Lucky Nguyen
Lucky Nguyen is a fourth-year student studying communications and cinema. Nguyen emigrated from Vietnam with his family and their sacrifice to give their children a better life inspired him to go to college.
“I feel like being a first-generation student just means that I have a lot more opportunities that I feel like my entire family tree has never gone before. It just means that everything that I have or everything that I get the chance to do, I need to at least give it a shot.
Studying abroad was something that I almost didn’t do, but I knew no one in my entire family ever had a chance to go study abroad for college. That’s something that I worked on and pursued. Getting a job, getting to be in a student organization and getting to be in classes. That’s the biggest thing for me, just knowing I have a lot more opportunities so I have to make the most of those opportunities no matter what.
My brother was a good example for me. He didn’t really know what he wanted, and he didn’t really pursue anything. Just knowing that I’m the last one, I took every opportunity that I did. I really soak up extracurricular activities, making friends and doing the college experience.
Even if it’s something dumb, like going drinking with friends on a weekend. That’s something that we don’t get to do in Vietnam that much. Going out to a bar, taking a trip to New York, LA, that kind of stuff is something that we never really get to do. My brother never did any of those things. I’m very happy and fortunate and grateful that I get to be the one who gets to do all of that stuff. Like a complete experience.
I feel like being a first-gen student just means that you don’t get as much familial support as, let’s say, like an American child with both parents who’s in the working class, right? So everything that I have is everything that I’ve built. I pay for college myself, I figure out paperwork, I apply for taxes and health insurance. Recently, I studied abroad and that was a huge process because I had to figure all that out by myself, had to pay for it by myself and had to get my passport by myself.
And when I was in Spain, I didn’t know the language. I didn’t know anything about how it worked over there, but I thrived so much by myself and I pushed myself constantly out of my comfort zone to be able to do things like solo travel to Ibiza and meeting random strangers.
Those are all skills I’ve had to develop from being a first-gen student. It’s learning how to be independent, it’s learning how to take a risk and learning how to bet on yourself without that safety net of your parents coming in to save you.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview by Natasha Delion