ACE in Place Vietnam 2022
Each ACE program aims to connect Duke and Stanford student-athletes with one another, but the ACE in Place Vietnam program offers the unique benefit of also connecting with college students in Vietnam. Coach for College, an international service program that brings together US student-athletes and Vietnamese students to teach and mentor middle school youth living in rural, southern Vietnam, makes these connections possible. This year, six Duke and Stanford student-athletes virtually partnered with Vietnamese college students to plan academic and life skills lessons and engage in real-time conversations with the youth.
As a longstanding ACE program that operated in-person until the global pandemic caused a temporary shift in programming, participants felt unsure if the program could foster cross-cultural connections online. Duke Softball member Julia Boyet asked, “Will it be as rewarding, and will I still be able to connect with the people I am serving?”
“I felt more connected with this community through a virtual program in 3 weeks than most of the communities I have encountered throughout my freshman year at Duke.”
– KyAnh Truong, Duke Women’s Swimming and Diving
Duke Women’s Swimming and Diving teammate KyAnh Truong also hesitated to believe it would be possible to meaningfully, virtually connect with others so different from her in such a short timeframe. Thankfully, both Boyet and Truong changed their perspectives after the program began. Truong writes, “I was right about one thing: the people I met had very different lifestyles. But I was wrong about the other. I felt more connected with this community through a virtual program in 3 weeks than most of the communities I have encountered throughout my freshman year at Duke.”
Working together in teams to draft lesson plans and create video content for the middle school youth helped the Duke and Stanford student-athletes develop a rapport with the Vietnamese students. “We created a rhythm for our work,” Stanford Women’s Gymnastics member Brenna Neault explains, “and spent the rest of our time just being friends.” The group bonded by giving house tours, taking turns teaching virtual cooking classes, and learning about everyone’s holiday traditions.
“We created a rhythm for our work, and spent the rest of our time just being friends.”
– Brenna Neault, Stanford Women’s Gymnastics
Duke Men’s Swimming and Diving member Seamus Harding offered that this aspect of the program helped make the experience “real, raw, and down-to-earth.” Zach Barry (Duke Men’s Cross Country and Track and Field) felt similarly, writing, “Whether it was sharing academic content with students or conversing about random topics pertaining to life in Vietnam or the United States with the teachers, I was pleasantly surprised about the quality of relationships I was able to create and the impactful content I was able to deliver alongside other ACE student-athletes and Vietnamese teachers.”