Notice: The American Center Hanoi will be closed on Monday, May 28th in observance of the Memorial Day holiday.
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:
- As of August 1, 2017 all visitors to the American Center 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 American Center. Guests should plan to arrive at least 30 minutes prior to an event to ensure they can get through the screening procedures in time. The American Center has ordered 30 laptops for visitors’ use, which we expect to arrive in the Fall. 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 American Center, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| May 3, 3:00 – 6:00 | Film Show and Discussion: Spotlight | Pope Thrower, U.S. Embassy Press Attaché |
| May 4, 3:30 – 5:00 | How to Start | Trần Việt Hùng, Founder of Got It Inc. and 2007 VEF Fellow |
| May 7, 2:00 – 5:00 | A Mini-conference on the Marine Environment & Plastic Pollution. Register here | U.S. Science Envoy Dr. Margaret Leinen and Vietnamese NGO Experts |
| May 7, 5:00 – 6:30 | Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success: Professionalism | Cynthia McKinney |
| May 9, 3:00 – 4:30 | ‘Modern Family‘ Screening and Discussion | Michelle Der Ohanesian |
| May 10, 3:00 – 4:30 | Air Quality Expert Panel Session. Register here | Dr. George Conway, Ms. Nguy Thi Khanh, Dr. Tran Tuan |
| May 11, 2:00 – 3:00 | Resume Writing Workshop | Matthew Alan House |
| May 15, 5:00 – 6:30 | From Strangers to Familiars | American Center Interns |
| May 17, 3:00 – 4:30 | ‘Modern Family‘ Screening and Discussion | Michelle Der Ohanesian |
| May 18, 2:30 – 4:00 | Internship Opportunities at U.S. Companies in ASEAN | Vinitaa Jayson, Procter & Gamble Asia, and Ms. Donna Priadi, General Electric (GE) Indonesia |
| May 21, 4:00 – 5:30 | Storytelling Club | American Center Interns |
| May 22, 3:00 – 4:30 | How to Identify and Seize Opportunities for Personal and Career Advancement | Fenghua Wang and Chi Le |
| May 22, 5:00 – 6:30 | From Strangers to Familiars | American Center Interns |
| May 24, 3:00 – 4:30 | ‘Modern Family‘ Screening and Discussion | Michelle Der Ohanesian |
| May 25, 3:00 – 4:30 | Dress for a Better Future – Reuse, Recycle, Resale, and a Startup Idea | Huong Dinh, Alumnae of YSEALI Professional Fellows Program |
| May 29, 2:00 – 4:00 | How to Write a Grant Proposal and Budget | Marcia Anglarill and Phung Van Huy |
| May 29, 4:00 – 5:30 | Debate Club: “Should early childhood education be encouraged?” | American Center Interns |
| May 30, 3:00 – 4:30 | ‘Modern Family‘ Screening and Discussion | Michelle Der Ohanesian |
Conversation Hour
Fridays, 10:00 – 11:00 am
American Volunteers
Call it a conversation, or any one of this word’s synonyms – chat, colloquy, converse, dialog, discussion, etc. – this is an hour of informal talk and your opportunity to improve your English speaking and listening skills. An American host of the hour will introduce a topic and guide you through discussion around it. Come to chat and learn. Bring your friends and make even more friends!
American English Club
American Center Interns
Come join our American English Club to improve your English speaking skills and enhance your English vocabularies on a variety of topics. The participants will join the host to learn how to sing one of the popular memorable songs as a warm-up activity. Then, the club will continue with its interesting activities that will give you the opportunities to improve your English speaking skills, enhance your vocabulary, and have a lot of fun discussions and presentations.
Debate Club
American Center Interns
The goal of the American Center’s Debate Club is to create friendly environment where anyone can express and freely debate their ideas on interesting current topics. So if you like to analyze facts, communicates openly, or just interested in debate please make your way to the AC to join our club.
AC Student News
American Center Interns
Adapted from the CNN Student News, this program encouraged participants to reflect on and discuss international issues, while using opportunity to sharpen English language skills, especially listening and speaking.
From Strangers to Familiars
American Center Interns
From Strangers to Familiar is a program that engages people in deep conversations in order to develop connections between humans. From Strangers to Familiars not only gives participants an opportunity to master their English communication skills but also helps them create ultimate long-lasting networks through the program’s chain of deep talks. Everyone has a chance to share and everyone is listened.
Conversation & Pronunciation
Rebecca Garcia
Join us to discuss important American and international current events. Different topics related to politics, popular culture, and business may be featured each week. This is an opportunity for us to share our ideas and ask questions so we can all learn together. This session will also include a brief pronunciation lesson to support English learners who seek to improve their speaking.
Film Show and Discussion: Spotlight
May 3, 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Pope Thrower, U.S. Embassy Press Attaché
To celebrate the World Press Freedom Day, the American Center will host the screening and discussion of the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight.” Basing on a true story in Boston in 2001, “Spotlight” retells the Boston Globe journalists’ investigation into child sex abuse by priests in the Boston area, which led to the blowing of one of the worst child abuse scandals by the Catholic Church. Starting from a lawyer’s revelation that a priest had been abusing children while the Church did nothing to stop him, the newspaper’s Spotlight team plowed through numerous documents and sources to shed light into this systematic crime. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture out of its six nominations, in what the Variety hailed as “a triumph of excellence over ego.”
How to Start
May 4, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
Trần Việt Hùng, Founder of Got It Inc. and 2007 VEF Fellow
Dr. Hung Tran is the founder of Got It, Inc., a tech startup developing the world’s first Knowledge as a Service (KaaS) platform to instantly connect a knowledge seeker with a vetted expert for an interactive and personalized explanation. Got It is led by an experienced executive team including former executives from tech giants like Google, Lyft, Rakuten, etc., and is headquartered in Silicon Valley with an engineering office in Hanoi, Vietnam. The company has raised $15M in funding from well-known investors in Silicon Valley like Capricorn Investment Group who is also an early investor of SpaceX, Tesla, and PlanetLabs.
Dr. Hung Tran received a VEF Fellowship in 2007 and obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science focusing on data mining and big data analytics from the University of Iowa. Prior to the Fellowship, he served as the leader of Vietnam OpenCourseWare Project working with MIT and Rice University to build a national scale open courseware program from inception to launch serving millions of college students in Vietnam. Dr. Tran received his Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology from Hanoi University of Science and Technology. He is also a recipient of numerous national and international technology and entrepreneurship awards.
In this talk, Mr. Tran will share with you stories and lessons learned from his journey to the U.S. to attend a PhD program in Computer Science at the University of Iowa then to start a technology startup in Silicon Valley.
A Mini-Conference on the Marine Environment & Plastic Pollution
May 7, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
This mini-conference will feature a speech by U.S. Science Envoy Dr. Margaret Leinen, a screening of scenes from the documentary “A Plastic Ocean,” the introduction of the “Blue Sea Vietnam” website, as well as a panel discussion of NGO experts who are working to reduce plastic pollution and trash problems in Vietnam.
The waters of our oceans cover more than 70% of the globe yet we have explored less than 5% of them. Nearly 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity to meet their needs. However, science has not yet managed to fully evaluate the cumulative effects of human activities on the ocean. Join U.S. Science Envoy and Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Dr. Margaret Leinen to learn more about these pressing issues and what scientists, citizens, and governments are doing to help.
The mini-conference will feature:
- A speech by Dr. Margaret Leinen, Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Dean of the School of Marine Sciences at the University of California, San Diego
- The unveiling of the “Blue Sea Vietnam” website http://vibienxanh.vn/index-en.html by NGO Live & Learn
- A screening of scenes from the documentary “A Plastic Ocean”
- An expert panel discussion of U.S.-Vietnamese efforts to tackle the challenge of ocean plastic pollution
– Ms. Nguyen Thi Dieu Thuy, Oceans Program Co-ordinator, WWF-Vietnam
– Ms. Ho Thi Yen Thu, Deputy Director at Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD)
– Dr. Margaret Leinen, Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Dean of the School of Marine Sciences at the University of California, San Diego
– Ms. Do Van Nguyet, Director, Live & Learn for Environment and Community
Please register to attend the mini-conference at https://goo.gl/zqSZUE. Active participants will receive gifts from the American Center.
Air Quality Expert Panel Session
May 10, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Dr. George Conway, Ms. Nguy Thi Khanh, Dr. Tran Tuan
Did you know that Vietnam is ranked in the bottom ten globally for its air quality? What can we do to protect our 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 in honor of Air Quality Awareness Week!
This session will also be live-streamed on the Embassy’s Facebook page.
Expert Panel Speakers:
- Dr. George Conway, MD, MPH is a physician and epidemiologist well known for his work and expertise on environmental health. Dr. Conway has worked in numerous senior level positions with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has extensive international experience in designing, implementing and managing successful health programs to address public health threats. From 2012 through 2015, Dr. Conway served as Senior Advisor to the Chinese Centers for Disease Control as well as Public Health Attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He is currently the Health Director for Deschutes County, Oregon, where he leads over 300 public health and behavioral health professionals and advises the populace and governments.
- Ms. Nguy Thi Khanh is the founder and the Director of Green ID, a local NGO focusing on green and sustainable development. She has been with Green ID for more than 6 years and has more than 13 years of experience with the NGO community. Ms. Khanh and her NGO have recently advocated against GVN’s development of coal-fired power plants. Ms. Khanh is creating reports on air quality in Hanoi and HCMC as a way to make people aware of air pollution and support the development of renewable energy. So far, her organization has issued several quarterly reports on air quality since 2016. Before founding GreenID, Ms. Khanh worked as Program Manager of the Center for Water Resources Conservation and Development.
- Dr. Tran Tuan is a community health researcher and health system analyst. He is the RTCCD research director, a policy advisor to the Evidence-Based Health Policy Development Network, and a chairperson of the Vietnam Alliance for Control of Non-Communicable Diseases. He is also an independent health policy analyst to the Central Communist Party Commission of Education and Popularity (since 2006), Commission of Economics (since 2013), and to the National Assembly Commission of Social Affairs (since 2010). He was trained as a physician at Hanoi Medical University, a medical epidemiologist in Umea University (Sweden) and public health researcher in international health at Harvard School of Public Health before pursuing his PhD in epidemiology and population health at Newcastle University (Australia). He has written 75 peer-reviewed international journal articles on public health.
Resume Writing Workshop
May 11, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Matthew Alan House
Are you thinking about applying to attend a university in the United States? What about applying to work overseas? Having a professional-looking resume is one key aspect to have if you want to do these things. This workshop will assist in developing a professional resume. Area of focus during this workshop will be group critique on each other’s resume, tips on resume editing, and formatting the resume. Attendees should bring 2x copies of their existing resume to the workshop (1 for group critique and 1 for instructor critique).
The instructor is Army Captain Matthew Alan House, who recently presented his book, Soldier and Spouse and Their Traveling House, at the American Center. He is a published author and enjoys helping others develop professional resumes.
Internship Opportunities at U.S. Companies in ASEAN
May 18, 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Ms. Vinitaa Jayson, Vice President – Human Resources, Procter & Gamble Asia, and Ms. Donna Priadi – Director of Government Affairs and Policy – General Electric (GE) Indonesia
Internship can be a crucial springboard for early career development. U.S. companies offer opportunities to experience excellent corporate cultures and network with interns from other ASEAN nations, preparing you to be a leading figure in the ASEAN business community.
The panel discussion with these two speakers from Procter & Gamble Asia and GE companies will give you useful information about internship opportunities at U.S. companies in ASEAN. The discussion is hosted by @america, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City will join this live discussion through video conference tools. Participants can easily interact with and raise questions to the speakers.
How to Identify and Seize Opportunities for Personal and Career Advancement
May 22, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Fenghua Wang and Chi Le
Opportunities are everywhere, and it is up to you to find them and seize them. The American Director of the American Center Hanoi, a U.S. diplomat, and the AC intern Le Phuong Chi, will share some tips and advice to help you achieve greater success.
Dress for a Better Future – Reuse, Recycle, Resale, and a Startup Idea
May 25, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m
Huong Dinh, Alumnae of YSEALI Professional Fellows Program
Do you know: The clothing industry is the second most polluting industry for the environment after Oiling and Gas. We waste tons of usable clothes and food every year. How you shop and consume really matter to the environment and the community around you. Come and join us to learn how developed countries like the United States, Australian and European countries reuse and recycle products in their countries and how you can start dress for a better future.
How to Write a Grant Proposal and Budget
May 29, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Ms. Marcia Anglarill, Cultural Affairs Officer, the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, and Mr. Phung Van Huy, Alumnus of Fulbright Vietnamese Student Program, Lecturer of School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University
You have a project idea and struggle with writing a strong proposal and budget which would be highly assessed by grant sponsors? This session will provide you with useful tips to clear your questions about this issue. As a grant applicant and a grant officer, respectively, Mr. Huy and Ms. Anglarill will share with you different perspectives on how to make your proposal strong.
