There is a level of talent in all families. But for one family in particular, this year was one for the pursuit of excellence.
We’re talking about the Nguyen family, who this year celebrated not one, but four graduations in the family.
“This year my Dad graduated with an MBA, I graduated with a B.A. in undergrad and my brothers graduated from high school,” Christine Nguyen said.
This means that three generations of the family graduated in the same year!
The family has quite an interesting story which makes their group’s success that much more special. Christine’s father Tuan fled Vietnam as a refugee in 1975, and her mother left the country in 1990.
The family now lives in southern California in Little Saigon, one of the largest Vietnamese refugee communities in America. As she read comments on her TikTok video, she could see a real sense of pride from members of the Vietnamese community.
“I saw a lot of comments from people in the Vietnamese community commenting how proud they were of my family and what this meant to them,” she said. “It was just a lot of Vietnamese pride.”
Tuan is the president of Quoc Viet Foods. It is a company that manufactures Vietnamese soup bases.
“I formed my business about 20 years ago,” Tuan Nguyen said. “The reason I wanted to get an MBA is that when I formed my business, I don’t know anything about business at all. All I know is science and background.”
Tuan said during the COVID-19 pandemic, he thought to himself, “Hey I can’t do anything besides work and go home.” He had always wanted to learn more about business, and to be a positive reflection of hard work for his children.
“I want to set an example for them,” Tuan said. “I said, ‘Listen, if I can do it, you guys can do it.’ By talking to them, they might not listen to you but by showing them the example then maybe they will see it and say, ‘Hey, if my Dad can do it, I can do it, right?'”
And it’s fair to Tuan’s wishes came true!
“I have always looked up to my dad and mom in terms of all of the struggles and adversity that they had to overcome as Vietnamese refugees in America,” Christine said. “To see my dad go back to school especially at an age where many people kind of consider retiring was very commendable.”
Christine said it was also inspirational to see the reaction of other family friends or adults in the Vietnamese community when it came to her father’s pursuit of more education. When someone wins, everybody wins.
“I think that here in the Vietnamese community when one person succeeds, many of us take a moment to celebrate together,” Christine said.
This family is proof that anything is possible — and that they deserve to be celebrated for four days straight!
Be sure to share this story with a friend to congratulate the Nguyen family.
Want to be happier in just 5 minutes a day? Sign up for Morning Smile and join over 455,000+ people who start each day with good news.