What we stand on
Author: Aric Wilkinson
Its an unusually warm and sunny day in Frostburg, Maryland Thursday February 2nd, 2012 ; the type of day when the sun warms you up, but the cold radiating from the snow forces you to cover up. In room 124 of Dunkle hall on the campus of Frostburg State University Ly-anh McCoy an eighteen year old freshman studying mass communication, sits leaning slightly backward in her chair scribbling down notes to herself about her next assignment, sunlight glinting off the gold bangles and bracelets dangling from her wrist as she writes. Ly-anh hails from Baltimore, Maryland where she went to primary school at the private institution Our Lady of Victory, and then proceeded to attend the public school Baltimore Polytechnical high school from her freshman through her senior year When asked about why she switched from the private school to the public school, she responds that she believes that “the quality of an education isn’t based on the price of admission to the institution, but to the teachers and an individuals willingness to learn”, and that she desired the social diversity offered by public schools .
She speaks eloquently with a soft hint of the unique central Maryland triangle accent. She sits upright and confidently with a tone of relaxed contentment , as she describes what is most important to her; her family, her mother and father, as well as her two siblings and two step parents. Ly-anhs mother, was a Vietnamese immigrant who fled the country at the age of nine with her sister and “wont talk about it “, she left Vietnam without her parents, and has only spoken to her Family in Vietnam once since she came to America, Ly-anh has had only one conversation with her grandparents in Vietnam at the age of four, but this is not the case with the rest of her loving family. Her parents are no longer together, but she often sees and has a close relationship with both of them. “I was so young when they split up, that I didn’t know, so it couldn’t effect me the way that it would an older person who could understand the situation”, only four when her parents were divorced, she loved both of her parents, and all that mattered to her was to be with them. “ It only became difficult when I got older having to cope with two different sets of rules every two weeks, It got confusing , but I still had all of my family”. Both parents are re-married, and Ly-anh speaks very highly of both her step-parents, and loves to spend time with all of her family, “unless dad is going to best buy, he'll just look at one thing from every angle for hours, and then put it down, to pick it back up and examine it again. Everyone knows not to go to Best Buy with dad”. Besides her mother and father Ly-anh’s Siblings, Brian, who is 25 and lives in New York, and O’brina 7 “and spoiled” are all very close. When asked to pick a favorite Ly-anh passionately proclaims her Grandmother as “my love, my heart”
Outside of Ly-anhs family life she is very active in the social community on campus at Frostburg. Working for the Social Marketing Committee at the school and pledging to a sorority, she remains highly involved in campus activities as well as volunteer work contributing to the community as much as she can. “ I’m very social but…inside I feel I’m a shy person, it takes me a while to be more than just friendly and open up to anyone”. Studying mass communication with a minor in event-planning She hopes to hold a career as an event-planner in D.C. close to her family. Over the summer she wants to intern at the Food Bank, a firm in New York , where her brother works as the head coordinator for the volunteering department. However she has no plans to remain in New York as it is too far from her family, and it is of the utmost importance to her to remain close to be there for her family.
Though very busy pursuing her dreams Ly-anh still finds time for her second passion in life, shoes, “shoes! Oh my God!, Oh my God!, Oh my God!, Oh my God! Shoes!” She shutters in excitement just a the mere mention of shoes. She looks down at her feet and rubs together her ugg boots as she describes how she gets her boyfriend to buy her 225$ rain boots, instead of jewelry and flowers.
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