We share Jenny Do’s beliefs that art and science strengthen our ‘sense of wonder’ and connection to the natural world, and that education provides a route out of poverty. The FHF Art and Science Enrichment Program provides our shelter kids with workshops featuring scientists, artists and engineers who describe their exploration of the natural world. Our goal is to engage the children with topics that inspire wonder, urge them to ask questions of our experts, and encourage them to explore further. The Art and Science Enrichment Program was started in 2024 by FHF board member and Earth scientist Tom O’Reilly and artist Trinh Mai Thach. All of our workshop speakers and translators are volunteers. Your donation supports this program through purchase of art supplies, science gear, and more.
We conduct art and science workshops via zoom every few months, talking with the shelter children about oceanography, biology, astronomy and other interesting topics, with interpreters to translate to Vietnamese. We often feature guest speakers who are experts in their fields. During the workshop the children are encouraged to create art that reflects the science being presented!
The Friends of Hue Foundation Shelter kids have adopted an Argo robot ‘profiling float’ through the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) Adopt-A-Float program , and named her Jenny Do. The Jenny Do is now part of the Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array, a network of hundreds of floats that carry chemical and biological sensors. These floats, including the Jenny Do, are revolutionizing our understanding of the ocean’s biological and chemical cycles, climate, and ecosystem health.
The children also created beautiful designs to honor Jenny, and Trinh Mai transferred these to the actual float housing in March 2023 before shipment to South Africa and deployment on her multi-year ocean voyage of discovery. There are no obligations, financial or otherwise, to adopting a float, but it gives our kids the opportunity to learn about oceanography, engineering, climate and more while honoring Jenny’s memory. The kids can track the Jenny Do’s voyage online as she measures the chemistry, physics and biology of the ocean from the surface to 2000 meters depth every 10 days. (View the location and data of Jenny’s float in the GOBGC adopted float table – search for table entry “Jenny Do”)
Cô Trinh Mai transfers FHF childrens’ art to their adopted robot float at the University of Washington School of Oceanography, March 2023.
The Jenny Do was deployed from research vessel Roger Revelle on September 10, 2023, in the South Atlantic Ocean 200 kilometers west of the Cape of Good Hope. Children can track progress of the Jenny Do and her data in the GOBGC adopted float table – search for table entry “Jenny Do”.
The FHF shelter recently received a compound microscope, thanks to donor generosity. Tom O’Reilly has been training the staff and kids on the microscope’s care and use. Thanks to this scientific tool, the children have witnessed first-hand the incredibly diverse and fantastic life to be found in a drop of water – from a pond, the Perfume River, and the ocean.
Tom O’Reilly met the shelter children and staff ‘in person’ during a visit to Vietnam in August 2025. Tom led the kids on an overnight adventure to tide pools near Da Nang, where the kids observed corals, crabs, tropical fish and other fantastic creatures in their native habitat. The kids also made their own plankton nets, and collected water samples that they examined under their new classroom microscope.
Co-executive directors of the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) Dr. Isabelle Thuy Pelaud and Kathy L Nguyen visited the FHF shelter in January 2025 along with five other distinguished writers and poets; Alexandra Huynh, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, Nguyễn Hiền Trang, H’Abigail Mlo, and Nguyễn Bích Lan. These artists read stories and poems to our shelter children and gifted them with books – a truly unique and enriching experience!
Your donation helps us provide art supplies, science equipment, and experiences that inspire wonder and curiosity in our children.
