Helene Nguyen Story - ESL Equals Gifted Helene Nguyen: Growing up I went to school with a lot of Hispanic students, Chinese, Vietnamese, but hardly any white students. We were aware that we were different races, but it was never a problem. So, it was a good atmosphere to learn English because everyone was learning English so we all kind of learned as a community. Education-wise it might not have been the best school or the best books or the best teachers, but I believe it was a really good atmosphere. I was one of the only kids who knew fluent Vietnamese and fluent English. Most kids either learn English and forgotten the nice or didn't know English well enough. So, at school they would call me out of class to go translate so I thought it was tons of fun because I'd be getting called out of class three or four times a week to translate. And, it was a chance for me to learn different terms in both English and Vietnamese that I didn't know before. We didn't really have toys and stuff so all all the kids would play on the jungle gyms for hours after school. You would see kids playing in the streets all the time playing with sticks, just whatever we could find. I didn't feel like I was poor. We were really a big community so everyone was friends. Most of our parents were either working multiple jobs or working throughout the night. Even though my parents didn't get a high school degree or any education in Vietnam, my mom was really good with numbers so she would sit me down whenever she had free time to come home and go through my math work with me, which was great. My parents did own a store that they ran full-time, they would sleep there, even they had beds there so basically my brothers raised me. Qvuc Ho Nguyen, Helene's brother: We helped out some she was a hard-working girl, she did a lot of the stuff herself you know. She also helped out a lot with her younger brother about getting him to go to college. Helene Nguyen: That was our everyday life, they would just educate me and everything. It was definitely a change going from the rowdy crazy streets of Los Angeles to quiet suburbia in Johnson County. There weren't many minorities in Johnson County so I definitely felt that difference. Everyone looked at me weird or I would hear them say things at school because I was one of the few Asian students there. I always thought my culture was something good about me, so when I finally came here I felt like people couldn't see past me being Asian or my culture to see who I was. It's something my mom always tells me about education is, this is an opportunity that they never had and she just wants me to get as much out of it as possible. Son Thi Vo, Helene's mother, speaking in Vietnamese: [text on screen} What I really wanted for Helene, when we got to Kansas, as for her to pursue her education. I was so happy I cried the first year she was gone. Her older brothers tried to go to school, but because of the circumstances of our family they weren't able to. It saddened me, but I was happy that Helene could get an education. Helene Nguyen: I really didn't expect to go to college. I just expected to start working at the nail salon part-time, eventually, get my nail license, yeah, start working with my family, and all that. But, they were like, no, we want you to have a better life. We don't want you touching people's feet for a living. We want you to get an education and get further than we have, so that your children get further than you have. I do feel like I'm a bridge because my younger brother, he never thought he was gonna go to college. He always thought he was just gonna pick up some minimum-wage job and just work up to be a manager or something, and I was determined to make him go to college. He finally has realized that education is fun. So, I'm finally glad to see him enjoy education because education is something you should enjoy. And, then my mom just a few years ago, when I told her I was gonna be an English teacher in ESL, she thought that was amazing. She, she really was inspired, I guess, and so she started taking my classes to learn English. She can actually hold a conversation which is nice now. The worst hurdle for me, which is probably not as bad a hurdle has any of the others, is I could not take being away from my family. I was so homesick. It was like, so empty without having my family there because we've all lived together, all my brothers, and I, and my mom since I was 11. I drove home every weekend almost. I was used to being babied by my brothers. I mean, I did my paperwork by myself and all that, but I didn't have them there to support me, which was really scary. I would just stay up at night and think, did I make the right choice? Should I call them and ask them if I should take this class or not? And, they, they just thought it was ridiculous that I was I couldn't make these choices by myself yet. It wasn't until the advisors at the college of education helped me and I finally thought, oh I really can do anything I want. That's when I started taking more liberties and freedom with my classes and my education. As a kid I had so many people who weren't ESL tell me I wouldn't succeed, or I wouldn't learn English. I was already reading Harry Potter in second grade and I loved it, but everyone thought since I was an ESL student and I was in these lower classes that I couldn't get into the advanced English classes. My family had to step in and say no, she should be taken off ESL finally. And, that's when they tested me to have them realize that I had potential. So I thought that as an ESL major I can make this change in students and if they weren't determined to learn I would make them determined to learn because it's not an opportunity they should miss.