Скачать или смотреть A Vietnamese-American journey: From Mobile Homes to Berkeley, Google, and Columbia Social Work

Hey everyone,

It’s Irene from Bay Wellness Coaching. Today I’ll be interviewing Laura about her personal experience growing up as a Vietnamese-American child of immigrants here in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’ll be chatting about her experience growing up in San Jose, her journey working in tech at Google, attending UC Berkeley, and now as a Masters of Social Work candidate at Columbia University.

For those who aren’t aware, many Vietnamese refugees came to the United States following the Vietnam War and the resulting humanitarian crisis. Many of these boat people, including some members of my own family, came with limited resources while fleeing political persecution or came with hopes of a better life.

Laura has such an amazing story so I’m glad that she’ll be here to share and we’ll be going over a few questions:

What’s your experience growing up in San Jose?
How has your upbringing impacted your career journey?
How has that changed over time?
Where did you go to school and what did you major in?
How did you find your first job?
How did you find your first full-time job?
How did you decide to transition into social work? Was there any specific inspiration that led you to that decision?
How was your grad school application process?
What’s been the most impactful learning you’ve taken thus far while at Columbia?
Where do you see yourself next after graduation?

Thanks again for coming on the show today Laura- I really appreciate your time and that you’re comfortable sharing your Asian-American story. We have so many similarities yet also have unique differences growing up as children of immigrants in the United States and I really wanted to highlight your success story as it's really inspiring.