LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Upon entering the Student Union, there is a sacred stone bench right below the “USC Pharmacy” sign. Everyday at noon, as the sun rises higher into the sky and the building casts its shadow over Trousdale, the shade around this bench is suddenly covered by Asian students, namely members of the university’s Asian American fraternities and sororities. I look at the cluster of guys in baggy jeans and hooded sweatshirts with spiked hair and the girls in their fitted jeans and smug t-shirts with long layered hair and can not help but be reminiscent of my early adolescent days when such appearances and social mingling were the styles of the playground’s kOoLeSt AzNs. Of course, I can’t say this to be true for all Asian Americans across the nation. I draw my experiences from growing up here in Southern California and from hanging out with my cousins up north in the Bay Area.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - My fear that he would leave me didn’t take form until one morning when I asked my white boyfriend an innocent question before I left for work. “If you could sleep with any Disney character, who would it be?” “Hmm,” he said.  “Pocahontas.” I laughed out loud and he couldn’t understand why. “Of every Disney cartoon, of course you pick the one where the white male dominates the minority female!” He kind of scoffed, not knowing how to respond. But the idea lingered in my mind long after he answered.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Behind the glasses and shy smile of this little lady lies a woman of great heart, Lynn Hoang, who organized the Asian Culture Night at Santa Clara High School on April 7, 2006 to raise funds for the RedFirecracker Foundation in support of the effort against human trafficking. The show was replete with a skit, traditional and contemporary dances, a fashion segment of all three cultures, and trivia to test the audience's knowledge of their heritage.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - On May 13th, 2006, Vietnamese youths from many groups all over Northern California are walking at the Human Race of Silicon Valley as part of a national campaign to raise awareness and funds about the issue of human trafficking. Funds raised through the events held across the nation will be donated to the Vietnamese Alliance to Combat Trafficking (VietACT) to help the cause of eradicating human trafficking through public awareness, collaboration and advocacy.

AUSTIN, Texas - Last weekend, March 24 thru 26, 2006, over 300 undergraduate and graduate students from across the country attended the 2nd Vietnamese-American Student Conference known as VASCON 2 in Austin, Texas. Students came from all over the country including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The purpose of the conference was to inspire and empower its participants to get involved and make a contribution to build a stronger Vietnamese-American community. Of particular note was a panel to discuss the human trafficking issue and the ongoing campaigns against it.

I think it goes without saying that conferences are needed to put our lives in perspective. They say you need to sometimes take a step back to remind yourself of why you're doing the things you do in the first place. But VASCON is one of those places where you step forward and see the possibilities, the kind of future you can embark upon.

I've been to conferences, perhaps more than I should. After awhile, I figure maybe I already know enough about the issues, leadership skills and social networking to write my own book. And yet there is always something you just need a refresher on, like how to really mingle and create long-lasting bonds. From the first impression of "booming" the other person, to finding common ground, building foundations, and creating the bridges. But what we really haven't had much experience in is how to utilize these bridges. Now that I have contacts all over the continent (or in my case, the world), now what? What do we hope to aspire to? I'll try to answer that with two stories.