Vietnam Center & Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive News and Updates

Monday, April 28, 2014

Spotlight: New ODP Scanner


Lauren

In February 2014, Lauren, a junior from Cypress, Texas, joined the Vietnam Center and Archive in scanning the FVPPA/VAHF Collection’s ODP Application Files. Her friend Alexia, an ODP Scanning Student since October 2013, got her interested in working at the archive. Lauren finds working with the ODP files interesting. She especially enjoys learning the personal points of view from hand written letters, photographs, and other documents within the files.  The personal point of view is a perspective she feels you don’t get from reading about the Vietnamese Diaspora in school.
Lauren came to TTU because her mom and uncle attended, and there is a lot of school spirit and pride at TTU. She is majoring in Nutrition Pre-Dental. She enjoys reading, watching scary movies, running, being at the beach, and outdoor activities.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Spotlight: Two New ODP Scanners

This October two new students joined the archive in scanning the FVPPA/VAHF Collection’s ODP Application files.

Alexia

Alexia

 

A Junior majoring in Biology, a Pre-PA (Physicians Assistant), Alexia is originally from Denver, Colorado. She moved to Cypress, TX eleven years ago. She enjoys outdoor activities, especially running and camping. Alexia started working at the archive in February of 2013 as an oral history transcriptionist. Having transcribed Khuc Minh Tho’s oral history interview has given her valuable insight into and understanding of the ODP files. What she enjoys most about scanning the ODP files is the detective aspect of finding the applicants information and making it available online. Alexia finds working at the archive interesting, especially learning history through the people/participants themselves.

Ashley

Ashley

Ashley is a Junior from Premont, TX, majoring in Community, Family and Addiction Studies. Inspired by “To Write Love on Her Arms,” Ashley’s goal is to have her own nonprofit organization that focuses on helping teenagers struggling with addictions, self harm, depression, and suicide by helping them get rehab and support services, as well as educating parents on how to assist their children through the process. Ashley loves to play sports, especially basketball, volley ball, and weight lifting. Ashley started working at the archive in September of 2013. What she enjoys most about working with the ODP files is reading about individual people, their stories, how much they care about their families, and how hard they tried to bring their families with them.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Orderly Departure Program Digitization Update – 200,000 Pages Online

Half-way through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) funded project to digitize the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) Application Files of the FVPPA/VAHF collection, two major milestones have been reached – over 10,000 ODP files are now available online, totaling more that 200,000 pages.  Although the pace has slowed down this summer with many of the students involved in the project taking summer vacations, the project is still well ahead of schedule, with over 90 of the 124 boxes of ODP files completely digitized.

This three year project is projected to make available online over 250,000 pages of materials documenting the immigration experience of Vietnamese to the United States following the end of the war in Vietnam.   All of these files are accessible through the Virtual Vietnam Archive, and you can keep up with the project on our ODP Digitization Project Page.

Posted by at 11:41 am
Labels: announcements,FVPPA Digitization
Friday, February 1, 2013

One Year Update: Orderly Departure Program Digitization Update

Digitization of the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) Application Files of the FVPPA/VAHF collection began one year ago today, on February 1st, 2012.  Work on the project has proceeded at an incredible pace, with 67 of the 124 boxes completely digitized and available online, totaling 6,969 application files – 146,388 pages of material.

This three year projected, funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), is projected to make available online 250,000 pages of materials documenting the immigration experience of Vietnamese to the United States following the end of the war in Vietnam.   All of these files are accessible through the Virtual Vietnam Archive, and you can keep up with the project on our project page.

Posted by at 3:27 pm
Labels: FVPPA Digitization
Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Orderly Departure Program Digitization Update

The digitization of the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) Application Files of the FVPPA/VAHF collection is proceeding at a great pace and we are well ahead of schedule.  This three year project, funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), is projected to make available online 250,000 pages of materials documenting the immigration experience of Vietnamese to the United States following the end of the war in Vietnam.  After seven months we have digitized just under 5000 files, totaling over 100,000 pages of material.  All of these files are accessible through the Virtual Vietnam Archive, and you can keep up with the project on our project page.

Posted by at 3:32 pm
Labels: FVPPA Digitization,general news
Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Spotlight-ODP Scanning Students

On February 1st, 2012, five student assistants began scanning the Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association/Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation Collection’s Orderly Departure Program Application files.

Quynh

Quynh

Quynh

A business (MBA) major from Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon), Quynh enjoys surfing the internet, music, movies, news, going out with friends, and traveling. She has traveled to Oregon and will travel to California this summer. Quynh wants to go to Japan and Korea someday.

Maggie

Maggie

Maggie

A Vietnamese American from Dallas majoring in nursing, Maggie enjoys working out, playing with her niece, and shopping.

Dai

Dai

Dai

A finance major from beautiful Da Lat, Vietnam’s California, Dai loves soccer, and plays intramural soccer at Tech, center and mid positions. He enjoys music, playing the guitar, and drinking coffee.

Trang

Trang

Trang

A finance major from Hue, Vietnam’s old imperial city, Trang enjoys music, movies, and traveling. She has studied in Singapore, has traveled to Florida, and hopes to go to Europe someday.

Frances

Frances

Frances

A history major, with a Women’s Studies minor, from Bulverde, Frances enjoys reading, writing, traveling, fencing, sailing, scuba diving, and water skiing. She will be studying in France this summer and looks forward to writing a Ph.D. dissertation on Khuc Minh Tho.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), a nationally recognized time to celebrate the many achievements and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans to the United States’ history, culture, and society.  May was chosen as APAHM due to two important historical dates and events relating to the contributions of Asian and Pacific Americans to the U.S. taking place in May. First, May 7, 1843 is the date the first Japanese immigrants to the U.S. arrived. Second, May 10, 1869 is when the transcontinental railroad was completed; many Chinese immigrants labored laying the tracks.

To celebrate APAHM, we have updated our APAHM online exhibit to include new information and materials, including items from the Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association collection Orderly Departure Program files that are currently being digitized.  These records, donated by the Vietnamese American Historical Foundation, document the history of many Vietnamese who immigrated to the US after the war and who eventually became US citizens.

To find out more about APAHM, view our APAHM online exhibit.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Orderly Departure Program Digitization Update

On February 1st five student workers started digitizing the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) Application Files of the Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association (FVPPA) Collection.  These files record this history of over 10,000 Vietnamese who applied to immigrate to the United States and other countries following the end of the Vietnam War.  Many of the applicants in this collection spent years in reeducation camps before immigrating.

The FVPPA collection was brought to the Vietnam Center and Archive in 2005 by the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation.  This year the VNCA received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for a three year, $144,000 project to digitize the files and make them available through the Virtual Vietnam Archive.  This is the second grant we have received for this collection from the NHPRC.  In 2008 we received funding to process the collection to make the physical materials available to researchers.  Since the start of the digitization project, work has been proceeding quickly and smoothly.  Currently over 1200 files have been digitized, totaling over 25,000 pages.  This pace of digitization has already put us ahead of schedule on the project.

The files can searched for through the Virtual Vietnam Archive search page (go to Advanced Search to limit your results to just this collection).  Those interested can also track the progress of the project on our ODP digitization page, which lists current digitization totals, news about the project, and files made available online in the past day.

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vahp/digitization.php

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Vietnam Center and Archive Receives Three Year Grant to Digitize FVPPA Files

The Vietnam Center and Archive has received a three year, $144,000 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to digitize the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) files of the Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association Collection (FVPPA).  This collection of approximately 250,000 pages is comprised of the records of more than 10,000 Vietnamese applying to immigrate to the United States following the end of the Vietnam War.  Many of the applicants were former re-education camp detainees.

The FVPPA collection, brought to the Archive in 2005 by the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation, is one of the largest and most significant collections available to researchers studying the Vietnamese American immigration experience.  The ODP files, according to Associate Director Mary Saffell are  “as important to the study of Vietnamese Americans as the Ellis Island records are to the families of immigrants from the early 20th century.”

It is expected that digitization, which will begin in February, will take three years to complete.  As the items are digitized, they will be added to the Virtual Vietnam Archive.  You can also follow the progress of the project and see recently digitized files from the collection at http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vahp/digitization.php.

This is the second grant the Center has received from the NHPRC for this collection, including funding received in 2008 to originally process the collection.