OUR 2019 INTERNS

Trucdan Nguyen is a sophomore at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems. She became involved with ICAN in Summer 2019 with the interest in giving back to her community as well as connecting more with her Vietnamese culture. In her free time, Trucdan likes to watch nature documentaries, dabble in graphic design, and learn about the 16 Myers-Briggs Personality Types.

“Getting hands-on Squarespace experience enhanced my hard skillset. I also learned about wide-scale project management, a useful skill that is very transferable.”

Lily is currently a student at the University of California, Irvine studying Computer Science. She has worked with other nonprofits including Dreams for Schools, where she mentored middle school students and guided them in making their own mobile game, and CodePath, where she teaches fellow college students how to program an iOS application. Now, she is continuing her line of nonprofit work at ICAN by helping upkeep the website, assisting in workshops, and providing technical expertise.

“From this internship, I gained not only technical experience working with different software and networking devices, but also valuable project management skills from organizing ICAN workshops.”

Jasmine is a psychology major at San Jose State University. Jasmine loves milk and tea, but she doesn’t love milk tea. She became an intern for ICAN to reconnect with her Vietnamese roots and support the youth of the community. Jasmine is very interested in learning about how mental disorders affect the Vietnamese community. One day, she hopes to become a researcher to further support youth with mental disorders.

“I learned to appreciate and manage the intricate details that go into making a project successful.”

Vivian is a student at UCSC and a project intern for ICAN for the summer of 2019. She enjoys watching videos online, reading, and playing Pokemon Go. She is also part of a service fraternity called Alpha Phi Omega, from which she heard about the opportunities at ICAN. Being Chinese and Vietnamese, she wanted to get closer to her roots in the Vietnamese community. She also wanted to gain more skills in a work environment as well as pass on those opportunities to the youth that would follow.

“I learned the importance of organization and communication to create a happy and healthy working environment.”

Vi Nguyen is currently a senior majoring in Public Health/Biological Sciences at San Jose State University. During her spare time, she loves hiking, nature walking and spending quality time with her friends and family. She has always loved working with kids and enjoyed community service. By interning as an Early Childhood Development intern at ICAN, her goals are to continue expanding her skills in curriculum development and event planning as well as to get more involved in the Vietnamese community. In the future, she wants to become a Pediatric Occupational Therapist to help people achieve independence and improve their holistic health.

“In order to ensure a successful project, you have to communicate with all your team members. I learned a lot about project management and adapting to new obstacles.”

Brenda Huynh is currently a student at San Jose State University majoring in Chemistry. She hopes to pursue a career in the ever-growing pharmaceutical industry. She admires the way medicine has the power to heal people and she hopes that she can also heal people in that way. Brenda has joined ICAN this summer in hopes to give back to the underserved Vietnamese-American community. She also has a passion for teaching and passing on knowledge and experiences as a child of Vietnamese immigrants.

“I learned the essential aspects of project management that ultimately improved my organizational skills.