The Vietnamese Association of Illinois is a service-learning and internship site that provides high school and university students with professional development training and a holistic learning experience.
Interns and volunteers are an essential part of our program because not only do they supervise and mentor youth, but they also offer unique perspectives on fostering youth development.
Loyola Center for Experiential Learning: https://www.luc.edu/experiential/forstudents/recommendedorganizations/
Northeastern Illinois University: https://www.neiu.edu/university-life/student-leadership-development/civic-and-community-engagement/individual-and-group-volunteering
After School Matters: https://youthreadychicago.cityspan.com/Web/sms/OnlineEnrollment/Summer2020/Application.asp
Meet Our Interns
Sarah Honig, BRAVE Intern
Sarah is nearing the end of her first year at Loyola University in Chicago, where she is pursuing an MSW with a specialization in children and families. She grew up in the Chicago-land area and worked as a tutor at a high school in Bronzeville and volunteered in various programs. Sarah’s lifelong passion for working with youths has inspired her to pursue a career as a social worker in order to support youths, their families, and the community. Sarah loves to bake, draw, and hang out with her dog, Sunflower! She is excited to be an intern in the VAI youth program!
Jenna Brooks, BRAVE Intern
Jenna Brooks is a first year Masters student at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Social Work. After she graduated college, Jenna worked as an English teacher at a high school in Bangkok, Thailand for 1 year. While she was living in Thailand, she visited Vietnam twice! Jenna is extremely passionate about the youth population, and planting seeds early in their development, to grow them into our future leaders. Jenna loves to cook, take long walks, and meditate. She is thrilled to be working with the BRAVE teens at the Vietnamese Association of Illinois!
Caitlin Clay, BRAVE Intern
Caitlin is in her senior year earning her Bachelor’s in Social Work. She is an intern at VAI in the BRAVE project. She has not previously worked with this population and it has been a great opportunity for Caitlin to grow and gain experience in guiding students towards their future. She wants to help these students find their own goals and help to achieve them, along with becoming future leaders. In her free time, Caitlin likes to go for runs and spend time relaxing and watching movies. Caitlin is looking forward to what this school year has in store her and the program at VAI!
ASM Summer Interns - 2020
Name: Jill Mark
School: Senior at Northside College Prep
Hobbies: All things dancing! Jill is captain of NCP’s Varsity Poms team. She is also trained in ballet, jazz, and contemporary and has been competing as a figure skater for 9 years.
Position: Guppie Group Lead
This will be Jill’s second year working at VAI’s summer camp! She enjoyed working with the kids and staff so much that she knew she wanted to come back this year. Her favorite part of the camp is getting to know each of the campers individually and hearing their ideas. This summer, she is looking forward to all the STEM challenges because it’s super cool to see the kids learn new concepts in a fun way!
Name: Annora Johnson
School: Senior at Choate Rosemary Hall
Hobbies: reading, screenwriting, and knitting
Position: Movement Support
Annora decided to join VAI because she enjoys working with kids—it’s also great way to keep her occupied while staying safe during the pandemic! This summer, she’s looking forward to seeing the kids accomplish their fitness goals and continuing to get to know them!
Name: Resty Fufunan
School: Freshman at Yale University
Hobbies: In Resty's spare time, you can often him dancing with his cultural groups, running along Chicago's lakefront, or getting boba with his friends!
Position: Media and Site Organizer
Resty is serving as this summer's Media and Site Organizer! While you might not always see him on camera, he is always in the background as our campers' very own paparazzi. He is also helping to coordinate our social media and newsletters. Resty is working very hard to make sure all our content is relevant, accessible, and—most of all—fun!
Name: Valerie Alvarez
School: Freshman at Loyola University
Hobbies: Valerie loves to run, read, write, and cook!
Position : Junior Group Lead
Valerie is super excited to be a part of this new virtual camp alternative! She joined the program because she loves working with children! So far, she’s been having so much fun participating in movement and helping the kids stay active while at home!
Name: Hieu Do
School: Junior at Senn High School
Hobbies: playing chess, doing math, playing card games, biking, tennis, badminton, and coding
Position: Panthers Group Lead, Translator
Hieu joined this summer camp to meet up with some familiar individuals from previous camps (Jason for example :D) , and to meet up with new kids and staff members. He’s looking forward to doing some fun activities with the kids to hear their brilliant voices and creative ideas—kids have interesting ways of thinking! He’s also hoping to gain more social skills to prepare for his future.
Name: Salome Habtemichael
School: Freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Hobbies: basketball, art, tennis and jewelry making
Position: Art Instructor
Salome joined VAI because she enjoys being a mentor and working with kids! She also likes art—it’s always fun to share the knowledge! This summer, she looks forward to weekly crafts with the campers.
Name: Abel Habtemichael
School: Senior at Von Steuben High School
Hobbies: Play basketball, watch tv shows and movies, hang out with friends.
Position: Guppie Group Lead
Abel is returning to VAI’s summer camp after doing it in the fall and spring! For him, it’s a lot of fun getting to hang out with the kids and getting to know, mentor, and lead them. This time around, he’s looking forward to learn and have fun with all the guppies that he’s leading in art , movement, and other fun activities.
Name: Denise Roman
School: Senior at Francis W. Parker School
Hobbies: learning Chinese, taking morning runs and writing poetry
Position: Art Support
Denise has always wanted to work with kids, but never had an opportunity to—until the VAI camp! For Denise, the program is also an opportunity to build her mentorship skills; there’s always so much to learn from them. She looks forward to leading more activities with the kids and getting to know them more!
Summer Volunteers - 2020
Name: Rebecca Xu
School: Senior at Georgia Institute of Technology
Hobbies: swimming, dancing, baking
Position: STEM Lead
As the world faces new challenges with COVID-19, innovations in science and technology become more important to solve modern issues. Rebecca joined the VAI Youth Summer Camp to motivate and inspire youth to become future leaders in STEM. Even if we are separated physically, she believes education and having fun surpasses all boundaries. Rebecca is looking forward to working with youth from a diversity of backgrounds and engaging in exciting, hands-on STEM activities!
Name: Kouta Lee
School: Junior at San Diego State University
Hobbies: calisthenics, swimming, biking, jiu-jitsu
Position: STEM Lead
One of Kouta's summer goals was to volunteer in an organization with youth groups, and he's happy to have found VAI! Kouta joined the VAI summer camp program because he wanted to work with kids and interest them in the STEM field. He's looking forward to challenging kids with various projects that require conceptual thinking and using various tools!
Name: Sandhya Kilambi
School: Sophomore at New York University
Hobbies: playing the piano, dancing (classical Indian dance), singing and volunteering
Position: Guppie Movement Instructor
After having many experiences over the years with camp counseling and teaching music and dance to kids at schools, Sanhya thought this program would be a wonderful way for her to further her passion. She has been studying classical Indian dance and yoga for the past 14 years and always enjoys exposing kids to the dance form. For Sandhya, the opportunity to teach the same group of kids for 5 weeks straight has been incredible, challenging her to craft fun, engaging and informative lesson plans every day that get the kids moving and excited. She’s looking forward to continuing teaching my group different yoga poses and various classical Indian and Bollywood dance sequences!