New adventures and philanthropy are always on the horizon for Washington
State University alum Nam Nguyen as he surges on to success in his career
beyond WSU. Nam was the first WSU student to study abroad on all 7 continents, and he
continues to generate firsts post-graduation.
Nguyen immigrated to the US at 16 years old, coming from a refugee family that struggled to recover from the Vietnam War. His parents never finished high school following the war and he’s the first in his family to achieve higher education. The obstacles of coming from a refugee family to America with no language skills made for a painful transition but were lessened by his education at WSU and Nguyen’s own drive to succeed.
Nguyen’s success couldn’t have occurred without support and the scholarships that allowed him to attend WSU and study abroad. But the benefits of Nam’s time at WSU go in two directions. As Paul Whitney, interim vice president for
International Programs said, “Students like Nam are a benefit to our whole student body, by providing a valuable intercultural experience every time they interact with other students on campus.”
A student-led effort to fund a refugee scholarship to host more displaced students at WSU is underway. Nguyen said he supports the effort and wants to see the scholarship become a long-standing fund to help refugee students such as
himself.
“The intention alone is a huge thing to celebrate,” he said. “WSU really made higher education accessible for me.” Nguyen has been anything but idle since leaving Pullman. Since graduating in 2020, Nguyen now lives in Chicago, works for BP, welcomed a son named Bach six months ago, and has leveraged his work with BP to help develop a pathway program for refugees to gain employment at the energy company. He also started a nonprofit in his son’s name, The Bach’s Wish Fund, to support Vietnamese students with educational opportunities and resources. Nguyen has made his own efforts to support refugees and sees this work as coming full circle from his experience first coming to the US.
Nguyen’s pathway program, which he developed with several other coworkers from around the globe, takes a comprehensive approach and prepares refugees to obtain education and skills to gain employment. “One part of the pathway program is to provide training and mentorship to make them competitive enough to go through our recruitment pipeline,” he said. “We can’t be biased and just hire because of their refugee status. But we
can provide them with a skill set that makes them competitive for the job.”
Nguyen wants to ease the burden refugees face like he did when he immigrated to the US.
“Navigating life here in the US without English, without connections was really, really challenging,” he said. “In high school all the bullying and discrimination, I still remember all the hurtful remarks other students said to me … I wish I had some kind of support like what WSU is trying to do right now.”
Beyond offering a scholarship, WSU can provide wraparound services to refugee students to aid them from enrollment to graduation. Students fleeing conflict or just needing community are welcomed at a variety of WSU resources like the Undocumented Student Center, First Generation Center, Intensive American Language Center, Office of Multicultural Student Services, LGBTQ+ Student Center, and the International Center.
Funding the scholarship is only one piece to supporting a future refugee student. Building a community around the student and helping them over social and cultural hurdles prepares them for their future beyond the university. Over the past two years, WSU has helped three families from Afghanistan resettle in the region as a part of Every Campus a Refuge program and in partnership with the International Rescue Committee in Spokane.
“For people, especially refugee people, we’ve gone through such challenges, the WSU community can not only act as a giver but a receiver and benefit a lot from experiences (refugees) have gone through,” Nguyen said. “They can teach us very valuable things that we can integrate within the WSU community.”
Nguyen said when his son was born, he began a nonprofit to aid marginalized groups in rural Vietnam and wanted to help Vietnamese students who excel academically but face financial hardship. Nguyen propped up the nonprofit with his own money and donations from friends and family and has so far supported over 100 Vietnamese students. He wanted to start the nonprofit in his son’s name to instill the values of supporting others and caring for the community in his son.
“People would ask me what my biggest achievement was, and my answer was always studying abroad on the seven continents, but now my answer is my son,” he said.
Donations to the Refugee and Immigrant Support Fund can be made here: