The Mrs. Oklahoma Inside 2018-2
We are spotlighting Samantha Vu-Tran this week! She is actually competing for Mrs. International this week so what a perfect time to celebrate her!
Contributor Name: Samantha Vu-Tran
Contributor City and State: Piedmont, OK
Marriage Date: February 2, 2002
Instagram Handle: Samantha_vu
MOI: Do you have any kids?
SV: 3 kids; Isaac 16, Jacob 11, and Bella 8
MOI: Any other info about your family you want to share with us?
SV: My husband is #8 from a family of 10 kids. I am the oldest of 3 girls, so our family get-togethers are very loud, filled with endless stories and laughter. I am Vietnamese-American and love sharing my culture and heritage with others. Having 3 children who are also 100% Vietnamese, I felt that is was important to teach them and have them learn more about their ancestry. We volunteer together to promote cultural awareness in our community, so wherever I go they go to.
MOI: What do you do/what is your career?
SV: I am a Clinical Laboratory Scientist. I work in the Mycobacteriology, Mycology, and Molecular labs at the State Health Department. I play an intrical part in helping health care physicians and epidemiologists determine the cause of disease to help with diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
MOI: What is a goal you currently have or one you recently accomplished?
SV: I had the opportunity to work with the Asian District of Oklahoma to promote cultural awareness in our community. I assisted with the evening’s program for the Asian District Market Night. Our goal was to bring entertainment for our local community by sharing food, traditional ware, food, and performances to the surrounding areas. We generated a lot of interest and according to Parks and Recreations of OKC there were 15, 000 people in attendance. That far exceeded any of my expectations.
Another passion of mine is Beauty Within. I started working as a makeup artist when I was younger to help me pay for college. I graduated with a bachelors in Chemistry, therefore makeup was put to the side once I started working in the lab. I created Beauty Within several years ago; it’s a program I hold very near and dear to my heart. I was introduced to a young lady with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She became an outcast at the school she attended after being diagnosed and things only got worse when her hair started to fall out after treatment. She loved fashion and all things beauty, so I was asked to help with a surprise make over for her. She received several new outfits, a beauty consultation and make-up session with me, and a photoshoot. She is a beautiful young lady but her illness did not let her see herself that way. Makeup will not cure cancer nor will it be able to change others minds about what they think of you. But what it does do is help you enhance your natural beauty to give you the confidence to see your own strengths so that others’ opinions don’t matter anymore. My goal with my platform is to help as many women through different organizations see their potential. Teach them how to highlight and contour their strengths and weaknesses so that they will always be their best self without any reservation and hesitation.
MOI: How do you (or did you) work towards achieving that goal?
SV: I know this sounds cliché BUT you don’t ever give up and you don’t ever stop moving forward. There will always be someone in your ear telling you; “it’s not a great idea” or “you’ve got enough on your plate right now, maybe do it later” so many excuses and reasons why not to do it is thrown at me but I know my purpose and my reasons why. I will only work harder, reach out to more people, and be able to touch more lives through my program because I’m sure that they’ve also been told that it isn’t a great idea, you will only lose if you do it, and that’s too much work. Well those words are just more ammo for me to move right along on my path.
MOI: What inspires you?
SV: It wasn’t what inspired me but an incident that occurred when I was younger. There wasn’t a large community of Asians where I grew up, not only that but I was completely awkward looking. I was bullied a lot, even by my own race. There were two girls who friended me in middle school, we became inseparable. They would make fun of my clothes, hair, and glasses and I didn’t care because I actually had friends. One day they played a practical joke on me that sent me crying to the girl’s bathroom. I didn’t leave the bathroom till the custodian told me I had to leave so she could clean the bathroom. No one knew I was gone; no one cared enough to go looking for me. I begged to stay at home from school every day after that incident. But being the tiger mom that my mom was she told me there will always be someone who will stomp on you but it is up to you if you want to get up and dust yourself off and be stronger than the person that got stomped on, so I decided no more. I had the courage to be better than those girls and in the process found my best friend, someone who loved me for my crazy clothes, hair, and glasses. I learned that day that acceptance isn’t about fitting in but about loving who you already are.
MOI: Have you ever been told no, you can’t/won’t achieve that? If so, how did you handle it?
SV: ABSOLUTELY!! I get told “no, that’s not going to work” all the time. I smile and usually tell them kindly “well sit back, don’t worry about it, and enjoy the show.”
Samantha,
Thank you so much for sharing your stories with us today! You blow my mind with how accomplished you are! I am so glad that we met through the Mrs. Oklahoma Pageant and we are all cheering for you as you compete for Mrs. International this week!! Knock 'em dead girl!! Thank you again for showing us the Mrs. Oklahoma inside you!