News & Events
City Tech's James Lap Helps Bridge Gap
Between Vietnamese and American Cultures
"It is time to close the book on the old animosities that once divided our two lands and to write a new book that speaks of two nations sharing the best that each has to offer," says James Lap, director of the evening and summer sessions at New York City College of Technology (City Tech).
The two lands to which he is referring are his native Vietnam and his "adopted" country, the United States, and he is doing his best to realize this goal, while also being a role model and offering support to Vietnamese immigrants.
Lap, 54, came to the U.S. at the end of the Vietnam War, in 1975, with no money and no sense of what the future might hold.
Today, he is chairman of the board of directors of Asian American Consulting Services, a Ridgewood, Queens-based organization that helps immigrants, and an advisory board member of The American Museum of Natural History's well-received exhibition, "Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind & Spirit," which runs through January 4, 2004.
He is also treasurer of the Asian American Higher Education Council of The City University of New York (CUNY), a mentoring program for CUNY faculty members of Asian descent; a board member of CUNY's Asian-American/Asian Research Institute; past president and current advisory board member of the Vietnamese Association for Computing, Engineering Technology and Sciences; and an advisory board member of the Indochina Sino-American Senior Center and of the Chinatown Manpower Project. In addition, he has been an advisor to Vietnamese students at City Tech.
"When I first came to this country, other people helped me and I need to do the same now," says Lap, who has been a resident of Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan for 12 years. "By relating my experiences, I can give others hope -- the hope that things will turn out well for them."
Lap arrived in New York with a degree in philosophy and no idea what he was going to do to earn a living. It was his advisor at American Council For Emigres in the Professions, who suggested that he go into computers. "At the time, 1976, I had no idea what computers were about. When I heard computer science had something to do with mathematics, which I loved, I took his advice." Lap received a full scholarship to study for his bachelor's in computer science at NYU and went on to earn a master's in computer software engineering from Columbia University. Shortly thereafter, he was vice president for management information systems for a New York City brokerage firm.
He began working at City Tech in 1986 as an office automation specialist. "At that time, there were only 15 PCs at the College," he recalls. The following year, he became director of the computer center, a post he held for five years. Over the years, he has taught off and on as an adjunct in City Tech's computer systems technology department and has also taught Vietnamese language classes at New York University.
Lap didn't return to Vietnam until 1994, when he led a tour group of students, faculty and administrators from Lehman College. In the 20 years since he had last seen his family, both of his parents had died and he met his many nieces and nephews for the first time.
Four years ago, he became a member of the advisory board for the American Museum of Natural History's comprehensive exhibition on Vietnamese life and culture, the first in the United States. Visitors are able to experience the richness and diversity of Vietnam's 54 ethnic groups through thousands of artifacts, works of art and photographs supplemented by live performances and videos.
Lap set up meetings with local Vietnamese community leaders to invite them to participate in planning the exhibition. He explained and recommended important facts and dates for the show's Vietnam history timeline. He screened and commented on films from Vietnam that were being considered for the cultural program, helped select the photos "THEN - 1968 Tet Offensive" and "NOW - 2000" taken in the city of Hue that are posted at the entrance to Vietnam exhibition. In addition, he edited the Vietnamese translation of the exhibition program brochure and provided simultaneous translation services during the museum's conference on "Vietnam in the 21st Century."
"The people of Vietnam can take great pride in the New York exhibition," Lap says. "It speaks of a savvy and hard working people who have emerged from a long period of colonization and conflict to successfully create a modern society, one that is built on the treasured aspects of their past and the promise inherent in their determination to make Vietnam a full and productive member of the community of nations."
The exhibition will also enable young people of Vietnamese descent to learn things about their ancestral homeland that they might not know, like the remarkable biodiversity of its plant and animal life, he added, and the traditions of its many ethnic groups.
"Vietnam is my 'motherland' and America, where I received my education and launched my career, is my 'fatherland,'" he explains. "With the Vietnamese tradition in mind that holds family and parenthood in the highest esteem, one can understand how very much I want our two nations to live and work together in harmony."
