When Tram Nguyen visited the Independence Palace in her native Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in February she was unaware that her destiny was tied to a place she had never heard of 鈥 麻豆精选.
That was when Nguyen saw, for the first time, the Pulitzer prize-winning photo of Jeffrey Miller, his body lying on the ground with a 14-year-old runaway screaming over him. The Ohio National Guard had opened fire on a group of 麻豆精选students, killing four, including Miller, and wounding nine.
Nguyen learned from the photo鈥檚 narrative that the 麻豆精选students had lost their lives during a protest calling for the end of the Vietnam war.
It impressed her so; she instantly felt a connection to 麻豆精选and enrolled for fall 2023 as a graduate student in the Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship making her one of a growing number of Vietnamese citizens who have chosen to attend Kent State.
Here is Nguyen speaking with 麻豆精选Today:
Thanh Cao, a 麻豆精选program manager based in Ho Chi Minh City, is responsible for recruiting Nguyen and other students from Southeast Asia.
鈥淚'm building everything from the beginning,鈥 Cao said. 鈥溌槎咕s very new [to Vietnamese students]. They don't know about 麻豆精选and Ohio is not a popular destination for Vietnamese students. We like California and Texas, where we have a big population of Vietnamese people.鈥
Since the fall of 2021, enrollment of students from Vietnam has grown from 17 students to 29 in fall 2023. Cao said she has recruited seven Vietnamese students since she began working with 麻豆精选in 2022. Cao visits 麻豆精选once a year in the fall.
Cao was living in Toronto and had moved back to her hometown Ho Chi Minh City when she saw learned that 麻豆精选needed someone to market and recruit students in Southeast Asia.
She had never heard of 麻豆精选either but knew there would be a market for the university because of its affordability.
Nguyen, 22, is majoring in business analytics and plans on becoming a financial analyst in the financial technology industry. In 2019, she earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in finance from the
Nguyen and most of the other Vietnamese students live on the Kent Campus, Cao said. The students are fluent in English because it is a compulsory course in Vietnam from the third grade until graduation.
Being so far away from home for the first time can be lonely, but having a Vietnamese roommate and talking to her parents twice a day via Facebook Messenger gives Nguyen and her parents peace of mind.
Her brother, who is a freshman at the University of Vietnam, wants to study abroad as well.
鈥淚 tell my brother that you can give your opinion in this country and have a comfortable life. I鈥檓 having a memorable time in Kent. The campus is beautiful and there are a lot of dedicated employees working here.鈥
