I am a Health Educator for the Vietnamese Youth Development Center in San Francisco. I am a part of the Asian Youth Prevention Services where it is a program that runs at six different agencies in the city. The program is a three golds program to help youths between the ages of 11 and 17 from various high schools. The goal is to prevent, delay, or limit the usage of alcohol, tobacco and drugs through tools such as training sessions and activities to help students make informed decisions about risky behaviors.

EDUCATION | I received my BS in non-profit Recreation Management with an emphasis in Leadership and Administration and my Minor in Business Management. I have been in non-profit organizations ever since I graduated from San Jose State University.

HOW TO GET STARTED | Even though the kids keep you on your toes, it gets pretty monotonous. You have to be very patient and remind yourself and reflect as much as you can to why you are here and what your goal is in this position. It gets really easy to be demotivated, but stray away from that attitude and give each kid your 100%. Act as if it is your first year at the organization and you're going to be working with your first kid ever. I see it all over where one person starts off as a superstar and the kid gets the best out of you, but then again, ten years down the line, you see the youth adviser dropping in energy. Each kids should have the same level of quality and energy as the first kid that you ever worked with. To the kids, you are their first experience with this agency so they don't know what's going to happen and you should give them the best experience that they could have. Don't get bored; try connecting with the kids. Even after they leave the agency, check up on them to see how they're doing and see if they are successful in what they're doing.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | Patience, flexibility, be organized, be able to multitask, have high energy, be creative.

how I got started | I went to college not knowing what I wanted to do. At first, I wanted to be a music composer and pursued music at SJSU, but realized it was really repetitive. When I took my first recreation class, it made me realize that I had a knack for helping people. There are four focuses within this major such as Park Management, Therapeutic, and Tourism. I chose my emphasis in Leadership and Administration because the others didn't appeal to me. The courses that I got most out of were the courses that prepared me for the work world like Budgeting and Marketing & Outreach; those classes helped me put myself out for a job. The courses that dealt with theory, background, and history are great, but it's not technically used today. It is the foundation of our work, but we don't necessarily see it on a day-to-day basis. During the time of my studies, I obtained an internship at a non-profit organization in Los Gatos through my department at school. I worked there for three and a half years and they loved the work that I did, but I left because I was laid off due to the economy. I was then hired temporarily by the YMCA of San Francisco where I was the Assistant Program Coordinator and worked at a high school. My current job was recommended to me by a friend who worked in a different non-profit. It worked out for me since I am of Vietnamese descent and I knew I had a good skill set.

why this job?| I get to do what I do best, which is work in a program dealing with youth and I get to connect with the youth. I know that I am a good youth worker and I can bring a lot of my skills to the table. Even though I am Vietnamese and was born here in the states, I can speak the language, yet I am not able to read it nor write it. I know if that I got into this agency, I would be giving back to the agency, and as well as the agency giving back to me by helping me with my reading and writing of my native language. We offer a translation service where I help people of all ages translate documents in Vietnamese to English. It's like I'm getting a reward out of working here, not only monetary rewards, but I am also getting a learning experience.

why I love this job!| I love what I do because I know I do it well. I get to work with the youth and develop them through our curriculum and workshops and as well as connecting with my Vietnamese culture. Since we are a non-profit and government funded, there are meetings that we go to in order to sustain our program. There are people who don't have the opportunity to fight for what they believe in, so we give the students a chance to do that. We have testimonials and we march together and ask for more money. I have been getting the students empowered to do this and it's great because we get to work together to help save the program.

my typical day| I get in at 10AM to check my messages and phone calls. I check my agenda, make up the activities and prepare lunch for the group of high school students; we offer them free lunch. My staff and I get everything together and head on the MUNI to go down to the high school where I meet the students at lunch time on their campus. We leave the curriculum and head back to the agency at around 1:30-2:30. Around that time, the staff and I try to do a meeting and catch up on the other tasks that we have to complete that day. From 3-6PM, more students come into the agency, which is the time when we provide the services to the students. We have life skills training sessions and workshops on many different topics. We have a computer lab that they can use and one-on-one tutoring on their homework. Sometimes we have special events catered to holidays. At the end of the week, we have alternative activities like open mic nights or take them out on field trips such as ice skating. We have four departments, but my department sees about 50-60 students - not all at one time though. They come to the agency in groups from their individual high schools. My day ends when I leave the agency at around 6PM.

what they are | The main challenge is funding. We are funded through government grants, state grants, and federal grants. With the budget cuts, the biggest challenge that we have is trying to figure out is how to offer our services to the youth. There are so many questions that we are continuously asking ourselves; how do we strategically offer the services to our youth when we don't have the money; what can we do to keep the program alive? Some of the programs here have a fee to use, but our kids who come into our center never pay a dime for anything. It's just difficult sometimes because we rely on government money.

all about growth | We are a very small agency. If I wanted to grow within this agency, I would have to relocate and that is actually within my personal career goals. There are only 15 of us here. The reason why there aren't any growth opportunities because there are two agency directors who have been here for decades.

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