Tammy Tran worries that what's driving her generation of Vietnamese-Americans to do well in school and succeed are also the same things driving them to further assimilate into American culture and lose their Vietnamese culture.

"It's happening already; there's a total identity crisis going on," said Tran, 23, of Westminster. "Vietnamese kids today aren't really connected to their roots because they're so busy living the American life."

These are issues every immigrant group faces with each new generation.

The fact that the Vietnamese were displaced from their country and came here as refugees contributes to the need for second-generation Vietnamese- Americans to find their sense of identity, said Linda Vo, professor of Asian-American studies at the University of California, Irvine.

The children grow up with pressures to be American and pressures to succeed, said Vo.

This month, thousands of Vietnamese-American youths will come to Southern California to talk about what it means to be a second- or third-generation Vietnamese living in America, and to share their experiences and hopes for the future of their ethnic community.

The first gathering, Vietnamese Youth Convention 2003, kicks off Friday and is expected to draw 3,000 Vietnamese teens from around the world to UC Irvine for three days of political discussions, concerts and Catholic prayers and Masses.

The event, open to young people of all faiths, was organized by county Vietnamese Catholic youth groups and sponsored by Vietnamese Catholics. Talks will focus on the church as a place to reconcile kids' Vietnamese past and American future.

The second gathering, the 3rd International Vietnamese Youth Conference, kicks off July 11 with an opening ceremony in Little Saigon. About 600 Vietnamese from 16 countries, but primarily from Australia, France and the United States, are expected to attend the conference at the University of San Diego. The theme is "Vietnam: The Road of Humanity - Actions from the Heart and Mind."

"It's definitely necessary that we get together like this," said Phu Nguyen, 25, president of the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations. "Ever since the end of the (Vietnam) war, we've all been scattered and we have not been able to unify as one strong force."

In Orange County, home to the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam, youths under age 18 account for about a fifth of the Vietnamese population. In the 2000 census, 25,255 Orange County residents ages 5 to 17 listed Vietnamese as the language spoken at home. And 99,284 residents age 18 and over listed Vietnamese as the language spoken at home.

Nguyen and others say it's up to the younger generation to carry out the dreams of the first generation.

"We need to sit down and plan out a road map of 5, 10, 20 years. How do you picture the Vietnamese community in 10 years?" Nguyen asked. "It's time to ask ourselves, how can we as Vietnamese youths contribute to Vietnam and human rights in Vietnam?"

Tran and others say it's a difficult task, trying to reach a generation that was born thousands of miles away from Vietnam and is so far removed from the history of what life was like for their parents in the Third World, war-torn country.

Tran said she's been rebuked by her elders, who've made remarks such as, "What do you know about what it was like in Vietnam? You know nothing about communists and what they did to us."

Tran said each time someone tells her that, she replies, "Thank you. Thanks to you and my parents who are here now, I didn't have to know firsthand what communism is about. I think that's a good thing."

Second- and third-generation immigrants, no matter where they come from, often become more aware of identity issues around college age, noted Mary Anne Foo, director of the Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance.

College students first join cultural organizations as a way to socialize but gradually take a vested interest in their culture, take classes in Asian-American studies and get involved in activities to empower the community.

In the 1960s, for example, a group of Asian students at the University of California, Berkeley, started the Asian Health Services clinic in Oakland after recognizing the lack of clinics catering to Asians, Foo noted.

Sitting on the steps outside Santa Ana's Vietnamese Catholic Center, teens who had just finished rehearsing a rap and dance for this weekend's conference said such gatherings are crucial for kids with no cultural place to call their own.

"At high school, it's still Asians, Mexicans and whites," said Michael Tran, 17, of Westminster.

At home, "There's always this barrier between you and your parents," said Tom Nguyen, 19, of Westminster.

Church and events like the church-sponsored conference give teens a way to meet other Vietnamese youths, get out of the house and stay up late with their parents' permission. About 50 young people from Catholic parishes around Orange County spent more than a year organizing the conference.

"The conference will boost our spirits: Being together, having spiritual rallies, meeting new people," said Van Nguyen, 19, of Garden Grove. "We'll get a new sense of our community."