and can
lead to rifts in the family system, she added.
Also, because most parents are immigrants, they don’t understand
the American education system and cannot relay the importance of
higher education to their children, said Dan Su, a third-year
political science student and president of VSU.
"We suffer a really big disadvantage because our parents don’t
know much about the education system here (in the U.S.)," Su
said.
Beyond the difference of traditional and modern views, the youth
group is also faced with cultural clashes and the question of
identity: Vietnamese or American?
Many Vietnamese youths are bombarded by peer pressure and gang
life, Le said. With the generation as well as cultural gap between
parent and child, peer pressure is high and many become involved
with gangs because there is no one else to turn to.
"There is this generation gap between parents and children, so
they (the children) have no one else besides their peers, and
that’s perhaps why peer pressure is stronger," Le said.
Despite these problems, Le hopes that outreach programs, such as
the High School Conference, continue to expand and become more
effective. Students like Thanh Phan, a senior at Tustin High
School, responded to the outreach.
"I wanted to come to the conference because I want to go to
college," said Phan. "It answered my questions … and it opened up
my mind."
The bulk of high schools targeted by VSU are located in Orange
County, where there is a concentrated Vietnamese community.
This year, the high schools involved were Santiago, Tustin,
Bolsa Grande, Van Nuys, Cleveland, Lakewood, and San Gabriel.