The Plight of Vietnamese American Students [p.3]

The Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University houses a Vietnamese American Studies Center (VASC), the only one of its kind in the country. We teach classes in Vietnamese American history, community issues, identity, public health and literature. We also teach beginning and intermediate Vietnamese language classes. We have organized conferences, readings and large events of Vietnamese American artists from throughout the country and try to serve as a bridge between the academic world and the community. We are building a book collection and are doing research pertaining to Vietnamese Americans. We have the largest Vietnamese American curriculum in the country.

This year, we are taking 10 students from SFSU to Viet Nam to study and do humanitarian work. VASC was able to grant them a small fellowship. Students say they want to go to Viet Nam to better understand their parents and know more about who they are. They want to see the home where their parents once lived. We try to assist Vietnamese American students as much as we can. But for us, too, things have not been easy as we are composed of three junior faculty and a lecturer. Our resources are very limited and unpredictable, and we have no assigned time to run the center. It is difficult to say this, but in order for us to better serve our Vietnamese American students, we need more university and community support.

Contributions to the Vietnamese American Studies Center at San Francisco State University are tax deductible. Our fiscal agent is the San Francisco State University Foundation, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Checks should be made out to the San Francisco State University Foundation (VASC). To visit the VASC website, go to: userwww.sfsu.edu/~vasc/index.html.

To visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, go to: www.sfsu.edu/~ssstrio/.

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Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University. She specializes in Vietnamese American literature and actively promotes Vietnamese American cultural work. Her essays and short stories have been published in Making More Waves (1997), Tilting the Continent (2000), and Vietnam Dialogue Inside/Out (2001). Her academic work can be found in Mixed Race Literature (2002), The New Face of Asian Pacific America (2003), Amerasia Journal (2003), and the Michigan Quarterly Review (2005). She is working on a manuscript of Vietnamese American literature.