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May 11, 2006 • Volume 14 Number 17
"I'm grateful to be at a university, and in an area, where you are encouraged - even expected - to help make a difference in people's lives." óAnnie Le '07
Teaching and Understanding
Preparing for future, scholarship winner wants to learn about Vietnam's past
By Sean Smith
Chronicle Editor
Annie Le '07 may not have completely grasped the fact that she is the winner of the 2006 Asian American Scholarship, but she is doing her best to put her achievement in perspective.
"I'm still trying to process it," she says. "I think, though, the significance of this award is that what I've done at Boston College has meant something - that I'm doing a bit more than just participating.
"If so, I am definitely honored, and I want to live up to the expectations this award represents," says Le, who was presented with the scholarship by University President William P. Leahy, SJ, at a banquet on April 28.
Le probably doesn't have to worry about fulfilling that goal, based on her track record thus far. The Lynch School of Education student from Canoga Park, Calif., is credited with helping revitalize the Boston College Vietnamese Students Association (VSA), of which she is co-president. She also has served as assistant director of the AHANA Leadership Academy, which encourages AHANA students to develop leadership skills while attaining academic excellence.
Her dedication to the Asian American community - one of the key criteria for the scholarship, which covers 75 percent of the recipient's senior year tuition - has extended beyond the BC campus. Le has been active with the Intercollegiate Vietnamese Students Association, and last year helped organize a conference on the 30th observance of the fall of Saigon that brought together generations of Vietnamese to seek common ground.
The event had more than a little personal meaning for Le, whose parents emigrated from South Vietnam to the United States during the early 1980s.
"Growing up, I didn't understand why my parents were so strongly anti-Communist, and why they felt the way did about Vietnam," she explains. "They had these intense, complex feelings which came through, but at the same time they just wouldn't talk about them. I found this to be the case for a lot of Vietnamese kids of my age, that there was a lack of understanding between generations.
"Holding one conference isn't going to change everything all at once, but our hope was that it might be a beginning of a broader, ongoing discussion."
Addressing generational differences between Vietnamese isn't the only ambitious task on Le's plate. She is dedicated to public education, and plans to pursue a teaching career in an urban school setting.
"I've always been interested in teaching, but I developed a passion for working in public schools since I've been at BC," says Le, who has taught at Brighton and Quincy high schools as part of her LSOE coursework. "I think it really hit me when I visited a high school in the western suburbs. The disparity in resources between that school and the urban schools was eye-opening. I want to work to lessen the differences in educational opportunities for students, to close the gap that exists because of a lack of resources."
This summer, Le hopes to combine professional and personal interests by working in Dorchester with at-risk Vietnamese youths.
"I'm grateful to be at a university, and in an area, where you are encouraged - even expected - to help make a difference in people's lives," says Le, who praised the scholarship's other finalists - juniors Whitnie Low, MyHanh Tran, Lauren Tran and Lindsay Varquez - for their service and commitment. •