More than twenty years before the Cyndi Nguyen ran for City Council, there was the self described rebel Cindy Nguyen who nearly got herself kicked out of high school and went off to Iowa in search of something different. The Cyndi who returned to New Orleans nearly ten years later had a college degree and the determination to improve the lives of people in the community she d left behind and she channeled that into starting Vietnamese Initiatives in Economic Training VIET , where she now serves as Executive Director. This week Cyndi joins us on VietNOLA to talk candidly about her life s journey, the experience of running for City Council and why she d be extremely reluctant to ever run again , and about the important work she s doing at VIET.