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Mary Vuong Back to Member Profiles main page A California transplant talks about learning the Houston streets and finding herself through writing. Houston Chronicle features writer Mary Vuong was born on a Doctors Without Borders boat in Malaysia to Vietnamese parents heading out of the country. She grew up in California and attended the University of California Los Angeles before transferring to the University of Southern California, graduating from USC with a journalism degree. She talks about finding herself in journalism. Please tell us about yourself personally (Where were you born? Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school?). I grew up in the inner city in Motown, graduated from Osborn High School. I got a full scholarship to attend the Journalism Institute for Minorities at Wayne State University in Detroit. (I guess I couldn't ever leave the city!) Getting accepted into JIM was the best thing that happened to me. JIM was an intensive journalism program. All the students had to work at 12 hours a week every semester in a journalism-related job or internship to maintain your scholarship, in addition to maintaining a high GPA. It instilled in me right away the importance of practicing your craft. Please briefly describe your professional background. My first internship was at a teen girl-oriented magalog/catazine called MXG, a hybrid between magazine and catalog. I've also interned at the Daily Breeze in Torrance and the Orange County Register. At USC, I worked at the Daily Trojan and Bamboo Offshoot, an Asian American student paper. After graduation, I participated in a fellowship program with Hearst, completing eight-month rotations at three papers. At the Houston Chronicle, I was a GA on the city desk, with some time spent covering night cops and the rodeo. The Plainview Daily Herald, in West Texas between Lubbock and Amarillo, was so small that I did a little of everything, including taking my own photos and helping proof pages before the paper went to press. I also was a GA who covered the school board, medical community and petty crimes (stolen cans of SPAM, frozen lobsters and all). At the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I wrote about consumer health. I returned to the Chronicle after the fellowship ended. Here, I've written about nutrition/health, food (my favorite!), home, fashion and more. I'm now transitioning fulltime into home design. How did you get your start in journalism? I joined the Daily Bruin out of desperation. I was looking for a place to belong - I never imagined becoming a professional journalist. UCLA was such a huge school that I felt a little lost and neglected, especially coming from a high school that had only about 100 seniors the year I graduated. I lucked out with a kind, encouraging editor, who helped me shape my stories and ideas and showed me this was something I could excel at. And I'll always be grateful for the self-esteem - and financial - boost that an AAJA scholarship provided my senior year. What do you enjoy most about the work you are doing? Meeting and learning from awesome, driven and very different people every day and sharing their stories. I love the access this job grants. Being a California transplant, what struck you as most interesting or different about Texas? The weather, the people and the traffic lights. I lived two miles from the beach in California, but never ever appreciated the weather 'til I moved to Houston. I do remember complaining about L.A. heat if the temperature inched past 75. Thankfully, my comfort zone has changed or else I'd never survive here! I also love how friendly Texans are. And the lights: I learned to drive in a city with vertical, not horizontal, traffic lights. Was there ever a back-up career choice? Not really. Where do you see the journalism industry in five years? I think newspapers will be around, but in fewer numbers. There won't be as much, if any, division between print and online employees, and between editorial and business. Where do you see yourself in five years? Hopefully incorporating more of my interests, like food, gardening and the environment, into my writing. Describe your best day as a journalist. I write very few personal stories. When I do, they mean a whole lot to me. My mom, like many in her culture and generation, does not cook by recipe. But my interest in cooking, personally and professionally, had grown dramatically since returning to the Chronicle in 2003. I missed her home-cooking, so in 2006 I convinced my mother to teach me some recipes. I wrote a story about the process, my brother shot the art and my dad helped out behind the scenes. Readers wrote me and told me how much it touched them; some said they would get right on their mothers to do the same. I know it's a story I'll treasure forever. Back to Member Profiles main page

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