Donny Te has a passion for writing. Combined with his love of politics, he’s glad to be working as an editor for an elections news website in Arizona. Growing up around the Twin Cities in Minnesota, Te learned Cambodian values from his close-knit family and the considerable community there. Even so, it wasn’t always easy trying to fit in with mainstream society, and aside from family members, he knew of few figures that inspired Khmer pride.

But he believes that’s starting to change, thanks to social media. “I hope Cambodians can go to our website and discover things that they’ve never realized before. My goal is to reach out to the visitors and inform them of what’s going on,” says Te.

Another point of community contact that he has maintained is his visits to Buddhist temples, which his parents took him to in his early years and which he now seeks out for himself since his recent move to Arizona. He plans to get to know the local population better through involvement with two temples he now knows of with large gatherings of Cambodians.

His interest in politics partly results from feeling that “today’s generation isn’t that involved with how they could make a difference in their community.” In addition, Te especially enjoys covering athletics and once dreamed of becoming a sports writer. Although he has always found that writing comes naturally to him, Te expects to learn about things as well by becoming a part of Khmerican’s staff: “I want to become closer to my heritage than I was growing up. I hope that our visitors will do the same when they read our articles.”

“I want to write on a variety of issues concerning the Khmer community in the Phoenix area, from politics to entertainment and restaurant reviews.” Te will serve as Khmerican’s first reporter in the Mountain time zone, based in Tempe, Arizona.

EC