Celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

To celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion held a special event on May 23 that included impactful guest speakers, Asian cuisine and a partial screening of the documentary "Who Killed Vincent Chin" followed by an engaging discussion.

The guest speakers, AiVi Nguyen, partner at Bowditch & Dewey LLP (and 2019 QCC commencement speaker) and Tuyet Tran, executive director of the Southeast Asian Coalition (SEAC), both spoke about growing up in Vietnamese families and their relationship to their culture now and what they look forward to for the future.

Tran was born in Vietnam and left as a refugee when she was a child. She fled with her sisters but her parents stayed in the country. While she described the experience as traumatizing, she said the real story of her family was one of "love and sacrifice." Her older sister became her guardian and she lived in multiple states across the U.S. before finally settling in Massachusetts.

Nguyen, a Worcester native, told the crowd that her parents were both refugees from Vietnam who met in the U.S. She described Worcester as a diverse city to grow up in; however, as she got older she noticed that there weren't many Asian people in the spaces she would frequent, noting how important representation was for her.

"My hope is that I'm a creator of opportunity. Hopefully, there will be some young Vietnamese girl who sees me and thinks, 'I can be a lawyer too,'" said Nguyen.

When a member of the audience asked about the challenges of raising a multiracial and multicultural family, both Nguyen and Tran offered advice that stressed patience and kindness. Tran described a feeling of not being Vietnamese enough or American enough.

"The older generation put that on me. So don't put it on your kids. Show them that you don't have to be a certain way to be loved. And we should forgive our parents for putting it on us," Tran said.

Nguyen urged the audience to "give people a little grace" as she reflected on how hard it must have been for her parents to learn how to drive and enroll children in school when they were not familiar with the language or culture.

She also praised Tran for being one of the founding members of the SEAC and building it up to be the robust support system that it is today. 

"You are exactly what your parents hoped for," she told Tran.

The SEAC offers a wide range of services from career training to providing a safe space for teens and on June 18, will host the 20th annual Asian Festival at Worcester State College.