When I was a tech intern during the dot-com era, one of my coworkers told me that “Leadership is 10% inspiration and 90% alignment.” To make great change, you had to realize that people already exist out there specializing in different roles and jobs, and one of the great difficulties of being a leader is having them see how their role fits in the overall picture. December 1 marks the second anniversary of Ý Thức, the Vietnamese American student journal that, like its name suggests, raises our awareness of how our efforts fit the bigger picture.

To celebrate our second year, we have finally built a website that could fulfill that vision. What we do is collect and write articles related to Vietnamese American youth and sort it out into meaningful categories. Once we have enough articles, at the end of each year we could write up an annual report on the progress of the Vietnamese American student community in different areas such as natural disaster relief, human trafficking, or participating in the Mid-Autumn Festival to celebrate the spirit of the youth.

I invite you to explore our work-in-progress at http://www.ythuc.com. Currently the category system works, so if you click on a category such as “agent orange,” you will obtain a list of all articles in which Vietnamese youth have been involved in that matter.

Another useful feature is Ý Thức Maps, allowing for students to find the closest Vietnamese student organization to get involved. Organizations will find it useful to find nearby partners for collaborating. An example of such a collaboration is UC Davis VSA organizing a Bike-A-Thon with the VSAs at UC Berkeley and CSU Sacramento to raise money for a nonprofit group that benefits orphans in Vietnam.

We at Ý Thức send our warmest appreciation to you in doing great and important work in the community so that we have something to write about. We hope you find the journal a useful and reputable resource for your future work!

Peace, love, unity, respect,

Ngô Thiên Bảo 吳天寶

Coordinator of Ý Thức: Vietnamese American Student Journal
http://www.ythuc.com