Garden Grove High School’s Vietnamese American History
On January 10th, UC Irvine’s Southeast Asian Archive, the Vietnamese American Oral History Project (VAOHP), and the Southeast Asian Student Association (SASA) hosted Garden Grove High’s first ever, “Vietnamese American History” class. Twenty-two students under the watchful eyes of teacher Katy Jue and counselor Linda Giuliani were given a tour of the Southeast Asian Archive and Special Collections. During the tour students were able to thumb through a number of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, and Hmong literatures and marvel at artwork gathered by Project Ngoc. Afterwards students were escorted to the Cross Cultural Center to attend a college panel organized by the Southeast Asian Student Association (SASA).
With a new knowledge and perspective in hand, students completed their own mini oral histories for their class and created visual stories of their narrators. According to student Melissa Tran, “It was very interesting and educational. I had a really fun time walking around and reading about all different types of Vietnamese-American history. My favorite part of the trip was reading interviews of those coming to America and getting to ask UCI students questions about college.”
By giving students the opportunity to access UCI, VAOHP is bridging the gap between the university and the community. All too often the fruit of research is only available to a privileged few. It would be a shame that the community that supports these research efforts would be neglected, especially within the Humanities. Therefore, VAOHP has created an interactive digital archive of oral histories available to the public.
In today’s age of convenience and technology, students have the world at their fingertips, so why shouldn’t education and knowledge be the same way? The archive is presented in a way that is user-friendly and visually stimulating. Students can access photographs, transcripts, and audio all at the convenience of their own homes and local libraries without having to drive to UCI or pay for membership. This is the way research should be presented. Ultimately research is done to benefit the community, so why not have the community involved in every milestone?
~Michelle Pham