Vietnamese American Youth for the Future is a student-run organization for youths to reach out and unite organizations to promote cultural awareness, community involvement, and leadership roles in its members.

 

    Vietnamese American Youth for the Future (from here on known as VAYF) consists of mainly Vietnamese students who reside in the Santa Clara County. The majority of the members are in high school while membership is open to anyone interested. Members are drawn from a variety of different middle schools, high schools, and colleges.  Members share the same goal of self-empowerment of oneself and that of the community, local and overseas. In addition, members share the intuition to regain loss cultural values and roots. Membership and attendance are not restricted to students of Vietnamese ancestry; VAYF welcomes anyone interested in our activities.

    VAYF addresses the needs of families of the community in unique and interactive ways. Intuition and curiosity is the backbone of VAYF. While members have a strong respect for family and cultural values, many feel an increasing curiosity for the Vietnamese culture. Raise and educated in the United States, Vietnamese American students lose the daily exposure of Vietnamese culture and history in school. While many Vietnamese parents help alleviate the curiosity, others, burdened with work and house chores, are unable to provide with same attention.  As one of the main goal, VAYF eases the curiosity among Vietnamese students with interactive group discussions on cultural and family issues.

    VAYF provides an annual 10-week youth leadership project. There will be weekly meetings of two-hours. The first hour will be reserved for discussion sessions and guest speaker sessions, alternating each week. Topics include family values, child abuse, personal identity, and self-intuition. Speakers will be selected from different fields and career paths. The second hour will be designated for the planning of community projects and activities. In addition, activities and excursions are deliberately planned to meet the needs of members. Besides the extensive youth leadership project, VAYF has an ongoing commitment to meet every other week to provide members with discussions, guest speakers, and activities.

    The goal of VAYF is to alleviate cultural curiosity, to self-empower oneself, and to better the community. With discussion seminars held on an ongoing basis, a supportive and safe environment is provided for members to discuss and share arising concerns and issues. In addition, discoveries of cultural information will be shared in member-produced workshop to maximize involvement. In providing a welcoming and encouraging environment, VAYF hopes for members to distribute and apply their new learned knowledge and discoveries. 

The goals of VAYF are rather ambitious, but with an ongoing effort, those will be attained through commitment and hard work.

The presence of Vietnamese youth groups is primarily limited to school clubs. While many schools provide a sufficient meeting place for Vietnamese students, others lack the resources to provide such opportunities. VAYF addresses that need in providing a supportive and safe environment for any interest students regardless of age and school. Furthermore, VAYF hopes to break the barrier of school affiliation and to act as the median of unity for all Vietnamese students. In addition, VAYF will help provide projects and activities for students in a particular school or area if attendance and transportation is a problem.

Another goal of VAYF is the self-empowerment of oneself. Members will be provided with leadership and communication workshops. In addition, guest speakers, particularly Vietnamese Americans, will be invited to share their knowledge, life stories, successes, and advices. Speakers will be drawn from a variety of different fields and career paths to maximize the exposure for members. College and professional mentorship will carefully be arranged for members to meet personal needs. The goal of VAYF’s mentorship program is to create an ongoing relationship where members feel comfortable in seeking questions and advices. Special excursions will be arranged with college campuses and companies to introduce and familiarize members with life beyond high school.

Beyond helping oneself, VAYF’s mission is to help others. Members will be actively involved in community services. One-time activities and ongoing activities will be arranged to allow maximum involvement by members. Activities in the past have included cultural performances, mock-interviews for citizenships, and family festivals. Beyond providing for a supportive community locally, VAYF have assisted in numerous fundraisers to assist third-world nation children without parents. Money donated goes to programs of corrective surgery, education, and emergency relief efforts. VAYF has recently sponsored a corrective heart surgery case, and many more are being considered for the future.