Introduction

Ket Doan is a community based nonprofit 501c(3) organization established to meet the needs of young Vietnamese American professionals and to address issues that affect their everyday lives. Even though Ket Doan is active in many different programs and activities, we emphasize specifically three particular objectives.

The first is to develop programs that promote the preservation of Vietnamese culture for today’s young Vietnamese Americans. Out of all of Ket Doan’s missions, this is the most important one. America is known as the “melting pot,” where all the different cultures that make up the United States become assimilated into one, becoming “Americans.” Even though we value our American identity, we also want to preserve our Vietnamese identity to have the best of both worlds. Not only do we wish to maintain the culture and identity of our Vietnamese ancestry, but more importantly, to teach these values to the younger Vietnamese American generations so that they too will have pride in their heritage.

Secondly, our aim is to encourage involvement in community projects that serves the Washington Metropolitan area. We want to serve our community, to pay back a small portion of what we have obtained from it. Our reach extends to the whole of the Washington Metropolitan area, not localized to a school or single community. We strive to help and volunteer in all facets, not only in the Vietnamese community.

Lastly, Ket Doan endeavors to create an environment that creates opportunities for young professionals to develop leadership skills and gain experience in preparation for their exposure to the real world. We believe in the importance of having young voices, ideas, and talents, and therefore encourage the development of their leadership and teamwork skills. We offer not only a chance to be on staff, planning and development of many of our various projects, we also provide workshops and seminars that provide training for many skills essential to leadership. After all, today’s youths will become tomorrow’s leaders.

Throughout each year, our diverse projects provide members with many opportunities to be involved. “Leadership, culture, education, and community” with these four words in mind, along with our three missions, we aspire to unite young professionals and to encourage them to participate in ventures that serves our community and to build a better tomorrow.