Mindy Yip was born in Laos. She left Laos when she was seven years old and stayed in the refugee camp in Thailand for three years. She then immigrated to the United States and started living in San Francisco. She is the youngest in the family of nine children but the first to graduate from college.
Like many other immigrants, Mindy did not speak a word of English when she came to America, but she was determined to dedicate her life to education. She attended Lafayette Elementary School, Presidio Middle School, and Wallenberg High School in San Francisco. Upon high school graduation, she attended San Francisco State University to obtain her Bachelor of Arts degree and multiple subjects teaching credential.
In 2000, Mindy started teaching in public school at Daniel Webster Elementary School. Three years later, she transferred to El Dorado Elementary School and later taught first grade at Visitacion Valley Elementary School. All three schools were ethnically diverse serving families of low social economic level.
Mindy speaks Cantonese, Vietnamese, Laos, and some Mandarin and Thai. Throughout her teaching career, Mindy strives to improve her teaching practices and is committed to serve the low socio-economic children and families in her school community. She is also actively involved with the Vietnamese Cultural Center and provided professional development training for their teachers.
In November 2008, she was honored by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to receive the prestigious Milken Educator Award. In May 2012, she received the Outstanding Educator Award at the Asian Heritage Street Celebration presented by AsianWeek.
Upon completion of her Master of Arts degree in Education Administration from Grand Canyon University in 2013, Mindy has been serving as a principal in Early Education Schools in San Francisco Unified School District. She is currently living with her husband and two children in San Francisco.
1997 San Francisco State University, B.A.
