All of the below events are open free of charge to the public. We would like you to plan carefully before registering with us so that we have enough seats for participants. If you register for our events but change your plan, kindly notify us by email. If you would like to be an American Center member, please register.
***REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED FOR ALL EVENTS EXCEPT THOSE NOTED OTHERWISE. Register here. You can also check out our Facebook page to see event schedule and click “Join” to register with us.***
All events take place at 1st Floor of the Rose Garden Tower at 170 Ngoc Khanh Street, Hanoi, except those noted otherwise. Remember to bring your ID with you. Members of the media are welcome to attend public events at the American Center. However, if you intend to being in still or video cameras, please contact the Media Team at least 24 hours in advance so we can determine whether the speaker is comfortable and, if so, request security access for your equipment. Please note that not all speakers will want to be filmed and interviewed. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.
Please Note:
- All visitors to the American Center (AC) in Hanoi must undergo additional security checks of their personal electronic devices (laptops, cell phones, fitness trackers, etc.). These new procedures are being implemented worldwide to enhance the security of U.S. Embassy buildings. Please note that these new security screening requirements, which includes powering on the equipment in front of the guards, will lengthen the wait times for guests entering the AC. Guests should plan to arrive at least 30 minutes prior to an event to ensure they can get through the screening procedures in time. We recommend you consider using the U.S. Embassy’s equipment and leaving your devices at home to shorten the screening time for all guests. In the meantime, if you plan to bring this or other electronic equipment to the AC, please allow more time for these new screening procedures. Thank you for your assistance and patience.
- In the American Center (AC), we usually record, film and photograph our programs and activities to promote the AC and the work the U.S. Embassy does in Vietnam. We regularly use and post these images on our social media platforms. When participating in American Center programs, you provide your tacit consent for your image to be used in this way. If you prefer that your image not be used for non-commercial publicity reasons, please provide your request in writing to a staff member at the Help Desk. Thank you!
Time |
Program |
Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Mar. 6, 5:00 – 6:30 | English for Career Preparation | Rebecca Garcia |
| Mar. 7, 5:30 – 6:30 | MOOC 42: Speaking to Inform | Nikki Nguyễn |
| Mar. 11, 5:00 – 6:30 | Developing the Leader Within You. Register here | Cynthia McKinney |
| Mar. 13, 3:00 – 4:10 | Air Quality Expert Panel Session | Ngụy Thi Khanh, Lý Bích Thủy, Nguyễn Hồng Hạnh |
| Mar. 14, 5:30 – 6:30 | MOOC 42: Speaking to Inform | Nikki Nguyễn |
| Mar. 15, 4:00 – 5:30 | Improving Lives: U.S. Forest Service Work in the United States and Vietnam | Sarah Sawyer and Julie Hundersmarck, USFS |
| Mar. 18, 5:00 – 6:30 | Developing the Leader Within You. Register here | Cynthia McKinney |
| Mar. 20, 5:00 – 6:30 | English for Career Preparation | Rebecca Garcia |
| Mar. 21, 5:30 – 6:30 | MOOC 42: Speaking to Inform | Nikki Nguyễn |
| Mar. 22, 5:00 – 6:30 | From Strangers to Familiars | American Center Interns |
| Mar. 25, 3:00 – 4:00 | Water – A Vital Resource and Interesting Science |
Greg Clark, Hydrologist at U.S. Geological Survey |
| Mar. 26, 3:00 – 4:30 | Email Etiquette and How to Write a Business Proposal | Rosemary Max, YSEALI Fellow |
| Mar. 27, 3:00 – 5:00 | What Investors Expect From Entrepreneurs | Melissa Bradley and Gwen Edwards |
| Mar. 28, 5:30 – 6:30 | MOOC 42: Speaking to Inform | Nikki Nguyễn |
| Mar. 29, 9:00 – 11:00 | Workshop “LivingDance~LivingMusic: Communicating, No Matter Your Ethnicity or Heritage” | Danielle L. Fraenkel and Jeffrey Mehr |
| Mar. 29, 3:00 – 4:00 | Vietnam Since 1975: Changing America’s View | Bridget Newbury |
English for Career Preparation
March 6, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
Rebecca Garcia
English for Career Preparation continues this week with topic: “Workplace Etiquette.” We will be discussing important things like what to wear and how to stay organized at work. It will be a great opportunity to improve and develop English skills that will help you be successful in your career.
Developing the Leader Within You
from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. on Mondays
Cynthia McKinney
Register here
In today’s world, leadership is one of the sought-after skills in the professional world. The value of effective leadership has gained great recognition. We are understanding that becoming a better leader changes lives and impacts the success of people and companies. “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” Effective leadership will add to your effectiveness, subtract from your weaknesses, divide your workload, and multiply your impact. This 8-session series focuses on principles of leadership that everyone can develop in their lives. These principles are proven cornerstones in leadership development. They have been used and taught by one of the foremost leadership trainers in the USA (both nationally and internationally). The material is based on the book: Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 by John C. Maxwell. Attend this series and start your journey of leadership growth and effectiveness.
- March 11, Session 1: Definition and Levels of Leadership
In this session, we will learn what leadership is and what leadership is not. We will discover five levels of leadership that we can develop and ways to develop in these levels. We will take a deeper look at the key element of leadership which is “influence”. This session creates a foundation to understand leadership and prepares us for the next seven principles we will learn in this series. - March 18, Session 2: The Key to Leadership: Priorities
Learning to make wise choices with our time is a critical part of accomplishing goals and developing leadership. In this series we will learn priority principles that will guide us to wiser choices for the time we have each day, week, month, year, etc. Learning how to use these principles can give us a greater edge or advantage as leaders. They can help us work smarter and be more productive. We will also discover practical tools that can help with setting priorities. - April 1, Session 3: Foundation of Leadership: Character
A question for each leader to ask is, “Am I a healthy leader?” This question leads us into thinking about our character. Mahatma Gandhi stated, “A man of character will make himself worthy of any position he is given.” Having a poor character will eventually derail us personally and professionally. We will discover three key methods that can strengthen our character. Developing our character as a leader also increases our own internal self-respect and satisfaction. - April 8, Session 4: The Test of Leadership: Creating Positive Change
“Being able to turn an organization around by being a positive change agent is the true test of a great leader.” In this session we will look at how people make changes in life. We will discover principles to use as leaders that lead people through changes in our organizations. By using these principles, we can learn how to turn people’s resistance to change around and create positive change. We will learn about the “Law of Buy-In” and how it affects our leadership. - April 22, Session 5: Gaining Leadership: Problem-Solving
Dealing with problems is part of our life experiences. As a leader, this is increased because we also must think about the people we are leading. “A leader’s life is not his or her own.” In this session we will learn to embrace the benefits of problems and solving them in our lives and work positions. We will gain a better understanding of how to turn problems into stepping stones for opportunities versus being stumbling blocks in our lives. We will learn steps of how to develop ourselves as problem-solvers versus being overwhelmed by the problems that come. - May 6, Session 6: The Extra Plus of Leadership: The Attitude
Attitude is something we can control in life. A good attitude makes our leadership better. A leader’s attitude influences the thoughts and feelings of the people they lead and encourages positive and productive responses from them. We will learn the best attitudes to adopt as leaders. This session will look at failure in our lives and how to overcome the failures with the right perspective. - May 13, Session 7: The Heart of Leadership: Serving People
As we look at the heart of leadership we will discover the power of serving others in our leadership role. This concept is a new idea to many people in leadership. This heart of leadership produces exciting potential for the leader because the leader chooses to believe in the people he or she is serving. This leader desires to develop the abilities of people, and, thus, creates a place for himself or herself among the great leaders of the world such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. We will learn practical steps of how to develop this heart of leadership. - May 20, Session 8: Personal Growth in Leadership: Vision, Self-Discipline, Learning for Life
This final session will cover three areas for personal growth. As a leader we must have vision to create direction and passion for ourselves as well as for those we are leading. We will learn how to develop and communicate that vision. As a leader self-discipline is a necessary skill to develop to gain success. “As leaders, our greatest challenge in leadership is leading ourselves first. We can’t expect to take others farther than we have gone ourselves.” We will gain more understanding of how to achieve self-discipline in our lives. As a leader, we can never stop learning and growing or we will lose our effectiveness. We will focus on ways to continue to expand and grow no matter what our age. Growth brings hope, joy, and success in our lives as leaders
Air Quality Expert Panel Session
March 13, 3:00 – 4:10 p.m.
Ngụy Thi Khanh, Dr. Lý Bích Thủy, Dr. Trần Tuấn
Did you know that Vietnam ranks 159 out of 180 countries in terms of air quality and that the annual average air pollution in Hanoi in 2017 was four times higher than the World Health Organization guidelines? How is the current air pollution in Vietnam and how is it affecting people’s health? What steps can we take to reduce our contribution to air pollution? Please join the U.S. Embassy for an expert panel presentation and Q&A session!
Expert Panel Speakers:
- Ms. Ngụy Thị Khanh is currently the founder and Executive Director of Green Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID) which is working to promote sustainable energy development, good water and air governance and green development (http://greenidvietnam.org.vn). She is also the chair of Vietnam Sustainable Energy Alliance and a core member in a number of national and international networks related to sustainable energy, climate change and environment. She has 18 years of experience in integrated community development, network building and advocacy for better Water, Air Governance and Sustainable energy development in Vietnam and the Mekong region. In 2016, she initiated the first Renewable Energy week, which has now become an open platform facilitating the experience sharing and promoting good clean energy practices. She believes that clean energy will help Vietnamese people to reduce environmental degradation. She graduated from the Institute of International Relations in Ha Noi, Vietnam with a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and Diplomacy. She holds a number of certificates from international training courses on energy, water and clean environment.
- Dr. Lý Bích Thủy is currently a lecturer at School of Environmental Science and Technology (INEST) under Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST). She is also Vice Head of Environmental R&D Laboratory, INEST, HUST. Dr Thuy got her Environmental Engineering degree at Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) in 2003. From 2004 to 2006, she did her Master in Environmental Management and Technology at Asian Institute of Technology. From 2006 to 2010, she did her PhD in Kyoto University. She has been involved in many research on air quality in cooperation with different national and international air pollution research groups.
- Ms. Nguyễn Hồng Hạnh is a project officer of Research and Training Centre for Community Development (RTCCD), the coordinating organization of Vietnam Non-communication diseases prevention alliance (NCDs-VN). She has 5 years of experience in communication and advocacy for NCDs prevention related policies in Vietnam including tobacco and alcohol control policies, advocate for the restriction of coal-fired power plants, and asbestos ban policies. She is currently a key staff to implement the project “Improving the communication capacity to prevent the negative effects of coal-fired power plants on communiy health and environment” funded by European Climate Foundation from 2016 until now..
Improving Lives: U.S. Forest Service Work in the United States and Vietnam
March 15, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Sarah Sawyer and Julie Hundersmarck, USFS
Sarah Sawyer, US Forest Service Regional Ecologist, and Julie Hundersmarck, US Forest Service Vietnam Program Specialist, will detail the work of the United States Forest Service (USFS) in the United States and in Vietnam. USFS is a land management agency of the US Government that manages and protects 154 US national forests and 20 grasslands, and works internationally in ninety countries. The USFS mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The mission of the International Programs Office of the US Forest Service is to promote sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation internationally. USFS has been working in Vietnam with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) since 2000 on a variety of topics such as Fire Management, Disaster Management, Payment for Forest Environmental Services, and Combatting Illegal Timber Trade.
Water – A Vital Resource and Interesting Science
March 26, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Greg Clark, Hydrologist at U.S. Geological Survey
Every living thing depends on water. Unfortunately, water issues often do not become a concern until there is a crisis such as drought, contamination, or natural disaster. It is therefore important to develop an understanding of how the water cycle works, how water studies are conducted, and how water is managed so that we can develop skills for sound water use decisions in the future.
What Investors Expect from Entrepreneurs
March 27, 2019, 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Gwen Edwards and Melissa Bradley
Raising capital from an investor is one of the most challenging aspects of being a startup. It can also be one of the most important. Many entrepreneurs don’t understand the fundamentals of raising capital, what investors look for, and how to best position their startups to receive an investment. Join us in a seminar on What Investors expect from Entrepreneurs with expert investors Gwen Edwards, the Trustee and Co-chair of the Angel Resource Institute, and Melissa Bradley, the Managing Partner of 1863 Ventures. In this panel discussion, they will share insights on the fundamentals of raising investment from investors’ perspective and you can learn from their experience investing in startups.
About the Speakers:
Gwen Edwards
Over 30 years experience in technology market leadership -telecommunications,mobile,software,networks from R&D at Stanford Research Institute, to product development, sales, marketing, and general management at Fortune 50, to CEO of a Venture Capital backed company. Advisor to high growth company executives and investors; and Fortune 500 business units. Seek opportunities to work with businesses ready to scale, drive profit, high impact, and still serve as catalysts for social change.
Specialties: Corporate strategy, sales leadership, business development, marketing communication/messaging, market research/focus groups, stakeholder engagement, issue clarification resolution; Also deeply immersed in fund raising processes, due diligence, venture growth and exit options
Melissa Bradley
Serial entrepreneur, investor, professor and researcher. Expertise in (impact) investing, technology, financial services, (social) entrepreneurship, venture capital, social responsibility and media. Significant start-up experience, successful investments facilitated for start-up and emerging companies, extensive board leadership and engagement and aspirational golfer.
Specialties: Expertise in (social) entrepreneurship, impact investing, peer to peer economies, for profit and nonprofit management and operations, venture capital and social responsible business and investing.
Workshop “LivingDance~LivingMusic: Communicating, No Matter Your Ethnicity or Heritage”
March 29, 9:00 – 11:00 am
Danielle L. Fraenkel and Jeffrey Mehr
LivingDance~LivingMusic, created by Danielle Fraenkel and Jeffrey Mehr, is based on the principles of dance/movement therapy and current psychological research. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to experience and explore the most natural and creative forms of non-verbal communication — by engaging basic elements of dance and music, such as breath, pulse, and shape, participants will learn how to attend to themselves at the body level and improve communication, even when under stress. After the workshop, you will be able to connect to yourself easier, and be clearer, stronger, and more understanding while you interact with others.
*Note:
- Open to the public – no dancing or music experience required.
- Dress comfortably
- Bring paper, pencil, crayons, and your favorite musical instrument if you have one.
Facilitators:
- Danielle L. Fraenkel, Ph.D., Board-certified Dance/Movement Therapist, Director of Kinections, Adjunct Instructor of Dance Program at School of Arts and Science, University of Rochester, U.S.
- Jeffrey Mehr, MA & Graduate, Music for People Musicianship & Leadership, Music Director at Kinections
