Education and command of English is the key to everything in this country. These kids are learning after their regular school day ends. DP
Lac Viet Academy focuses on literacy
By Darhiana M. Mateo, The Courier-Journal
courier-journal.com: Fifth-grader Trang Nguyen flipped through the pages of a dictionary one afternoon last week, her forehead furrowed in concentration as she translated words from her native Vietnamese to English.
The girl, clad in a fuzzy lime-green sweater, is one of about 60 children -- mostly Vietnamese immigrants -- who attend the Lac Viet Academy, an after-school and summer instruction program for immigrant children in kindergarten through eighth grade who live in southern Louisville.
She has been in the United States for only a few weeks, but she said through a translator that the program has already "helped her a lot."
Lac Viet Academy began in the late 1990s to help the fast-growing number of Vietnamese families then resettling in Louisville. Local college students and young professionals wanted to help the children do well in school and started offering homework assistance at sites throughout the South End.
Over the years, the nonprofit program, now housed in the former St. John Vianney school building on Southside Drive, has evolved into a rigorous academic program offering small-group classes taught by certified teachers, said Sister Susan Kilb, executive director. It also offers individual tutoring by trained mentors, and a focus on intensive literacy development.
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