Administrator’s Name: Donny Truong
Position and Department: Web Designer, College Relations
Supervisor: Carolyn Guyer
Period covered by this review: April 2005 – April 2006

Areas for Discussion

to be completed by the supervisor

Job Knowledge

Like his colleagues in the web group, Donny necessarily keeps up with changes in web technology, learning and refining skills almost constantly. He not only seeks out research and study of both technical and graphic design technique, but also joins and adds to what others in the group share and discuss. As the most senior of our web designers, Donny exhibits a grasp of Vassar practices and expectations that comes from his almost four years of experience here.

Quality Of Work During This Time Period

As ever, Donny can always be relied on to work quickly. And, while his design skills have continually improved over time, this year, I observed a distinctly strong upturn in his ability to hit the mark right away. He himself attributes this to the change in his office location, which puts him in central proximity to the others. His receptiveness to more interaction with colleagues has definitely improved his overall abilities.

Communication

In my opinion, Donny is a born communicator. Moving to the U.S. from Vietnam when he was eleven radically altered his ability to communicate in his new environment. He spent his playground time in those early years trying to learn English. He learned quickly, and even prior to the time I’ve known him, he has been publishing an online blog, or journal, where he reviews music, books, film, and software, and keeps up conversations about life in general with others who read his writing. This past year, he became a rather high-profile figure among the population of the international Vietnamese diaspora, and others interested in Vietnamese culture, for his Flash pieces combining music with images of Vietnam. As a result of his public voice on his own website, he has corresponded with people from all parts of society in different countries. Donny is clearly not a person who needs perfect English to be a communicator, yet he sets as a goal for himself working to perfect it. He has my respect and admiration for that.

Innovation

As a web and graphic designer in College Relations, Donny is expected to respond to assignments with creative solutions. He not only does this, but when numerous versions become necessary, he does not lose patience and always remains flexible. Sometimes, when a refining process has slowed too much, he jettisons it and comes up with a completely new and fresh design that almost always hits the mark precisely, based on all the earlier iterations. This is a wonderful and valuable creative ability.

Working Relationships/Teamwork

Teamwork underlies everything we do in web development and Donny has always participated with great respect and generosity with his colleagues. He quietly listens and is often one of the last to speak in a group discussion, but he does not hesitate giving an opinion if he feels it will help. His willingness to aid others was particularly evident this year as he worked across somewhat undefined boundaries with the new web designer in Development. Donny, who redesigned the Development site last year, helped the new designer to transition into taking over responsibility for it. Ego issues must be put aside in this kind of situation and that never seemed to be a problem for Donny.

Summary of Overall Performance

After almost four years of working at Vassar, Donny clearly shows evidence of his accumulation of institutional knowledge. He remains a steady and reliable web expert, devoted to his work, and always trying to improve. His willingness to carry the extra load we’ve all felt this past year while we were shorthanded was exemplary for how he did not let it noticeably impact his legendary speed.

It’s official. I am joining Vail Resorts as a ski and snowboard instructor at Whitetail. My first day will start as soon as we get some snow. My job depends on you, Mother Nature.

When I first started to ski, I learned my first lesson at Whitetail. Now I am part of the team. I would like to teach skiing and snowboarding because I love both sports. Skiing is easier to get started. I taught a few kids to ski and they could get on the lift themselves and ski down the green slopes at the learning center.

Snowboarding is more challenging to get started. I struggled quite a bit and I had to figure out how to get over the learning curve. I only snowboarded for two seasons. All the learning techniques are still fresh in my mind. If I have to pick one sport to teach, I would go with snowboarding.

It’s going to be an exciting winter!

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Today marks my thirteenth year working at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. Thirteen years is a long time, but I am still here and still holding on to the title: Director of Design and Web Services.

My role hasn’t changed much this past year. My main responsibilities are still our websites. The new site for the law school has been underdevelopment for more than a year. It will launch soon—hopefully. I don’t design or code anymore. I give advice and feedback. Someone else is doing the coding. I am cool with that.

Flexibility is the other aspect I am enjoying. It gives a balance between work and life. The benefit is the reason I am sticking around. I get to spend more time with my family through the PTO I had accumulated over the years. My kids are still my priority. I hope they will love me back because I know damn well my job won’t.

Nevertheless, I can’t complain about my job. I still have the freedom and the flexibility within my perimeter. When you are not your own boss, you have to follow orders. I am fine with that. I just need to do my job. When I leave my passion and pride outside of my work, I do a better job.

I don’t need to show off my work. I don’t need to put my name on a design. I don’t get bogged down when my work is gone. I don’t need to protect my legacy. I just need to make money to feed my family.

That’s where I am at with my career. I am just going to ride it out. I am taking it one day at a time. I don’t think about the future. I just go with the flow. I will adapt when I have to. For now, I am thankful for the opportunity to continue to work at George Mason university’s Antonin Scalia Law School.

In February, I took a ski lesson at Whitetail. Since it was on a weekday, the snow school was not so busy and I requested to learn carving; therefore, I was assigned to just one instructor. It was a private lesson for the price of a group lesson. While taking lesson, the instructor encouraged me to teach.

I was not serious about it, but her words stayed with me. Last week, on a whim, I applied for a part-time position for a non-certified ski or snowboard instructor. I wrote an honest, enthusiastic cover letter about my love and passion for both skiing and snowboarding. My story paid off. I got accepted two days later.

Without a doubt, I am excited about the opportunities not only to teach, but also to learn. One of the perks for the job is getting free lessons. Just the thought of learning, teaching, and playing on the snow reinvigorated me. I couldn’t wait to share the new endeavor with my wife. Of course, she supported me. I tried to convince her this might be the beginning of my dream career. That was when she brought me back to reality and reminded me of my responsibilities. Right, I have four kids to raise.

The gist of the story is that I can do anything I want as long as I keep my full-time job. It’s all good. I still am enjoying being the director of design and web services. Skiing and snowboarding will keep my body active and my mind strong. It’s a perfect balance between sitting in front of the computer and spending time outdoors.

On January 21, 2020, I skied for the first time in my life at the age of 42. I took a beginner lesson at Whitetail Resort and fell in love with skiing ever since. Our family (2 adults and 4 kids) has become Epic Pass holders for three consecutive years. Between Whitetail and Liberty, which are close to where we live, these resorts are our family’s winter playgrounds.

I can ski my ways down the green, blue, and double-black trails. In the coming winter, I would like to work on my carving. In addition to skiing, I fell in love with snowboarding. In the winter of 2022, I decided to learn snowboarding to challenge myself. Picking up snowboarding at the age of 44 was not easy, but I overcame the steep learning curve. Now my snowboarding skills are as good as skiing skills. My goal in the coming winter is to learn carving on snowboard as well.

Thanks to the wonderful instructors who had taught me to get started on snow sports; therefore, I would like to share my experience with anyone who is interested in trying out skiing or snowboarding or both. Since coming to both sports fairly new, I still have the learning experiences fresh in my mind. I understand the importance of ski postures and snowboard stances. I can help new learners avoid the mistakes that I had made so they can progress much faster. I would love the opportunity to put my passion to work.

I was go through my old boxes and came across a letter my former supervisor at George Washington University School of Business. On November, 4, 2008, Molly Brauer wrote:

To Whom It May Concern:

I have known Donny Truong for about a year, and during that time he has impressed me as a very thoughtful, hardworking, problem-solving, diplomatic person.

When I called one of Donny’s references during the hiring process, the gentleman I spoke to said, “Donny will quietly win the respect of everyone around him.” And that endorsement has rung true every day I’ve worked with him. Donny has a sterling work ethic, and the ability to organize and prioritize tasks efficiently and effectively.

He has been working for the Office of Communications in the GW School of Business for about nine months, and everyone he’s worked with has been very pleased with his work—both his cooperative spirit and his finished products.

Donny works with a wide variety of people in senior positions and much lower positions and treats everyone with the same respect. He is an excellent team builder and a good listener. Beyond his work ethic, Donny is a creative problem solver who finds elegant solutions to complex problems, taking into account the diverse needs of sometimes incongruent groups masterfully.

Donny works hard and learns quickly. He came to this country when he was 12 years old, learned a new language, and managed to attend college and find work in his chosen field – no small task. His only weakness is some minor difficulty with written and spoken English; his comprehension is excellent and he reads broadly.

I recommend Donny highly because I believe he will succeed at anything he puts his mind too; his life is testament to that.

Yours sincerely,

Molly Brauer

It’s time for the annual performance review. Started last year, I am keeping track of my responsibilities. Since I write on the daily basis, documenting my work flowed smoothly into my routine. Around this time of the year, I had always dreaded the self evaluation. This year, I am going incorporate my year-long tasks into the evaluation.

Specific examples which demonstrate the employee’s job knowledge and execution:

• Created Scalia Forum Save The Date Invitation
• Worked with the alumni office on class notes
• Worked on WordPress update requests
• Worked with University on moving to GA4
• Provided ITS access to our Google Tag Manager account
• Reworked the slides to double up the dimensions to ensure better image quality on large-screen TVs
• Attended 2023 Computer In Libraries Conference
• Created promotions for the 23rd Annual Judicial & Legislative Reception
• Met with Beacon Technologies to get quotes on HTML and migration for Cascade
• Met with Cascade to get quotes for portion of migration and templates
• Recommended specs for the production server: Cloudflare Add-on for CDN and security, 16 CPU Cores, 20GB Memory, 160GB SSD Space, and 5TB Data Тransfer
• Compared monthly price for cloud hosting services including DigitalOcean, SiteGround, etc.
• Worked with colleagues on Google Tags.
• Provided feedback to a fellow designer on banner designs
• Worked with director of technology on the calendar
• Work with the web content specialist on site updates
• Worked on WordPress support with colleagues
• Researched on Cascade to understand more about its architecture and to ask questions.
• Discussed server administrations with Beacon Technologies
• Upgraded MODX to 3.0.3
• Upgraded PHP to 8.1 on production server
• Upgrade MySQL 10.3.34 on production server
• Rewrote the NGINX web rules to force HTTP to HTTPS on production server

Specific examples which demonstrate effectiveness in organizational relationships:

• Published MVETS’s 2022 Year in Review. Highlights of what they had done in 2022.
• Worked with Law Review staff on developing their new website. The current site was a huge mess. It was powered by the Elementor Full Site Editing plugin. The plug-in was not working correctly. They kept running into issues. I had a meeting with them and I suggested that they need to get off Elementor and migrate over to Gutenberg. They hired developers to do the redesign. I gave them advice and guidance.
• Made ppdates for Voices for Liberty’s Call for Proposal Request
• Worked with Admissions staff to show them how to update the CAS intranet so they can link to videos and PDFs
• Restructured Working Papers on our site and on SSRN
• Posted course schedules
• Attended 2023 Computers in Libraries Conference
• Discussed whether higher institutions should continue to use social media. Why do we send our users to other social media sites where we don’t have control of the content? The sources aren’t reliable. We should instead draw the users from other networks to our site where we have complete control.
• Discussed Open AI (ChatGPT) and Metaverse (VR)
• Attended sessions on web content strategy and web security, which I found useful.
• Tested out WordPress 6.2 release. The Site Editor was out of beta and very stable. You can do anything without knowing any code. It’s quite impressive.
• Worked with the Director of Technologies to move the courtroom videos to WordPress so he can shut down the server upstairs. We should consider moving it into Cascade as well for the migration.
• Renewed SiteImprove for another year.
• Worked on Scalia Forum graphics for print menu, signages, and digital screens.
• Collaborated with the Web Content Specialist to take care of change requests.
• Supported WordPress sites for the Centers.
• Worked on the Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic website in WordPress.

Status and results of previously agreed-upon performance goals and objectives:

• Launched Student Bar Association Website
• Launched the Art Clinic Website
• Published the Request for Proposal for Voices for Liberty Website
• Put together the landing pages for the IP program
• Handled update requests
• Added new adjunct faculty members
• Updated profiles and People Finder
• Updated course schedule
• Updated tuition costs
• Updated student organizations and their officers
• Published the web version of the fall 2023 course schedules.
• Fixed the Events Calendar Issues with duplicating titles.
• Published the Transcript Information for International Students for LLM and FLEX LLM pages.
• Work with the Dean of Admissions on the admit/incoming switchover.
• Designed Voices For Liberty’s speakers page with bios and photos.
• Finished putting up the summer course schedule
• Put the fall course schedule together. The page was ready. Just waiting for the greenlight to publish.
• Added 3 new courses: Law 246, Law 370, Law 427
• Worked with career staff to post the job fair on the CAS intranet
• Worked with career staff to upload videos to the CAS intranet
• Worked with Director of Admissions to add transcript evaluation on LLM and Flex LLM pages
• Worked on adding Google Scholar for faculty members
• Worked with Gray Center to give vendor access to their site
• Worked on the IP Program landing page.
• Worked on updating MVETS pages.

Examples which demonstrate the supervisor’s Operational Leadership

• Created email invitation for the Annual Fall Kick-off Reception.
• Ran a report in Eventbrite for the Capitol Hill Alumni Reception.
• Worked with students to put together the announcement for the Moot Court Competition.
• Participated in the Law Library’s summer workday & Learning institute.
• Updated and added new Faculty pages.
• Created Mason Mentors Profiles for Fall 2023
• Created an online form for students to submit their profile pictures.
• Worked on admissions orientation agendas
• Updated JD Tuition & Costs
• Added new full-time faculty members
• Updated the course schedules for David and Margarita
• Updated forms for Record Office
• Added and trained new content editor for Trial Ad student organization
• Added request form for Event Planning
• Added new content editor for Admit Intranet
• Updated Incoming information for the intranet and switch from Accepted homepage to Incoming homepage
• Worked with Beacon Technologies to set up SSL certificates and sFTP access for the new server.
• Took the FREE Annual Cascade CMS End User Training Webinar.
• Worked with outside consultants to set up 4 WordPress microsites: JurisMasters.gmu.edu , JMCyber.gmu.edu , JMCriminalJustice.gmu.edu , and JMGovCon.gmu.edu
• Worked with ITS and HR to get outside consultants access to our VPN.
• Updated the Fall 2023 Incoming Class Profiles
• Updated the ranking page
• Worked on revising the Online LLM in U.S. Law and Online Global Antitrust Law & Economic landing pages.
• Attended the WordCamp Conference. Since I had been getting lots of requests for WordPress sites, the conference was very helpful. It had a very strong, passionate, and ambitious community. They focused on Gutenberg, accessibilities, and longevity. They were working on a 100-year goal.
• Removed all course schedules and syllabi.
• Republished 2 years course schedules and syllabi.

Examples which demonstrate the supervisor’s Mentoring and Coaching

• Fixed CAS login issues.
• Contacted an alumna about accessing the alumni directory site.
• Completed training: 2023 Mandatory Role-Based Technical IT Security Awareness.
• Completed training: University Policy 1204: Prohibited Relationships with Students.
• Updated webinar pages for Online LLM.
• Updated course schedule.
• Created HTML version of course schedule.
• Updated course descriptions.
• Designed Sixth Scalia Forum’s save the date, invitation, and graphics.
• Replaced the WordPress sliders for the monitors. Soliloquy cut off the top of the slides every time new sliders were added. Smart Slider solved that issue.
• Fixed the WordPress Events Calendar for Voices for Liberty website.
• Re-uploaded course schedules and syllabi from 2021 to 2023.
• Relaunched the Online LLM U.S Law and Online Antitrust pages.
• Updated admissions pages requested by Sabrina.
• Supported outside consultants on WordPress for the 4 JM sites.
• Assisted the Gray Center WordPress site including adding new editors and authors.
• Assisted Law & Liberty WordPress site to provide editors and authors access.
• Continued to update Fall course schedules and syllabi.
• Updated the WordPresss kiosk site.
• Upgraded to MODX 3.0.4
• Created Alumni News block on the homepage and archive page.
• Trained alumni staff to make updates in MODX.
• Updated Voices for Liberty pages.
• Designed Sixth Annual Scalia Forum Invite
• Updated Records language
• Created a faculty site for a faculty member
• Created and updated Voices for Liberty pages
• Updated Admitted Student Intranet
• Updated Mediation Course Description
• Updated Arts Clinic webpages
• Created a form for Alumni Newsletter
• Updated Flex LLM Spring 2024 Course Schedule
• Migrated CDN and Firewall from StackPath to CloudFlare
• Created a Thanksgiving card.
• Created a holiday party card.
• Updated requests from the Records office.
• Updated U.S. Law and Antitrust Online requests.
• Updated MVETS requests.
• Updated course schedules.
• Created new events pages for Voices for Liberty.
• Created a new site for Global Wealth Management.
• Reviewed the testing pages and templates for the new law.gmu.edu.
• Switched to CloudFlare’s CDN and Firewall for MODX Cloud.
• Switched the Admit Intranet from incoming landing page to accepted landing page.
• Created a new subscriber user for Admit Intranet.
• Changed student org’s descriptions.
• Fixed the job links on the homepage.
• Fixed SSL Certificate issue for JM landing sites.
• Created save the date card for the Sixth Scalia Forum.
• Created graphic banners for CMEIL.

Performance and development goals and objectives

• Complete the migration to the new content management system (Cascade)
• Make the transition to the new CMS
• Learn the admin side of the new CMS
• Provide support for the new CMS
• Collaborate with colleagues on the new CMS
• Continue to support WordPress Multisites 
• Grow the network of WordPress-powered sites
• Make the transition to the Gutenberg editor
• Create new WordPress theme to meet the Mason new branding
• Support the law school members (faculty, staff, admin, students) with web-related technologies
• Support the web team members
• Collaborate with the library technology admin
• Attend web development conferences to sharpen up my skills
• Attend design conferences to stay on top of the trend
• Dive deeper into web accessibility
• Get ready for AI, especially ChatGTP

When I took over the law school website, responsive design started to gain traction. In my interview presentation, I made the promise that I would make the whole site responsive if I were hired. Even though I had very little knowledge on server administration, which was the main responsibility of the web services developer position, I was hired.

My supervisor at the time told me, “Although you don’t have much backend knowledge, you have a strong sense of design. I am sure you will be able to pick up all the server stuff.” I was thrilled that she had more confidence in me than I did in myself.

To keep my promise, I ripped out all the HTML and CSS and rewrote them from the ground up. I also approached mobile first in my responsive redesign. I did not use any frameworks; therefore, everything I coded tailored to the site—nothing more, nothing less. At that time, we still used floats for layouts, but as soon as the CSS grid landed on major browsers, I rewrote the CSS to take advantage of the grid functionality.

To give our site more flexibility, I developed layout patterns based on the grid system. I put together a demo page to show different combinations (buttons, images, text, video). The grid can accommodate at least 12 layouts. The best part is the fluidity of the grid system. It is made to adapt to any digital device.

Since the release of my book, Vietnamese Typography, in the winter 2015, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with type designers and type foundries around the world. I reviewed their diacritics and made recommendations to improve legibility and readability for Vietnamese readers.

When I decided to drop my book on the open web, I wanted to provide a complete resource for designing Vietnamese diacritics. I did not think about the advising service until David Jonathan Ross reached out to me to review his hyper-stylized typeface called Fit. As the name of the typeface suggested, everything must fit—even the diacritics. The double-stacked marks in Vietnamese proved to be a challenge. We went back and forth many rounds until we came to the perfect fit. In our collaborative efforts, I learned about his design process and decision making.

After my work with David, I realized I could offer similar advice to other type designers. As my site reached the type community, requests for reviewing Vietnamese diacritics rolled in from different parts of the world, including Dalton Maag in London, TypeTogether in Vinohrady, Sandoll in Seoul, Fontwerk in Berlin, Grilli Type in Lucerne, Klim Type Foundry in Wellington, TypeNetwork in Seattle, and Frere-Jones Type in Brooklyn. For a complete list, visit my client section.

In addition to typefaces, I review apps, websites, and any materials with Vietnamese text. As a result, I added type advisor to my resúmé to make the title official.