Nhu Le was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and is currently a student at Portland State University. She is majoring in business information technology and analytics. Growing up in Portland, Le attended Joseph Lane Middle School and Grover Cleveland High School. Now, as an active member of the Vietnamese community, she serves as a board member for her university’s Vietnamese Student Association and acts as a mentor for low-income and first-generation Asian and Pacific Islander students through the organization Empower. Le works as an intern and data manager for APANO (Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon). With APANO, Le’s work centers on the Vietnamese Portland Project, for which she conducts and transcribes oral history interviews in both English and Vietnamese.

In this interview, Le begins by speaking about her life growing up in Portland, attending public school, and her activism throughout high school. She talks about learning about Vietnamese culture, language, and traditions from her parents. From there, Le describes her experience at Portland State University so far, explaining how she picked the major she did as well as speaking about her involvement with various student organizations and interning with APANO. She goes on to speak about her church, Our Lady of Lavang parish, and how she feels connected to the Vietnamese community. Additionally, Le shares the stories of her mother and father and how they immigrated to the United States. Before concluding the interview, Le talks about the generational differences between the youth and elders of the Vietnamese community and how she hopes they can start to understand one another better.