OAKLAND, Calif., October 3, 2011 – Peralta Community College District General Counsel Thuy Nguyen will receive the Trailblazer Award from the Vietnamese American Bar Association of Northern California (VABANC) at it’s 13th annual scholarship awards banquet on October 7, 2011.
“I am very honored to receive this award,” said Nguyen. “To personally be recognized by your peers means so much.”
Nguyen’s story began in Vietnam. She states, “At three years old, we fled the country and drifted at sea for 25 days until a fisherman found us.” Her family’s journey then took them to Japan and then to South America to Paraguay. “ It was the Refugee Act of 1978 that brought us the United States,” Nguyen recalled. “We lived in Wichita, Kansas, then moved to New Orleans and finally to Oakland in 1989.”
After graduating from Oakland’s Castlemont High School, Nguyen matriculated to Yale and earned her law degree from UCLA.
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