The ACE in Place Vietnam program is partnering with Coach for College to help plan and develop ideas, videos, and content to teach middle school Vietnamese youth life skills and academic subjects including math, biology, physics, and English.
Each ACE member is put into teaching teams with Vietnamese college student coaches and together they participate in planning for one life skills group and one academic subject group. This program intends to promote higher education and provide mentorship as the Vietnamese middle school students prepare for their upcoming school year and academic future. After completing the first week, two lessons from each academic subject and four lessons of life skills have been taught to students!
Meet the Team
Tatum Boyd
I am a rising junior on the Stanford Softball team studying Human Biology. I will be participating in ACE at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California for the first two weeks of the program and Plano, Texas, my hometown, for the final week. I’ve been looking forward to participating in ACE for the opportunity to work with and assist the Vietnamese children and coaches. I’m extremely excited to get to know everyone in the program and to build lifelong relationships through meaningful work along the way. The highlight of the program so far has definitely been the cultural exchange activities, as I enjoy learning and understanding the cultural differences and similarities in Vietnam and the US. In the math group, I will be working with Anh, Rosalie, and Steph, and in my life skills red team, I am paired with Hieu and Nguyên. I cannot wait to continue this awesome ACE journey that has just begun!
Sarah Snyder
I am a rising junior on Duke’s Women’s Swimming and Diving team. I’m majoring in Biology, minoring in Chemistry and am also on the pre-health track. I will be participating in ACE Vietnam Session Two virtually from home in Palo Alto, California. I am super excited to be working with the Vietnamese kids and coaches, as well as learn about Vietnamese culture. The highlight of the program so far has been working with the Vietnamese coaches; they are so enthusiastic and devoted to the program. I will be teaching Biology with Hiếu and Life Skills with Đạt.
Laurel Foster
I am a senior on the Stanford Sailing team studying mechanical engineering with a concentration in fluid and thermodynamics. I am participating in ACE this summer from Riverside, Connecticut and the greater New York City area. During my time as an ACE Ambassador over the past year, I developed meaningful connections through ACE and was not ready to give that up just yet. More specifically for the Vietnam program, I have missed working with kids as I coached the summers before and after my freshman year at Stanford. Making connections with the Vietnamese college students has been an unexpected joy. The highlight of the program so far was having the opportunity to see the kids on screen during the last day of the first week. It was really rewarding to have them excited to see us as the American coaches, but even more neat to see how much they love our Vietnamese counterparts with whom we have already developed strong connections. We are working with Rosalie and Loc who are Vietnamese college students from Hanoi and Can Tho in Mekong Delta studying economics and business administration, respectively. For hobbies, Rosalie pursues photography, and Loc enjoys eating condensed milk with everything.
Steph Zempolich
I am a rising junior on the Duke Women’s Lacrosse team. I’m double majoring in History and International Relations with a minor in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. I will be participating in ACE in Place virtually from home in Centreville, Virginia. I am so excited to participate in ACE’s Vietnam program because of the opportunity to work with the Vietnamese children and coaches! The highlight of the program so far has been working with my academic (Hoái and Anh) and life skills Vietnamese(Seven) coaches, as well as meeting some of the kids this past week!
Marge Bilokin
I am a second semester junior on the Duke Women’s Tennis team. I am on the pre-health track, majoring in Evolutionary Anthropology with a concentration in Human Biology, and minoring in Chemistry and Psychology. I am participating in ACE this summer from Stamford, Connecticut. I was excited to participate in ACE because of the opportunities to meet Vietnamese college students as well as other Duke and Stanford student-athletes who are as passionate about teaching and helping the Vietnamese youth as I am. Having the ability to share my knowledge and see others put that newly acquired knowledge to use is extremely rewarding. I’m also extremely curious about the Vietnamese culture and have already learned a good deal after my first week with Loc and Rosalie from my Life Skills group and Dat and Minh from my English group. We’ve already developed strong connections and are looking forward to getting to know each other even more.
Kees Heetderks
I am a rising junior and member of the Duke Men’s Soccer team. I am participating in ACE from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I am studying neuroscience and chemistry and on a pre-health track. I have really enjoyed getting to know the Vietnamese coaches I am working with specifically Ahn, Min, and Hieu. I am excited to continue teaching biology, a course I am really passionate about teaching to kids. I have enjoyed and look forward to directly talking and playing games with the kids on zoom any chance I can get