Vietnam Education Foundation Community Outreach, California

February 10, 2014 (Washington, D.C.)

The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) is pleased to announce its Community Outreach meetings in California:

(1) in Orange County on Saturday, March 8, at 3:00pm at Viet Bao Gallery - 14841 Moran St., Westminster, CA 92683 and

(2) in San Jose on Sunday, March 9, at 3 pm at Berryessa Public Library - 3355 Noble Avenue, San Jose, CA 95132. The meetings are free and open to the public. 

The purpose of these meetings is to share information about VEF. Brief presentations will be made that will also cover the requirements for applying for various VEF grants and scholarships. In addition, VEF Fellowship recipients, who are pursuing graduate degrees in leading California universities, will present their research endeavors via an interactive poster session.

Furthermore, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who is a member of the VEF Board of Directors, will be speaking at the event on Saturday, March 8. 

Several additional VEF Board members from the U.S. Vietnamese-American community will be speaking: Ms. Anhlan Nguyen, IT Portfolio Manager at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Mr. David Duong, CEO of California Waste Solutions; Ms. Quyen Vuong Executive Director, International Children Assistance Network; and Dr. Kim Oanh Nguyen Lam, Director, Advanced Training and Research, International and Foreign Language Education in the Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education.

In addition, a presentation will be given by Dr. Lynne McNamara, VEF Executive Director.  

VEF is an independent U.S. Federal Government agency, whose mission is to build the relationship between Vietnam and the United States through educational exchanges. As per the VEF legislative mandate, VEF activities focus only on the STEMM fields: sciences (natural, physical, and environmental), technology (including information technology), engineering, mathematics, and medicine.  
VEF educational exchange activities consist of three programs: (1) Fellowship Program, which sends Vietnamese nationals to the United States for graduate degree programs; (2) Visiting Scholar Program, which supports Vietnamese nationals, who already hold a doctorate, to further develop their professional skills via studies, research, and/or observational activities at leading U.S. academic institutions; and (3) U.S. Faculty Scholar Program, which supports American professors to teach courses in English at Vietnamese institutions for one or two semesters by teaching on site in Vietnam or by teaching via interactive, real-time videoconferencing from the United States



VEF began operations in 2003, and the year 2014 marks its 11th anniversary. The first VEF Community Outreach event took place in Houston, Texas, in 2013, and focused on sharing information about VEF programs with members of the community.  This is the second time that VEF is holding a public outreach meeting in the United States to introduce VEF programs and activities more widely to the public in order to promote public awareness. VEF is pleased to have an opportunity to reach out to the community in California, a key region for VEF and home to the largest community of Vietnamese-Americans in the United States.  

So far, VEF has sent 466 VEF Fellows to study at 92 top-tier U.S. universities of which 28 VEF Fellows are pursuing, or have received, graduate degrees, at the following universities in California: University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Los Angeles University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of Southern California 

VEF is pleased to invite all members of the community, who are interested in learning more about VEF, to come to the Community Outreach events. Refreshments will be served. 
For more information on VEF, please visit the VEF website at www.vef.gov.