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jtranvisionary · 7 years ago

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My Community, My Vision

What is your vision for the Vietnamese community?

“Community? I don’t even know what that word means.” This was my attitude growing up as a Vietnamese Canadian, lacking a community and its support.

My vision is to establish a community and empower youth on multiple levels: locally, nationally, and continentally. My vision is to provide clarity, guidance, and unity in our cultural identity to allow for preservation of our cultural heritage.

I mentioned this in my “Growing up Vietnamese Canadian” section about my lack of community, struggles of having two cultures, and general cultural identity crisis. The future I imagine is one where first generation Vietnamese-Canadians, like myself, can show how prideful we are in showcasing our Vietnamese and Canadian roots. We will inspire the second generation to embrace both sides of our identity equally. I imagine a future where children will grow up not ashamed and torn, but rather proud and fulfilled and sure of one’s identity and roots. I talked about how growing up, I felt that I had no community because my parents were not involved in the Vietnamese community and I didn’t have any Vietnamese friends. It wasn’t until I joined VSA as a freshman in university when I started feeling a sense of community and cultural pride. However, I spent 10 years or so, feeling isolated and confused. By joining VSA when I was 18, it was only then when I started to connect to being Vietnamese and being empowered to be a leader. However, there were so many agonizing years wasted because I was in isolation.

In the future, I imagine the “VSA community” starting younger and extending through multiple generations. Through the provision of VSA-like groups for children and youth, children will not feel isolated and confused about identity. They will have peers they can rely on and talk about their struggles, joke with, and feel united as a community. I imagine the social and cultural events VSAs hold now will be completed with the assistance of youth. This will not only evoke a sense of pride and community from an early age, but it gives opportunities for leadership and empowerment. My vision for the community is one that heavily involves youth because they are the future. If we do not let their voices be heard and give them the opportunity to become leaders, who will continue to build and strengthen our community? I imagine that leaders will be inspired not at 18, but at 8. I imagine leaders will start speaking their ideas and invoking change not at 18, but at 8.

In the future, I imagine there are more schools in various regions where youth can be taught to speak, write, and read the beautiful Vietnamese language because once a language is lost, so is the culture. Being able to speak our native tongue will allow the community to be more connected to one another through a shared distinctive language and dual identities.

I envision with the strengthening of our local communities, we will be able to hold larger cultural celebrations where non-Vietnamese can and will attend to learn more about our culture. I envision with the strengthening of our local communities, we will showcase our food and passionately and proudly educate others about the rich flavours and history of the food rather than assimilating into western customs. I envision with the strengthening of our local communities, we will teach youth to be prideful in being Vietnamese, passionate in showcasing our culture, and embracing the opportunities to grow within the community as a leader and as an individual. Ultimately, this stronger sense of community will build an even stronger sense of pride being Vietnamese and being Canadian.

This leads into how we can build a stronger community on the national level. In comparison to the United States where there is a greater abundance of Vietnamese people and more passionate Vietnamese individuals, Canada is lacking. I envision a future where our UVSAs for Eastern and Western Canada will hold even larger cultural, social, and professional events within our own region. In addition, I imagine a unity of VSAs across Canada where Eastern and Western Canada UVSAs can unite, forming UVCA (United Vietnamese Canadian Association). This is where we, as Vietnamese Canadians, can discuss political issues within our community, provide leadership opportunities on a national level, and build a community for individuals connected by a common dual identity.

By creating a stronger community, the future generations will readily embrace our heritage. Instead of feeling isolated in our hardships, we will lean on each other for support in order to maintain, celebrate, and build on celebrating Vietnamese culture. By creating a stronger national Vietnamese Canadian community, we will not only educate our youth but also educate the general Canadian population through making our community presence more apparent within the multicultural mosaic of Canada. Ultimately, the community I envision is one so strong that we can make it possible to bring the UNAVSA conference to Canada where Vietnamese Canadian leaders can showcase their skills, their leadership, and their passion.

UNAVSA stands for Union of North American Vietnamese Students’ Association but often times, I feel like Vietnamese Canadians are underrepresented in this organization, our issues not spoken about, our voices unheard, and our students and youth not passionate enough to become involved. My vision is that in the future, this segregation will no longer exist and that American or Canadian, we as young leaders will be inspired, motivated, and driven by our passion for being Vietnamese and spreading our culture. My vision is a future where there will be a larger representation of Vietnamese Canadians within CORR, cabinet positions, conference family leaders, and within UNAVSA itself. I envision a future where our community is more than our division into Canada and America, but a community that crosses these “lines” and inspires, motivates, and supports each other to achieve greatness, to make a difference, and to inspire change and others. Ultimately, I envision a future where passionate individuals are not only in the American communities, but also in the Canadian communities. When that day comes, we can truly call it UNAVSA. I imagine a Vietnamese North American community that can learn from each other’s struggles and laugh at those struggles as we combat them together. Together, we can talk about the history of our country, the war and the aftermath, and the appreciation we have towards our parents moving to North America to give us a better life. In isolation, we can cross rivers, but as a community, we can cross oceans. In isolation, we can climb hills, but as a community we can climb mountains. In isolation, we can inspire a nation of individuals, but as a community, we can inspire a continent of leaders.

My vision for the future is one where when asked, “Where are you from?” the future generations will proudly stand up as a community and respond,

“I’m Vietnamese Canadian/American.”

And what role do you hope to play in achieving this vision?

Vision and action - that is what I will provide to help achieve this vision.

My parents both wanted to move to North America to start anew and give a better life to their future children aka my brother and I. My mother was reluctant to leave though, her hesitancy fueled by her inability to envision the future. It was my dad who told her, “Trust me. If we work hard, we can make the future brighter, if not for us, at least for our children.” 23 years later, my parents are Canadian citizens with jobs, a house, and provided a brighter future to their two healthy offspring who both attend university. All this was possible because one person, my dad, had a vision and took the steps into making his vision into a reality.

I will provide the vision for change, the voice of the first generation, the bridge between older and younger generations, the passion to inspire, and the leadership to turn this vision into reality.

I’ve shared my vision with a couple of individuals including past visionaries, VSA members from the States, my VSA peers, sponsors, and older generation of the community. The more I talk about my vision, the more I am confident about it as I gain support from those I talk to. Using my experiences and struggles as a first generation Vietnamese-Canadian and my connections to other first-generation offspring, I will work to preserve our culture, educate youth about our roots, and to speak about the issues we have as first generation children.

To help preserve and celebrate our culture, I recently became the spokesperson for Ao Dai Canada, a non-profit Toronto-based organization formed in 2017 that focuses on fostering, preserving, and celebrating the Vietnamese arts and culture. Through this organization, I wish to educate myself in order to educate others about our culture and use it as a platform to be the voice for first generation Vietnamese Canadians. Through gaining exposure from the Miss Vietnam Canada pageant, talking to Vietnamese-run businesses for sponsorship, and attending Vietnamese Canadian Professionals’ Association (VCPA) meetings, I am integrating myself into the older generation. Through these connections, I will be the liaison between the two generations to allow each generation to understand each other, learn from each other, and support each other as we all work on building and strengthening our community. Most importantly, I will provide the passion and leadership to inspire. Running for 2018-2019 UVSA Ontario President, becoming more involved in the community, being a Miss Vietnam Canada contestant, and a spokesperson for Ao Dai Canada shows my passion for the community. Through these positions of leadership, I will use this as a platform to create a stronger community by strengthening connections within Eastern Canada and establishing connections to Western Canada and other regions in the States.

I will create opportunities for first generation youth to become leaders and be empowered. With a stronger community with more support, there will be more opportunities for leadership. I imagine in the future, there will be more female leaders. Instead of feeling oppressed, women will stand up confidently as they lead our community into the future. Growing up, I had very few female role models aside from my mom and that’s something that is lacking in our community. I see this changing in the future as we provide the support and guidance that was lacking before. We will allow females to be empowered and inspired.

Through my struggle growing up as a Vietnamese Canadian, the past leadership positions I’ve held, and my current involvement in the community, I hope to encourage others to embrace their Vietnamese identities and contribute to the unity of our community. I stand up as a proud Vietnamese born Canadian, and I will stand out as a leader to inspire the next generation of leaders. With my vision and action plan, I will ignite a passion in others to stand up with me and to stand out as empowered leaders. With this community of empowered leaders, we can work together to make the vision into reality. In isolation, we can cross rivers, but as a community, we can cross mountains. In isolation, we can climb hills, but as a community we can climb mountains. In isolation, we can inspire a nation of individuals, but as a community, we can inspire a continent of leaders. Like my dad who had a vision for a brighter future, I have the vision, the action plan, and the “leadership… to turn vision into reality.”

#communityvision

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