Yenni Do and her family have long provided support to her extended family in Vietnam. This motivated Yenni to establish a non-profit organization, Books and Basics, to provide clothing and school supplies to the larger community within which her extended family resides in Vietnam. Her organization has received 501c3 non-profit status and has made its first delivery of supplies. Yenni intends to develop a partnership with a larger organization to support the growth and activities of her organization.
Yenni also tapped into a childhood love of origami and created 3,780 origami birds for the non-profit organization Origami for Good. The intent for this craft activity is to bring messages of hope and caring to children, seniors, and soldiers in educational and health care facilities worldwide.
As a member of the National Honor Society and the Girls in Roles of Leadership Club, Yenni has participated in various service projects including securing hygiene supplies for select teachers to provide to students as well as collecting donations in canned-food drives and providing goodie bags to women’s shelters. In addition, she has made dog toys from recycled materials for animal shelters.
As an avid STEM student, Yenni resurrected the Technology Student Association from inactivity. She tells us that her goal is to help other girls get involved in engineering opportunities in areas that align with their current interests not confined to traditionally gendered areas. She herself is interested in mechanical engineering. In the summer of 2024, Yenni attended a University of Maryland Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering program. She was the hardware lead on a robotics team that invented and built a robotic hand to translate speech to the sign language finger spelling for the hearing impaired. A patent is pending.
Yenni has promoted community STEM outreach by her work with the non-profit Children's Science Center. As a volunteer, she taught fundamental STEM concepts through interactive activities at Family Science Nights, reaching students at five elementary schools across Fairfax County.
Yenni is president of her school's Technology Student Association and co-president of the STEM Club. She plans to attend a technology focused college to pursue a future in engineering assistive products for those with disabilities.