Lang Le, Class of 2008

At an early age, Lang Le experienced first hand the hard work of humanitarian and social service programs in immigrant communities. Emigrating from Vietnam and growing up in an immigrant family in primarily low-income neighborhoods across the United States, such programs as UNHCR, citizenship counseling, and government subsidies enabled his parents to build a healthy, economically self-sufficient family. Understanding the impact of such programs on his family, Lang has dedicated his time as a volunteer, as a Board Member of several community programs and as a Senior Economic Development Coordinator at Viet-AID, to improving the lives of families in underserved communities. In 2003, Lang graduated from Boston College with a degree in Economics and worked in various capacities in the finance industry. He encountered his ideal job, however, when he started working for the Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (Viet-AID) in 2005. Through the IDCL Program, Lang’s goal is to stimulate constructive public policy change, either as a publicly elected or appointed official, so that underserved communities receive sustained economic development commitment from the legislature.