By Jenna Mink, The Telegraph
When Diep Nguyen first moved to the United States, she often conversed using just the words “yes” and “no.”
BEAU CABELL/THE TELEGRAPH Macon, Ga., 05/07/2014: Diep Nguyen, a member of Wesleyan’s Class of 2014, will graduate soon and her plans are to return home to Vietnam. But, not until she’s finished graduate studies in Switzerland. BEAU CABELL
The Vietnam native had studied English for six years and could speak the language well, but she was afraid that people would judge her accent and the fact that she was from another country.
She soon discovered that the opposite was true.
“It’s so nice to know that people have so much respect” in this part of the country, she said.
Now, as Nguyen graduates Saturday from Wesleyan College, it’s bittersweet to leave a place that has become a second home and a country that was once a little intimidating.
Nguyen, 22, will attend The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Switzerland, as she works toward a career in nonprofit organizations — specifically the United Nations Children’s Fund. An international relations major, Nguyen has spent her college career reaching out to others in her home country.
For the past five years, Nguyen has returned to Vietnam to work with Educational Programs for Vietnamese Students. She supervises English summer camps for underprivileged children, who learn to speak the language just as Nguyen did.
It’s an important task for Nguyen, who attended a similar camp during her childhood, which helped convince her to travel to the United States for her education.
Read the full article by Jenna Mink from The Telegraph.
