An International Educator in Vietnam

I was invited to speak at the February 4-5, 2010 “Washington Briefing” of the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA).  My presentation about Vietnam and U.S.-Vietnam educational exchange was entitled “Partnerships and Possibilities – Why Your Institution Should Have a ‘Vietnam Vision’.” 

The all-day briefing was preceded the evening before by a reception and dinner at which Vietnam’s Ambassador to the U.S., His Excellency Le Cong Phung, was the featured speaker.  The other speakers were Marjorie Peace Lenn, President, Center for Quality Assurance in International Education, Barry Clark, Founder, Bering Partners, LLC, Fred Brown, Foreign Policy Institute Fellow, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Bahr Weiss, Associate Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University and Nguyen Van Phuong, Counselor for Education and Science, Embassy of Vietnam.  

Some of the finest public and private schools in the U.S. were represented at the briefing, including California State University-Long Beach, California State University-San Bernardino, University of Chicago, Columbia University, University of Connecticut, University of Delaware, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, Kansas State University, LaSalle University, University of  Massachusetts-Boston, University of Northern Colorado, University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, Texas Tech University, and Walden University.  A fringe benefit of my trip to Washington, D.C. was being a participant-observer in the area’s fourth largest snowstorm ever.