Global Ambassador Recommendation
- 1. February 17, 2015 To Whom It May Concern, It is my sincerest pleasure and honor to write this letter of recommendation on behalf of Vy Nguyen. I was the former outreach and program specialist at UC Davis Services for International Students and Scholars (SISS), which works with students and scholars from over a hundred countries and six continents. SISS serves five thousand international students, faculty and researchers who come to UC Davis each year. I have known Vy since February 2013, when we selected her as one of the 25 ambassadors out of over 85 applicants. The program requires a year commitment and focuses on mentorship for new international undergraduate students. In fact, she went beyond the initial commitment and moved into one of the new lead ambassador positions for 2013- 2014. As a Global Ambassador, Vy successfully completed my two-unit course on intercultural leadership. She actively participated in class discussions and the various experiential exercises. It is evident that she has a strong desire to help other students by sharing her knowledge as well as her experience. Coming to UC Davis as an international transfer student fueled her passion for assisting new international students to adjust to life in the U.S. and understand the academic culture of a research university. Immediately, she saw the need to develop clear guidelines and policies for the ambassadors. Vy has high standards of professionalism and she walks the talk. During that class, she took the lead in drafting these guidelines and worked collaboratively with her fellow ambassadors. So far, Vy has mentored two groups of international students and acted as a cultural interpreter as well as an academic referral resource. This entails responsibility, maturity, and in addition, advocacy for international students should they encounter barriers on our campus. She has a strong work ethic and even took on an additional student employee position as a peer advisor at the College of Letters and Science. This allowed her to serve a larger community of students and broaden her scope of diversity inclusion. For the second year of the program, she invested significant time creating the job description for the new lead ambassador positions and in the lead position, supervised 8-10 new ambassadors. I admire the professionalism and integrity she demonstrated handling challenging situations and motivating her fellow ambassadors. Vy understands the barriers and the prejudice that international, underrepresented, and disadvantaged students face on the campus, and she has definitely helped to create a more welcoming environment for her mentees and the international community at UC Davis. I admire her tremendously for the barriers she has overcome and for her spirit of paying it forward. Vy embodies leadership in her extraordinary dedication to the diverse student communities. Her track record remains impressive and even more so as a transfer student: two years as a volunteer for international student orientations, and two years as a Global Ambassador, including one as a lead. These experiences along with her excellent academic record prove that Vy will continue to shine in graduate school and her future career. Sincerely, Moira Delgado Moira Delgado Outreach and Program Specialist Services for International Students & Scholars Email: madelgado@ucdavis.edu