When she arrived in Portland from Vietnam as a teenager, America looked nothing like she expected.

“I had only seen America in movies,” she recalls. “We arrived in mid-December. The trees were bare, it was cold, and no one was outside. I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t what I imagined.’”

Her family had spent nearly ten years waiting to immigrate and came to the United States in search of new opportunities. While she had learned English in Vietnam, she quickly realized that classroom lessons hadn’t prepared her for everyday life.

“I understood grammar, but speaking was completely different,” she says. “For a while, I just pretended I knew what was happening.”

Feeling overwhelmed, she left high school during her senior year and moved to California to work in a nail salon—a common path for many Vietnamese immigrants.

“There is nothing wrong with that work,” she says. “It has helped so many families build a life here. But I kept thinking about everything my parents had sacrificed. I wanted to make the most of the opportunities they gave me.”

She returned to Portland, finished high school through night classes, and went on to earn both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from Portland State University.

Today, she serves as a school social worker with Portland Public Schools and teaches future social workers at Portland State University.

“My journey came full circle,” she says. “Now I get to help other families the way someone once helped mine.”

As the mother of two young boys in a multiracial family, one question guides many of her parenting decisions:

How can my children grow up feeling proud of every part of who they are?

“I never want them to feel like they have to choose between being Vietnamese and being American,” she says. “They’re both.”

That means speaking Vietnamese at home, celebrating traditions like Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival, spending time with grandparents, and helping her sons understand the stories behind their family’s history.

“Language is more than communication,” she says. “It’s how we pass down our culture, our values, and our identity.”

When her children were born, she began looking for opportunities where they could connect with other Vietnamese families.

She found that community through APANO Good Growth.

Family programs celebrating Vietnamese traditions gave her children opportunities to see other kids who looked like them, heard the same language, and shared similar family experiences.

“When we come together, it feels like we belong,” she says. “The children play together, the parents connect, and we all share the same hope of keeping our culture alive while raising our families here.”

Those connections quickly became more than friendships. Parents exchanged advice, shared resources, and supported one another through the challenges of raising children between two cultures.

“It reminds you that you’re not doing this alone.”

Through APANO Good Growth, she also discovered business resources that helped turn a dream into reality.

With support navigating grant opportunities and connecting to community resources, she secured funding to open a Vietnamese-language family childcare program.

Her goal is to create a space where young children can develop language, confidence, and cultural pride from their earliest years.

“There is such a need for culturally responsive childcare,” she says. “Families want their children to stay connected to their language and culture while preparing for school.”

Today, she also shares new opportunities with other parents, connecting families to grants, programs, and community resources whenever she can.

“When one family succeeds, it opens the door for others.”

What Good Growth Means

For her, success isn’t measured by job titles or accomplishments.

“I don’t care what my children choose to become,” she says. “I just want them to be kind, respectful people who know where they come from.”

She hopes they’ll grow up proud to say they are Vietnamese American, carrying both cultures with confidence and passing that pride on to the next generation.

“Community is where you feel like you belong,” she says. “It’s where people support one another, celebrate together, and help each other grow.”

That, she believes, is what Good Growth is all about: growing strong roots, creating opportunities, and ensuring every family has a place to belong.

Hang Jones is OnPoint- Gold Star Educator of the year 2025 and Adjunct Instructor School of Social Work. She also received the PPS Torch Award 2024-2025.