“Interesting thing growing up in another country where we’re exposed to the American way, right, every day — is that the things that we, culturally, ethnically, we– our parents grew up in, aren’t that visible. And so by the, by the time we got into college, I learned a lot more about my culture in that time that I was involved doing the Cambodian Student Connection (CSC) stuff than any other time I was growing up. I started going to the temples more learning about the different days and ceremonies in the year. The culture shows helped to expose more of our kind of heritage and historic costumes and dances and things like music, and so that’s also a big part of it.”
“I think for everyone in the club, including myself, we learned quite a bit that we didn’t learn in school itself.”
Vibol Hou studied Cognitive Science with a specialization in Human-Computer Interaction at UC San Diego from 1998 to 2005. During his time at UCSD, Hou co-founded the Cambodian Student Association, originally known as the Cambodian Student Connection. In this interview, he reflects on his journey as a student leader of an organization dedicated to celebrating Khmer heritage and building community, and how these experiences shaped his growth as an individual. At the time of the interview, Hou served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Pluto TV. At the time of publishing in September 2024, Hou sits as the Chief Product and Technology Officer for Paramount Streaming.
The interview was conducted over Zoom by Amira Noeuv on May 6, 2021 as part of the GROW Spring 2021 course project. At the time of the interview, Amira was a student at UCSD pursuing Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies.
