Hello! My name is Vy Nguyen (as in the letter ‘V’); a freshman AOIT(Academy of
Information Technology) student at Hoover High School. I’ve lived in City Heights ever since
moving to San Diego at the age of 6 from Tây Ninh, Vietnam. Like many immigrants, my mother grew up incredibly poor. In a place where education was limited, she’d drop in and out of school as her family was unable to sustain the tuition, resulting in an incomplete education. Not wanting her children to suffer the same circumstances, she migrated to America, still working just as hard today with her limited English vocabulary. I grew up in a comfortable environment, not having more than many yet not any less. Though, I’d never want to trade it for anything else.
Academics have always been one of my strongest traits, alongside my humongous brain capacity, my work ethic is just as large. Alright, that statement may have been partially false, but I’ve always achieved high marks; throughout elementary school, as well as maintaining a 4.0 GPA through all three years of middle school (which includes COVID/online learning!), and still carrying high marks into this year as well. My secret technique to success was to build a strong foundation of healthy habits, and continuing to enforce/practice them. Having a well balanced schedule and decent time management also helped.
Extracellular activities weren’t really my forte, till recently. Currently I’m a part of “Avenues for Success”, a college support program at Hoover, and waiting for an interview with “Cardinals Interact”, a mentoring program that only grants 50 admissions per year (fingers crossed!). Surprisingly, I’m quite athletic, however I never really joined any sports. Pre-COVID, I played basketball for a while, eventually dropping it due to inactivity. I picked up badminton this summer, which introduced me to an amazing group of friends and a new escape from school. Till this day, badminton is still a recurring place where I can let out excess energy/or release pent up stress .Nothing beats the feeling of playing doubles with friends or a friendly match against others.
As cliche as it sounds, I absolutely love art. Drawing has always been my escape from reality. It started with small doodles on old sheets of newspaper, later developing into digital art via an aging ipad mini. Music is a must have in my daily routine; my playlists holds a wide range of diversity between genres, artists, and even languages. I played the clarinet for about 2.5 years before switching from band to computer courses.
Last spring, a friend invited me to participate in a Games4Change competition alongside him. He worked on the heavy mechanical coding while I designed and coded character sprites, background, and visuals. We ended up winning the National Middle School award, which came with a nifty trophy. I’ve always loved computers, rather technology in general, but last year was the first time I wanted to turn that passion into a career path. The daunting question of ‘what do you want to be when you grow up’ has always haunted me; my answers would always vary each time. However, I am dead set on becoming a graphic designer, which incorporates my love for art as well as computers. Through ‘A Bridge for Kids’, I hope to receive support necessary to change wishes into reality.
If you are interested in making a difference in the life of a teen through an A Bridge for Kids sponsorship please contact Grace Jo at gjo@abridgeforkids.org.