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Helping Vietnamese Students Integrate into Campus Community
Coordinator serves as a vital resourse to Vietnamese students as well as a proactive advocate for mutual understanding and stronger relationships between the university and the Vietnamese-American community.

September 29, 2005
By Gail Matsunaga

For much of her adult life, Son Kim Vo, coordinator of the Intercultural Development Center, has been an ambassador of sorts. As a Vietnamese refugee at the Pulau Bidong Refugee Camp in Malaysia in 1981, she was appointed camp leader and attended receptions and other official events put on for the volunteers who came from other countries to help all who had fled their homelands.

During her 18 years at Cal State Fullerton, Vo has served as a vital resource — and at times, family — to Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American students, as well as a proactive advocate for mutual understanding and stronger relationships between the university and the Vietnamese-American community.

Q: How did the Intercultural Development Center come about?
A: There was a little friction between the Vietnamese students and the faculty and staff, which came from miscommunication and misunderstanding on both sides. The students assumed they were being discriminated against, and faculty thought the students were keeping to themselves.

Q: Why did faculty think the students were keeping to themselves?
A: In class, students didn’t participate because of language, and also, it was a cultural thing. They listen out of respect to the faculty. Bob Erickson conducted a survey and found that students were unhappy, so he created the center. At that time, I was working at the California Department of Social Services and served on the CSUF minority student affairs advisory board. Bob asked me to distribute fliers to the community for a job at the center, which I applied for. The job was to promote cultural awareness and advise Asian students, specifically Southeast Asians.

Q: What changes have you seen in the Vietnamese students over the years?
A: When I first started this job, most of the students came here by themselves, with no family, so they used the center as a second home. The students today are like many American students, but they still have problems. Their parents give them advice, but they check with me to see whether it’s “good” or not. Even though I’m old they trust me because I received my education in the United States, so I have a different view.

Q: In what ways has the Vietnamese-American community come to know Cal State Fullerton?
A: They know the university through me, through their children — who are being educated here — and with the services we provide. They like the idea that the Vietnamese students have a cultural night during the spring. Initially, the students had difficulty organizing it, because their families said they had to be home — they didn’t understand and didn’t trust their children. So, I asked the students to invite their families to come, and that’s how I brought the community to the university.

Q: What goals did you set for yourself and the center?
A: One, a Vietnamese language program. Two, I wanted to bring Vietnamese culture to other students. Three, I want to create a Southeast-Asian center — to serve not only the community, but nationally. Four, to have an exhibit about the lives of the Vietnamese people, which I was able to do [“The Long Journey of Courage, 1975-2005 — Vietnamese Americans in the U.S.,” earlier this year in the Atrium Gallery].Three of the goals I have accomplished. I am committed to working toward an Asian resource center — if American business people wanted information regarding their business project in Vietnam or Cambodia, we could provide them with it, or we can put them in connection with the resources in those countries. This center will store statistical data, materials and community organization profiles that faculty and staff can use.

Q: Do you feel that the Vietnamese-American community feels close to Cal State Fullerton?
A: Yes, specifically because of the exhibit. I was asked very often, “How could the university let you do such an exhibit?” The image they have is that Cal State Fullerton is pro-communist, because of our connection with Vietnam — our relationships with universities there. I am bringing back the image of higher institution leadership training; the university has assumed a role of training leaders for Vietnam since 1969.

Q: Because of the programs you’ve developed and the support you’ve received, do you think Cal State Fullerton has attracted more Vietnamese-American students?
A: Yes, the center and the students themselves — the leaders — have. In youth organizations in the community, our students are the leaders; also in the Buddhist temples and in churches. They introduce [other students] to me like recruiters. I’ve been thinking about retiring, but the students tell me, “No, you can’t, because I told my friend that you would be here, so you have to stay another year.”

 


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Son Kim Vo
Son Kim Vo


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