Ethnic Studies Alumna Leads Innovative School
Kristin Luciani | Nov. 8, 2010
Minh-Tram Nguyen, a graduate
of the class of 1996 at UC San
Diego, and the founding
principal of EnCompass
EnCompass Academy in east Oakland, Calif., is an innovative public school that serves predominately low-income and minority students. The school emphasizes a well-rounded education, family and community engagement, and an infusion of the students’ diverse backgrounds and cultures into the educational experience. Art classes that integrate language learning and science, a family fitness day and a day dedicated to honoring ancestors are just a sampling of the distinct ways that EnCompass Academy works to educate and empower its students.
The visionary behind this unique school is Minh-Tram Nguyen, a graduate of the class of 1996 at UC San Diego, and the founding principal of EnCompass. Nguyen’s unique vision for the school has its roots at UCSD, where her academic work in ethnic studies, psychology and women’s studies, as well as her experiences as a student activist, first piqued her interest in the work of democratic education and building community.
“It’s been an amazing opportunity to take the world-class education I received at UC San Diego, open a school, and share that knowledge with students, parents, teachers and administrators,” said Nguyen.
Nguyen spoke last week on campus during the ethnic studies department's 20th anniversary celebration. She is a member of the department's first graduating class.
As such, she was a part of this emerging field of study at the university and its impact on campus life. She saw that theories she learned in classes directly related to the university life that surrounded her and that she could use that knowledge to positively impact the campus. In addition, her background as a refugee from Vietnam made it personally important to her to promote education and awareness of global, economic and racial issues among her peers.
An EnCompass student.
Student activism through community-building became her passion at UC San Diego. She dedicated her time to building cross-racial activist coalitions for women, such as the Sisterhood across the Waves, an Asian-American women’s collective, and the Women of Color Coalition. In addition, she helped launch the university’s first Women’s Center. At the time, UC San Diego was the only UC which lacked a university-funded center for resources for women, so she and other female students volunteered their time to maintain a student-run collective that functioned as a women’s resource center. Through these student experiences, Nguyen realized that her passion and her talents were with educating and building community.
With the guidance and teaching of outstanding faculty members, Nguyen began to formulate a vision for an alternative kind of public education. She envisioned a school that would not just teach individual students, but would create a collaborative learning community and cultivate a generation with a new educational ethos.
“Public schools are the nexus where families from across races and classes have to occupy the same space,” said Nguyen. “They can exist in the same space, or they can be a community in that space.”
EnCompass offeres a family fitness day
and a day honoring ancestors, among
other activites.
Now, at EnCompass Academy, Nguyen is showing that academic achievement and community building go hand-in-hand. By working closely with family and community members, EnCompass creates a collaborative learning system to better support and engage students. The innovative school has been a great success—in 2006 it earned Blue School status in the Oakland Unified School District for academic acceleration of students and closing the achievement gap.
“The experience of my children and families is what I’m really proud of,” said Nguyen. “What I learned in my studies about discourse, power, etc. at UC San Diego is what I’m using every day to build community at my school.”
As UC San Diego celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year—and the department of ethnic studies celebrates its 20th anniversary—the campus will be recognizing the visionaries, innovators and overachievers, like Nguyen, that have contributed to its extraordinary growth and accomplishments, and are ensuring its future success.
Future of Ethnic Studies Should Include
Closer Scrutiny of Politics and Economics Scholar Says
Curtis Marez speaks during ethnic studies' department 20th anniversary celebration at UCSD
By Ioana Patringenaru
Hurricane Katrina wasn’t a natural disaster; it was a man-made catastrophe, Curtis Marez, an associate professor in UC San Diego’s ethnic studies department, said Friday.
Marez spoke during the department’s 20th anniversary celebration, which included faculty and alumni panels, as well as a keynote speech by Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, a professor emerita at California State University, Hayward, and a Native American studies scholar and activist.
Marez spoke Friday during the faculty panel, which focused on the future, present and past of ethnic studies at UCSD and elsewhere. Katrina and the subprime mortgage market meltdown are similar, because they both caused members of minority groups, such as African Americans and Latinos, to lose homes and other valuable assets, he said.
Ethnic studies departments should examine the consequences of these two disasters in racial terms. Faculty should investigate the social, cultural and political consequences of the financial meltdown and delve more deeply into the connection between politics and the economy and how they impact ethnic groups, Marez said.
“Our future, our access to life chances are unequally distributed,” he said.
The faculty panel also included Professor Emerita Ana Celia Zentella and Associate Professor Fatima El-Tayeb and was moderated by Yen Le Espiritu, one of the department’s founding faculty members and its current chair.
The department’s focus is social justice, Espiritu said. Faculty and students try to learn and understand the histories of many ethnic groups. They also put theory into practice, she added.
“The fact that we’ve been here 20 years is a moment to celebrate,” she said.
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