Khmer Student Coalition Conference 2016 at CSULB 

Pov Punisa (Nisa)- Music for the Soul

Workshop description:

Music is heard, sang, and played during every stage of life, from birth until death. We hear it on the radio, at weddings, different ceremonies and holidays, and during many other occasions.  There are many different types of Cambodian music which may include: Mohori, Pin Peat, Classical, Folk, Popular, and many more. In this workshop, participants will be able share and learn how music can impact Khmer people. In addition, participants will be able to play Pin Peat percussion instruments.  The workshop will allow participants to learn and play beginning scale exercises and an intro to a folk song.

Kelley Pheng-  "Knowledge of Self...Love"

BIOGRAPHY

Kelley Pheng is a spoken word artist who uses her writing to tell her story

growing up as a Cambodian-American female, as well as telling the

stories of her parents’ and relatives’ struggles coming to and surviving in

America. She is a 2nd generation Cambodian-American, born to refugee

parents who escaped from Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer

Rouge. She was born in Modesto, CA. She is a Cal State Long Beach alum,

graduating with her concentration in Psychology. She is extremely

passionate about family, higher education, and social justice.

Aside from her poetry, she often facilitates workshops for youth

pertaining to the topic of “Identity.” The goal is for youth to create a

dialogue and build an understanding of the social and personal issues

they may face in establishing and defining their own identities. She also

facilitates workshops teaching spoken word. She also has many other side

hustles related to creative direction and consulting.

A few of her features include: the 25th Annual Asian Pacific Islander

Issues Conference (APIICON) at UC Berkeley, Tuesday Night Cafe in Little

Tokyo, LA, Common Ground in Orange County, Sunday Jump in

Filipinotown, LA, the 1st Annual Cambodian Music Festival, and the 40

year anniversary Cambodian Genocide Remembrance memorial in

Long Beach. Her latest projects included the May Arts Festival in

partnership with AYPAL of Oakland and FAME - Fashion Arts and Music

Exhibition in San Jose, CA.

She currently resides in San Francisco, CA and works in Tech Recruiting.

As far as corporate life goes, her current focus is in Diversity & Inclusion

in the Tech Industry, especially the Bay Area.

Workshop Description:

The goal of this workshop is to explore and discuss different parts of “self” and ways in which we all hurt and heal. In relation to the trauma experienced and often passed on in Cambodian families and communities, the focus of this workshop is to connect the collective to the individual and vice versa. Often, the individual’s dialogue is meshed into the community and we forget how to stand outside of that. There will be heavy emphasis of how to implement self-care, how to be the right kind of selfish, how to be self-accepting and self-loving.

Sambo Sak- Who Do You Think You Are?

Sambo Sak is a second generation Cambodian American. He works for Educated Men with Meaningful Messages (EM3), a youth program that provides high school young male with leadership skills, understanding cultural identity, and community involvement at St. Mary Medical Center. His interest in self-identity is based on his own struggles of understanding himself. Through all the obstacles, he was able to be resilient through performance arts, such as poetry and theatre to help him understand his self-identity. He shares his life experiences to help guide others to their own journey to success in life. Sambo is actively involved in the Cambodian community. He is part of the Cambodian Advocacy Leadership Institute(CALI) where he is one of many facilitators providing workshops to help selected leaders learn about policy change. The other partners included in CALI are: Khmer Girls in Action, Khmer Parents Association, Cambodian Association of America, United Cambodian Community, and Families in Good Health. Some of Sambo’s hobbies are: being a foodie, volunteering at community events, and practicing Khmer Kickboxing.

Workshop Description : Participants will explore storytelling through poetry and dialogue.  Understanding the importance of knowing their strengths and weaknesses.  And being able to create/improve their foundation as an individual to be successful.

KAA (Mea Lath and Khannia)-  Cambodian Dance & History 

Workshop Description - Developed as a prayer in movement for the deliverance of rain, renewal, and fertility, Khmer classical dance is an art form that is more than 1,000 years old. This workshop  is designed to introduce venerable tradition by exploring the dance’s history and vocabulary through lecture, demonstration, and live performance.

Khmer Arts a non-profit  dedicated to fostering the vitality of Cambodian dance and music across borders. Mea Lath and Khannia Ok are the current instructors with than 14 years of dance experience are the current instructors.  Mea Lath is a San Diego State University Alumna and has been dancing since the age of twelve. Khannia Ok is currently attending the California State University, Long Beach and has been dancing since the age of eight. Their mission is to continue to elevate the Khmer culture and unite the people of the community. 

Sidrich Chhour-Say It Right and Hear It, Too: Khmer vs American English Speech Sounds

Sidrich Chhour is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Communicative Disorders (also known as Speech-Language Pathology). He has actively been involved with both CSULB’s Cambodian Student Society and CSUF’s Cambodian Student Association. Currently, he volunteers as an associate with Speech Therapy Cambodia where he assists fellow speech-language therapists who provide services in Cambodia. During his studies, he became really fascinated with phonology (the systematic study of speech sounds) and more curious on how it operates in Khmer. Sidrich has prospects of becoming a certified speech-language pathologist so that he may be able to integrate his knowledge of speech-language pathology and Khmer in order to serve the Cambodian community here and abroad.  

Workshop description:

Say It Right and Hear It, Too: Khmer vs American English Speech Sounds

So often, foreign language courses focus heavily on word memorization, vocabulary, and sentence structure. Language, however, is more than just learning words and stringing them together to construct and verbalize sentences. In order to elicit words and sentences, it is a necessity to be able to know how to produce the correct sounds that build the words. This presentation will focus distinctly on Khmer phonology (the systematic study of speech sounds) and how it is differentiated from American English phonology. It is beneficial to have knowledge of what differentiates Khmer vs English speech sounds so that the non-native speaker of Khmer will be able to have an objective basis of comparison when familiarizing and utilizing themselves with it.

Chef T (Visoth Tarak Ouk)

My name is Visoth Tarak Ouk, I am mostly known as chef T, I've been featured on a few local magazines & newspaper, I am proud Long Beach native an Alumni from LBCC in the Culinary Arts program. I am a head Chef in Down Town Long Beach for a local historic landmark which now house the Federal Bar. I love Cooking, I love Cambodian flavors & influences in my food. I want west & East flavors to harmonize. I am also working with other chefs that are Cambodians in our very own Cambodia Town, to help educate, teach & inspire the next generation or any other generation the beauty of culinary, as food & tradition goes hand in hand. 

Khmer Cooking 101 with Chef T

This workshop is geared to help educate, teach & inspire the next generation or any other generation of the beauty of culinary arts, as food & tradition goes hand in hand. This workshop will have live food demonstrations along with first hand experience with food culture.

Belinda Khou- Executive Suite

Belinda is a class of 2015 graduate of UC Irvine in Biological Sciences. She has served as External Public Relations Officer and later President for the Cambodian Awareness Organization at UC Irvine as well as a co-coordinator for KSCC 2015.

She is an aspiring PA and hopes that her work will take her closer to the underserved Khmer communities locally and abroad. When she isn’t working, you can find her by the ocean, brewing coffee and snapping photographs.

***EXECUTIVE SUITE***
Marian Na

Marian was born and raised in Long Beach, California. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 2013 where she received her Bachelor of Science in Finance with a concentration in Investments. After college, Marian took the corporate route and now works at SpaceX, a privately owned aerospace company based in Hawthorne, California. During her college years, she was actively involved in Student Life Organizations and served as Cambodian Student Society’s President in 2012-2013 and as the Treasurer in 2011-2012. After graduation, Marian wanted to continue serving the Cambodian-American community. After a short hiatus, she joined the Khmer Alumni Association (KAA) and is currently serving her second term as the Director of Alumni Relations. As the Director of Alumni Relations, her main goal is to focus on professional development and helping young Cambodian-Americans like herself find their goals and path once they transition from an undergraduate to a postgraduate.

Description: The purpose of this workshop is to share what works effectively in running a student organization. Whether you are an executive board member, interested in becoming an executive board member, or just a member, this discussion is open to everyone. This discussion will focus on different experiences from student organizations, the growth of each org, and team building skills

Dr. Emad Rahim

“I'M NOT A BUSINESSMAN; I'M A BUSINESS, MAN!” – JAY Z: THE HUSTLER’S GUIDE TO BRANDING YOUR KHMER-AMERICAN IDENTITY FOR SUCCESS

BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Emad Rahim is an award-winning author, educator, entrepreneur, Fulbright Scholar and TEDx Speaker. A Khmer-American and survivor of the Cambodian Killing Fields whose life was turned into the short documentary “Against the Odds” and depicted in the theater production “Tales from the Salt City”, which was written and directed by celebrated playwright and Presidential Medal of Arts Award recipient Ping Chong. Author of Resilience: From Killings Fields to Boardroom – The SALT Effect and Co-Authored The 4-Tions: Your Guide to Developing Successful Job Search Strategies. He has been featured in the Huffington Post, The Rutgers Humanist, Berkley Center, Forbes, CEO Magazine and covered by NPR and WCNY. Dr. Rahim was also the keynote speaker for KSCC2014 at the University of the Pacific. He currently serves as the Kotouc Endowed Chair at Bellevue University and Consultant at Cornell University, and writes for Forbes, IntelligentHQ, The Startup Magazine and CEO Magazine.

Workshop Description: 

The job market is getting more competitive. Having a college degree will no longer guarantee you access to the career of your choice. Does that worry you? If it does, do like Jay Z and don’t see yourself as a businessman/woman but be a business brand. In this workshop we will discuss the “hustler mentality” for career planning, explore different digital media tools, how to grow your professional network, developing an entrepreneurial mindset, and crafting a social media identity to market your Khmer-American identity brand.

Laura Som

AWAKENING GUARDIANS OF BEING-DESCENDANTS OF KHMER EMPIRE

Workshop Description: 

The workshops is to awaken the Guardians of Being through exploration of the self and experiment with truth, a pathway to promote self-healing through self-actualization and reconnect and nurture our roots.
A healthy life-style and learn how to cultivate self-healing space for self-realization, healing ourselves, parents, family and our roots:

1. What is the Khmer Empire? Mends the broken linkage between generations and breaking the inter-generational trauma starting with “Me”.
2. Ancient culture practices of spiritual and mindful yoga
3. Who I am empowered and nurture by my roots and my free will.