Bridges to Viet Nam

Exactly a year ago, high school students in New Jersey and California figuratively dipped their toes into the Red River which runs through Viet Nam and made friends with Vietnamese teens by participating in Cyber Bridges. In preparation, principals, assistant principals, teachers and education officials from Viet Nam visited St. Peter the Apostle High School in New Brunswick, NJ and Mercy High School in San Francisco to acquaint themselves with their partner schools and meet the teachers and students.

After the visit, Martina O'Sullivan, Religious Studies teacher at Mercy High School wrote, "It was wonderful to meet Vietnamese delegates. Mercy was totally impressed and happy with the visit. I love Cyber Bridges and want to encourage the girls to first develop a relationship with the Vietnamese students in their groups and then go on the discussion boards."

By September 2007, in addition to Pham Hong Thai Secondary School in Hanoi and Nguyen Binh Khiem High School for the Gifted in the southern city of Vinh Long, five more schools joined Cyber Bridges-two located in Hanoi and three on the outskirts of Vinh Long. These new schools are connected to American high schools in California, Massachusetts, Illinois and New Jersey. Now nearly 500 students are communicating, forming relationships and finding common ground between the United States and Viet Nam.

Students in both countries follow the same project-based curriculum which unites them through conversation, shared photos, and collaborative projects. Vietnamese and American students share their sorrows and their joys together.

Last spring after the tragedy at Virginia Tech University, Vietnamese students wrote: "We were very frightened when hearing about the event. It's so sad. It killed our friends — students like us. I burst into tears when I saw their radiant faces…so sorry."

Each year ten new connections will be established between the United States and Viet Nam for the next five years putting into practice CRS' belief that solidarity will transform the world.