Harrisonburg News
Campus News & Events
Cultural Diversity
The second article featuring international students at the Harrisonburg campus focuses on Vilayvanh Khamphavong, who is a student and also works at the college as Assistant to the Director, Jack Ekey. Some of us call her "Vee," and our campus depends on her! She has an interesting, multicultural story...
V was born in Thailand of Laotian parents. Her parents moved with her to the U.S. when she was a toddler, so V does not remember living in Asia. But they continued to speak Laotian at home. She grew up in Arlington among a very diverse culture. Elementary school consisted of ESOL classes along with other children whose native language was not English. Partly because of this, many of her early friends were children from other countries. They all had something in common--sometimes feeling as if they lived in two cultures and not always accepted by Caucasians.
When V was a freshman in high school her family moved to Broadway, Virginia, near Harrisonburg. And if Harrisonburg is a small city, Broadway is a tiny town! She had already decided before they moved that she wasn't going to like it, and for two years she treated the people in her rural high school as if they were country bumpkins. Finally, after two years she began to make friends and realized there were some pretty nice people here, even if they were mostly Caucasian. When she graduated she was accepted at a Virginia college but wasn't ready to move away. She worked as a waitress and then at a local poultry processor in the accounting department. This company's tuition assistance program allowed her to attend National College in the business administration–management associate degree program. She chose National because of the small classes and her desire to complete her degree quickly. She found that the personal attention kept her more accountable.
Vilayvanh had Jack Ekey as an instructor, and he found out that her job in the accounting department at her company was going to be phased out. He offered her a job as a financial planning representative about the same time as she was finishing her associate degree. V did well and liked her work, and Jack soon offered her the job as his assistant. She is a bachelor's degree student now, continuing her education at National in business administration–management. Just like many of you, she's counting down the classes she needs: 5 to go!! Yea!
V next has her sights set on a Master of Business Administration degree, and National College is giving her the opportunity to pursue this dream. She comes from a family and a culture that believes in education--and the future seems promising to her.
