AUSTIN, Texas - Asian-American student activists nationwide will be flooding the downtown streets of Austin on the weekend of March 24-26, 2006 for the second annual VASCON to be held at the Omni Hotel. The upcoming conference is expected to even exceed last year's audience of several hundred. Students attend with the hopes of creating stronger bonds nationwide while trying to catapult change for a generation that has been silent thus far.

Last year's 3-day event drew world-renowned speakers in the Vietnamese community, such as human rights activist Doan Viet Hoat, Pacific Times host Nguyen Qui Duc, and spoken word artist Bao Phi. Workshops encompassed ideas from a history of Vietnam to activism in the arts. Many attendees like Sophia Hong left the conference awed and inspired.
 
"VASCON brought to light all the things that many people try to push away and ignore," declared Hong. "It renewed me with a sense of purpose."
 
A few months later, VASCON organized a charity dinner for landmine victims, a majority of whom are concentrated in Vietnam, and was able to raise $1,000 in donations, as well as inspire the start of a new organization on the University of Texas campus specifically aimed at raising awareness about the global landmine issue. Since then, many other attendees have founded their own organizations, catering to their own passions. Another product of VASCON: the newly-launched PassionFruit magazine, weaving together stories, news, art of the Vietnamese-American culture and identity.
 
But even with the rave reviews that VASCON ONE received, VASCON2 promises to be even bigger and better.  It will incorporate more interaction between the attendees as well as offer concrete ways for students to stand up and take action.
 
This year's theme is "Building Bridges": It encompasses the direction the VASCON board intends on taking with the conference - closing the gap between different entities and ideas. VASCON2 has invited inspiring speakers such as human rights activist Dr. Ninh Xuan Tran from Chicago, Garden Grove School District Board Member KimOanh Nguyen-Lam, filmmaker Ham Tran, VietACT organizers, and more.
 
Registration costs for the conference range from $40-$100 and have begun in early January. To reach the registration form online, visit www.vascon2.org and go to the Registration Page. Please direct any questions, comments to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Participants have already registered from such schools as Stanford, FIDM, SJSU, UCLA, UPenn, U of Pitts, UNC-Chapel Hill, Georgia Tech, UCF, OU, Rice, UH, and UT Austin, among dozens of others. Highly-motivated students from high schools have also begun to register.