Calix L. Vu-Bui has been selected as VietACT 2009 Intern

Calix completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego in 2005. This year, she received her Master of Science in Counseling degree from San Diego State University. Her interests in refugee, immigrant and exploited peoples stem from her family’s personal experiences in the U.S. as survivors of the Vietnam War.

Calix started out as a therapist at both the SDSU Center for Community Counseling and an inner city school through the Price Entities School Project (PESP). These were transformative experiences where her interest in grassroots, community-based social services grew. Currently, Calix actively engages with underserved/underrepresented communities through the Cultural Access and Resource Enhancement (CARE) program. To increase Asian Pacific Islander (API) mental health access for youth and their families, Calix serves as an outreach specialist and family support partner at CARE. True to her roots as an organizer, she co-founded the Asian, Asian-American, Pacific Islander Network (AAPIN) for Community Research Foundation (CRF), CARE’s overseeing agency, to enhance the services CRF provides to APIs in San Diego County.
Committed to serving the Vietnamese community, Calix is the Community Relations Coordinator for the Vietnamese-American Youth Alliance (VAYA) and hopes to helps organize their first Asian Youth Conference.

Inspired by a friend, Calix became aware of VietACT, which she saw as an opportunity to continue her interests in social justice, human rights advocacy, and mental health work in traumatized and immigrant groups. She joins VietACT as an intern interested in using her passion and education to advance the rights of exploited Vietnamese trafficked into Taiwan and to create healing experiences for these resilient survivors. In her spare time Calix likes to surf, dance and write non-fiction pieces.