Chantala, Chicago

Do you remember your first summer job?

Yeah I do. We did nothing. It was a Mayor Daley Summer Job and it was organized by the Laotian community center in Chicago. They basically collected all the Laotian kids from all the neighborhoods, and we went to apply for the job. When we got the job, we went to the community center and we would play cards and hang out. When the inspector would come to see what we were doing, we would act like we were picking up phones and doing inventory. It was all good, I was only 13 years old.

catzie vilayphonhJuly 24, 2014first summer job, growing up in america, Chicago, kids, childhood memories

Tony, Seattle

My first summer job? Working at a summer art program in Pratt Park in Seattle, Washington doing drop-in programming for inner city youth, anywhere from 5- to 18-year-olds. I was a teaching artist teaching spoken word and creative writing. It was mostly African American, but we served people from different ethnic backgrounds as well.

What did you learn from your experience?

I learned a lot, that areas are definitely getting gentrified everyday, that black would turn white.

catzie vilayphonhJuly 24, 2014first summer job, Seattle, artist, gentrification, youth, inner-city

Malisamai, Minnesota

My very first summer job was picking strawberries, like everybody else in the Hmong community, with my parents and my cousins. I was 12, I don’t remember much but you know, when you’re young it seems so fun because you’re picking berries, but it was probably really hard work because you had to bend down and pick so much at a time.

catzie vilayphonhJuly 22, 2014first summer job, Hmong, food, Minnesota, Legacies of War

Kingsavanh, Washington D.C.

My first summer job was in San Francisco when I was a foreign student at U.C. Berkley, studying political science. I came the United States in 1973 from Laos, I’m not a refugee. My first professional job was a bilingual social worker, I helped refugee resettlement for 25 years, and then I retired. Then I became a Lao language instructor at Foreign Service State Department, in fact I still do that right now, and I’ve been broadcasting at Voices of America for 3 years.

catzie vilayphonhJuly 22, 2014first summer job, Legacies of War, Voices of America, refugee, San Francisco

Deth, Washington D.C.

My first summer job in America, was in a clothing factory back in San Diego. I was opening the boxes and folding the t-shirts. After that I was working in the county office of education specializing in juvenile department, and then I went back to school and got into hotel management. I moved to San Francisco and worked as an administrator doing payroll, but got bored very quickly. One day I was helping my Chef, a master chef from France, and he like the way I presented things, so he said I’m gonna recommend you to go to the Culinary Institute of America. So I went to CIA in Hyde Park, NY in 2003, and my major was culinary art. People hired me to do pastries, and I did that for five years. I moved to D.C., that’s how I ended up at Doi Moi, where I am the Chef de Cuisine.

catzie vilayphonhJuly 22, 2014first summer job, chef, WASHINGTON D.C.