{"id":7981,"date":"2019-08-29T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T19:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000001773"},"modified":"2019-08-29T14:12:16","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T21:12:16","slug":"my-first-job-maye-center-executive-director-laura-som","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/my-first-job-maye-center-executive-director-laura-som","title":{"rendered":"My First Job: MAYE Center Executive Director Laura Som"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Labor Day coming, we got to thinking about that often critical, sometimes comical first job we\u2019ve all had\u2014and sometimes had to endure. We asked a few locals who\u2019ve journeyed on their own interesting career paths what that first step\/job was like. Laura Som is the founder and executive director of the MAYE Center in Cambodia Town and is now preparing for her seat as a commissioner on the city\u2019s new Ethics Commission.<\/i><\/p>\n

Laura Som\u2019s first job coincided with the first English sentence she ever learned.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne chicken leg, please,\u201d a 10-year-old Som would ask an employee at the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen on Long Beach Boulevard before handing over her hard earned cash.<\/p>\n

The fast-food restaurant was just around the corner from the garment shop she worked at with her mother. Today, the location is a parking structure for St. Mary Medical Center, right across from the Superior grocery store.<\/p>\n

Som\u2019s job was to cut leftover threads at the end of pants or shirt sleeves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt so proud of myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While the job was very easy, Som remembers having fun and focusing on the quality of her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a process of just being in the moment of working and the joy of earning an income and taking pride in that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

At the shop, which housed about 20 to 30 employees\u2014the majority of which were Cambodian refugees like Som and her mom\u2014the elders knew to be careful with the quality of their work under Som\u2019s watchful eye. If not, Som would have a pile of garments waiting for them to fix.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s stuff that I would catch and say, \u2018You have to redo that!\u2019\u201d Som recalled with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Som and her mother were able to land the job through a friend of a friend nearly two weeks after arriving in Long Beach from Cambodia in March 1992. Som didn\u2019t know her ABCs yet.\u00a0With no age requirement or background checks, Som said work at garment shops sometimes were the only jobs available and easy to obtain for immigrants.<\/p>\n

Earning a few dollars at a time, Som worked six hours a day, five days a week; getting picked up by her mom after school, arriving at work by 4 p.m. and leaving by 10 p.m.<\/p>\n

So what did she do with the money she got, besides ordering chicken legs?<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a little piggy bank and I would put all my quarters and dollars in there and then I would buy my backpack and back-to-school clothes,\u201d Som said.<\/p>\n

Som ended up working at that shop for five years, until 9th grade, when she transitioned to a donut shop.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Laura Som, Executive Director of The MAYE Center, sits at a sewing machine while at the center in Long Beach Tuesday, August 27, 2019. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While she never made clothes after that experience, Som\u2019s work as founder and executive director at the MAYE Center in Cambodia Town\u2014which focuses on meditation, agriculture, yoga and education to heal past trauma\u2014has brought her work life to a full circle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m learning how to sew,\u201d Som revealed.<\/p>\n

After the elders at her wellness center asked for the heavy, industrial sewing machines they were accustomed to using long ago, Som obliged about two years ago.<\/p>\n

Now, the elders are teaching Som how to sew\u2014but this time she\u2019s learning how to make a complete garment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the factory style, they divided the tasks so you could never learn how to make your own shirt,\u201d Som said. \u201cOne person would sew one sleeve and the other person would sew the main portion of the body of the shirt, but we would never have the skills to become a tailor.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a launch party for Equity for Cambodians <\/a>earlier this year, Som even sported a dress handmade at the center with fabric purchased for $10 at a local Cambodian fabric shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople looked at that outfit and thought, \u2018Oh my gosh that must be hundreds of dollars!\u2019 and I was like nope, we made it for an art class.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI had a little piggy bank and I would put all my quarters and dollars in there and then I would buy my backpack and back-to-school clothes,\u201d Som said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":70472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6259,671],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2789],"class_list":["post-7981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-jobs","tag-labor-day","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7981"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=7981"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}