“There are more ways to express yourself than just writing..” — Kathy Le, Vietnamese Poetry Challenge Winner
I had the pleasure of interviewing Kathy Le, the winner of the Vietnamese Poetry Challenge.
The challenge was to create a poem that would go well with the mural that was painted in front of the restaurant Pho Hoa.
Kathy created a reverse poem about the journeys that most Vietnamese refugees have to go through to find freedom and live in a happy community. She won a $1,000 scholarship.
The scholarship was sponsored by T.LE Entperise, whose founder is Tam Le.
Tam said, “I have always been an advocate for youth empowerment; in fact, my restaurants are majority run by high school and college students. I believe in enabling students to be innovative and creative. ScholarJet aligns with that vision and also helps me give back to the community in a meaningful and impactful way.“
The quote mentioned in the title talks about how writing isn’t the only way to express yourself. The way this was interpreted is that writing can be more free-flowing instead of the rigid structure of an essay. Therefore, a poem breaks the mold of how you can earn a scholarship.
Check out the full interview on Kathy’s thoughts about the Poetry Challenge.
I also talked about this action-based scholarship in an earlier post here.
