June 7, 2007
What's Summer Without a Beauty Pageant?
OC model hopes to win Miss Vietnam Global contest
By R. SCOTT MOXLEY
Plenty of gorgeous women will vie in this month’s Miss Vietnam Global pageant, but it’s hard not to cheer for Anaheim’s Lyndzi Trang Phan.
The 21-year-old Texas native has breathtaking good looks, poise and smarts. But what’s most impressive is her activism. Phan is president of the Orange County branch of the Vietnam Library Association, a Boston-based nonprofit group. With Phan’s help, the organization is raising money to build libraries in rural southern Vietnam communities.
“Literacy in Vietnam is 90 percent, but they really don’t have any libraries there,” Phan says. “In some places, people have to go 400 or 500 miles to find the nearest library. We want to help change that situation.”
She’s made progress. A family and a Catholic church have donated parcels for the first two libraries. The project also has been approved by Vietnam’s government, although they reportedly have banned books about the American war. That’s no problem for Phan. Her group will initially focus on supplying health-education books and how-to manuals in Vietnamese.
“We think those types of books will immediately benefit the economically disadvantaged people living south of Saigon,” she says. “I’m excited about it.”
In conjunction with the Vietnamese Student Association, Phan plans an October fund-raiser in Orange County.
The youngest in a family of seven that escaped Vietnam after the war, Phan grew up in Texas and graduated from high school at 16. Later, she enrolled on a tennis scholarship at UC Irvine and studied biology.
“I did it to please my parents,” she says. “It was their dream that I would become a doctor. But it wasn’t my passion.”
Last month, Phan graduated from Cal State Fullerton with degrees in business management and accounting. She’s now working for White Zuckerman Warsavsky Luna & Wolf, a Newport Beach accounting firm. That company and the Vietnam Library Association are sponsoring her entry into the pageant, which will be held on June 30 at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. David Q. Le, a pageant official, says he expects 39 other contestants from around the world. Entertainers will include numerous Vietnamese music stars, as well as hosts attorney/refugee activist Hoi Trinh and KCAL Channel 9 news anchor Leena Nguyen. Last year, more than 4,500 people attended the pageant.
Though Phan, a model since her teenage years, has plenty of reasons to cop an attitude, she remains soft-spoken and Lone Star State-sweet.
“I feel the pressure already,” Phan says. “This pageant is very well-organized, and I’ve been working on my stage presence. I hope I do well.”
She’s not the only local contestant. At least two other Orange County residents—Yen Le and Sharla Nguyen—have entered the pageant. They’ll compete for $33,000 in prizes.
Second Annual Miss Vietnam Global at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas, (702) 632-7777. June 30, 7:30-11:30 p.m. For tickets, call (714) 531-4284. $60-$150.