Originally posted at http://blog.khmerican.com/
For Vanndy Pan joining Khmerican offers her an opportunity to take her interest in community building and advocacy to a larger stage. Growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, she realized how disconnected her peers were with their culture and history. It wasn’t until her sophomore year in high school that she took action to break the cycle.
That year she began teaching herself how to read and write Khmer. But this was only her first step. She realized that if she wanted to get involved and help people, she needed to take the initiative to put herself out there and educate herself more.
“However, I felt it shouldn’t just be in the academics but also working within the community itself.” said Pan. “Therefore, during my college years at Brown, I took some time off to travel to Cambodia alone in December 2008—with no parents, no friends, just me—where I got my first real experience with the Khmer community outside of the US working as an English teacher at a local school in Phnom Penh.”
“My experiences both professionally and personally were rewarding because when I returned back to the US, I didn’t feel the same anymore and I felt compelled to do much more as I move forward with my life.” said Pan.
She believes Khmerican can help foster healthy dialogues and engage people to productive actions in communities, big and small, in regards to Cambodian-related issues. Khmerican is only a symbolic representation to one part of the Khmer diaspora. In the end, she hopes Khmerican can reach out not only nationally but globally as well.
She joins Khmerican as a staff writer focusing on youth, culture and politics.
13 comments:
Jesus fuck!
Just let go.
The fuck with Khmer shit.
Umm...first poster on here doesn't like Khmer? Oh well...then get out of website! Don't leave junk comments we don't care about. Simple. Loser.
Racist bastard(s) again making lousy comments??? Ugh! Of course, you cowards would remain anonymous when commenting on articles and things. KI Media should filter and/or register people in order to make comments. This way, comments are monitored no matter where it comes from and what is said. Freedom of speech (with/without foul language) but someone's going to be accountable somehow (i.e. IP address)
Just wonder if Vanndy Pan graduated from Brown?
12:54 you are a waste. There are better things to do in life...
study hard and smartly, pan, don't give up your studies and study about khmer language and history, too! don't be shy, be brave and learn from everybody in the world! god bless.
What a brave girl for traveling to Cambodia alone.
hmmm...says she's got 1 year left @ Brown in bio of the website... Ok...well keep moving young one! young cambodians need encouragement...not useless degrading remarks like the 1st comment on here. don't let ignorant people or racist fools get to you. theyre juss full of themselves and can't get over the fact that there are people who can do better than them in life. using only their hatred and bitterness to try to ruin others, it's sad & pathetic reallllyyyyyy! Cheyo Khmer!
12:54am is unemploy and uneducated as one can tell by the comments and the speed he's able to post comments.
He spends his day monitoring KI-Media because he has nothing else to do.
That how people have learned.
-Learn from the teachers.
-Learn from friends,or peers.
-Learn from experiences.
Work hard and study hard,
s/he can be a successful person.
I am proud of you,Vanndy Pan.
Ha...the girl doesn't look Khmer. Nice but looks mixed. The hair is uncharacteristically of Khmer people...though I'm guessing many Cambodians today are mostly straight haired people...
1:12 AM
What do you think Khmers supposed to looklike idiot?
Why do I still read some stupidest person like you around? Khmer people just like other people in another nations, everyone is mixed for billion times already since Adam and Eve. Now people can fly fast from one destination to another destination and they make babies around. Why do you think she is the only one that mixed? Don't tell me she mixed with Thai, or Malaly or Indonesia oe Bengali, etc. Those people do look almost the same, except the name of their countries. She is Khmer like a typical of Khmer woman I saw whose skin is dark brown.
Khmers have white Khmers, brown Khmers and dark Khmers just like in other countries.
u people pls dun fight...i saw this girl b4 in providence.also from pic n facebook. shes a pretty girl, lite-skin, had longer hair b4 but she cut it short now. it's tru she don't look khmer if u saw her in personn .anyway she is khmer though cuz both parents cambodian nationalite.
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