Democracy Day: For Vietnamese exchange student, democracy means helping others
Huy Le, 21, an actuarial science, accounting and finance major, poses in the honors building on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus in Lincoln, Nebraska on Sunday, Sep. 15, 2024. Le came to Nebraska for high school from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, his sophomore year because he wanted to study abroad.
Huy Le, 21, always knew he wanted to study abroad.
When he was 15, he traveled from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to Omaha, Nebraska, and since he’s learned that people are far more alike than they are different.
“When I came over…my only knowledge of American culture is ‘High School Musical’,” Le said.
Le adjusted to life in the United States gradually by learning from his peers at Mount Michael Benedictine High School, a Catholic residential and day high school in Elkhorn.
He said he discovered that a day in middle-class Vietnam was about the same as in middle-class United States.
“You wake up, you go to work, you go home, you put on TV, you go to bed and rinse and repeat,” Le said.
Vietnam is a Socialist Republic governed by the Communist Party and the United States is a Constitutional Republic. They are political opposites.
Le said he sees voting as an important civil duty. He casts his vote for Vietnamese elections remotely from the United States and said he hopes to vote in U.S. elections if he gains U.S. citizenship after finishing his study abroad program.
“You should vote because that action matters in and of itself. Whether or not the end result happens is a whole other thing entirely,” Le said.
Regardless of where you’re from, Le said he believes you make a practical difference in the lives of people around you.
For him, Democracy means the choice to help your neighbor.
“If there are 8 billion small actions that help each other in the world, it will be eventually a lot more impactful than one big action from the top,” Le said.
This article originally appeared in the Nebraska News Service. You can read articles like this, and more, by visiting their website: https://www.nebraskanewsservice.net/
This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.
