Welcome!

Welcome to the Raoul Wallenberg Summer Youth Program blog!

We are a group of college students and professionals from Vietnam and the United States. This summer, we are coordinating a youth program for the children who are living as orphans at the Buu Tri pagoda and Hoi Tu Thien orphanage in Can Tho, Vietnam. This blog will capture some of the adventures we will have this summer.

My name is Kate Thirolf. I am pursuing my PhD in higher education at the University of Michigan. Thanks to the Raoul Wallenberg Endowment, I received a generous grant to come to Vietnam to help develop and lead this program. With the additional help and support from Princeton-in-Asia and VietHope, two dynamite non-profit organizations, we are about to kickoff our first day of the program this weekend. We have been planning it for months now, so we are excited and eager to start putting our good ideas into action!

The idea for the Summer Youth Program came from the Can Tho Youth Empowerment Project, which was started by Dan White, a Princeton-in-Asia alumnus who taught English at Can Tho University. The project provides English and computer lessons to children in Can Tho who stay at two orphanages, Hoi Tu Thien and Buu Tri pagoda. This summer program builds on the project and offers additional educational and fun activities for the children at Buu Tri to participate in, including: music, health, and geography lessons; arts and crafts; sports; and team building games.

I hope you enjoy the blog and have fun along with us! It is sure to be a great summer here in Can Tho.