Lauren Chauv

Hello I am Lauren Chauv, my pronouns are she/her. I am a second generation half Vietnamese and half Chinese Cambodian.

I grew up in a white suburban area outside of Houston, Texas and growing up I found my heritage hard to connect to with my parents being from different cultures. However, it was not until middle school that I began to embrace my cultural heritage through exploring it more. I started asking more questions to my baba (Vietnamese for grandma) about what it was like in Vietnam for her growing up and what she loved most about Vietnam. And even my dad, asking him about what it was like being a survivor of the Khmer Rouge and what he missed most about Cambodia.

I started to gain a deep understanding of a part of myself that I never knew existed. As I began to embrace my cultural heritage more through learning more family food recipes (even though they’re impossible to actually have accurate measurements for) I was about to share that new found love for my culture with others and foster communities wherever I went talking and bonding with fellow Asian Americans who share similar experiences, even on campus through clubs like COSEA.