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I was born in Can Tho Vietnam but moved to the U.S. when I was around 2 years old. Now my hometown is Houston.

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Being surrounded my ambitious and empowering friends makes me strive to be the best version of myself.

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I really love to read. Growing up, my parents would give me money to buy books at the book fair in pre-school. My love for reading and social justice are some reasons why I wanted to go into education reform.

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My family on a beach vacation. My dad is yelling at us to not go too far out. My family made me realize what love truly is.

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I watch this movie when I need the motivation and reassurance that law is the right choice for me.

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I am a first generation student and it helped me become more independent.

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I like to paint because it brings out my creative side. I am often immersed in school so painting helps me relax.

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My mom loves to cook and I believe I got my love of cooking and baking from watching her. Her love language is acts of service.

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While creating my autobiography, I realized how blessed I am. I am surrounded by people who love me, support me, and inspire me. I feel like the person I am today has been a sum total of all my experiences and more. I am excited to see what my future holds.

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I went to a school where the majority of the students were minorities. As an Asian American student, I noticed teachers would favor me and a lot of other Asian students like me were tracked to higher-level classes. I still experience microaggressions and even racist comments throughout my life. Instead of bringing Vietnamese food for school lunch, I had to settle for pb&j because I was scared someone was going to make fun of my lunch. If my school didn't do well at competitions, students from other schools would call us racial slurs. Fellow classmates would ask me for help on their math homework despite math being my least favorite subject in school. As an Asian American, I have an intimate relationship with racism. The cultural shock of transitioning from a low-income high school to a PWI university made me realize that there are also other marginalized communities that have a similar experience with racism as well.

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I remember that I used to role-play family when there was playtime in class. I would play as the mom and I feel like my parents have taught me gender norms when I grew up and I would reproduce them at school. My parents would buy me Barbie dolls when I was younger and toys that are considered "girly". I also experienced microaggression although I didn't know it at the same. My classmates would ask if I could help them with their math assignments despite being a poor student in math class. I would actively choose not to bring Asian foods in elementary school because everyone else was eating pb&j sandwiches.

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I realized that I have a lot of privileges as an abled body person. In this class, I have learned that there are prejudices that people with disabilities have been through ever since they were children. Children with disabilities' play are seen as deficient compared to an abled body child. Children with disabilities do not get full agency during their play time because it is constantly getting intervened or surveillance by the caretaker. Because of this, it restricts them. Cognitive development and play are tied together. If they do not get full agency of their play time, then this can be threatening to the cognitive development.

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I walk between two worlds. From speaking Vietnamese at home to attending school in the US, I see how much culture influence my values and traditions. The dominant culture affects a big part of my life. To some extent, I was encouraged by my parents and people within the Vietnamese community to assimilate into the dominant culture. I never liked the first part of first name. I always wanted an American name. 'Thao' seemed too foreign and no one can pronounce it. Although I embrace that part of my name now, I see how much I wanted to fit in by having an American name.

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Piaget goes over 4 stages of cognitive development and although I do not remember my childhood all that much, observing my niece, I thought it was very interesting how you can subtly see the transition of cognitive stage in a child. For instance, when my niece was around 1 years old, she should use her sense to observe her surroundings. For example, she would put anything in her mouth. That was in the Sensorimotor stage. She is now 4 and she is in the Preoperational stage. In this stage, she mimics our actions. For example, waving t say hi or mimicking our laughing. Children learn through curiosity. When they are curious of their surroundings, it helps them learn if you give them agency.

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My parents were uprooted from their home in Vietnam and were unprepared for the transition to life in the United States. My parents picked Houston as a place to reside in because there was a big Vietnamese community they could rely on while trying to adjust to life in America. I do not have any relationship with the Indigenous people who are from the land where I live. My childhood consisted of a white-washed version of Native history and the curriculum never mentioned the importance of the land we reside on. Before, I thought playgrounds were places where children can escape the confines of school without thinking about the lands of Indigenous people. Learning about Native culture in college helped me gain a different perspective on play and how children respect more of the land than adults do.

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Growing up, I was taught that technology was bad for me. It was true to an extent. Technology can be bad for me if I overuse it and it was not in a productive way. I think it is important to get over the narrative that technology is good or bad. Technology is evolving and it is inevitable that we will encounter it. We should focus on how we can make technology benefit us and the children. It can help with their agency as well and their tech literacy.

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I think that it is important to supervise children but also give them agency during play. I feel like I would explain to my cousins who have 2-4-year-old kids what I learned from this class and that their kids are learning through play as well as observing our actions. When I am around my nieces and nephews, I would like to challenge gender stereotypes in play. My project focuses on sexism and gender norms in early childhood play and I have learned a lot about how to cross the boundaries of gender. For example, I would try to disassociate certain types of play with a specific gender. If I affirm to them that both boys and girls can enjoy a particular form of play, it can help them.