Alumni News

From Vietnamese Boat Child to Medical School Graduate

When Quyen Nguyen, MD’08, crossed the stage at Creighton’s May commencement with his fellow medical school graduates, it marked the end of a long journey for the childhood immigrant from Vietnam.

Nguyen fled Vietnam with his mother and older brother in 1988. “I was one of the Vietnamese boat people,” Nguyen said.

They lived at a refugee camp in the Philippines for one year before coming to the United States in 1989. Now, 20 years after he fled Vietnam, at age 30, Nguyen is fulfilling a dream by graduating from Creighton’s medical school. His mother and father were in the audience as he walked across the stage — no doubt proud of their son’s accomplishments.

“My mom and dad came here with nothing. Their joy now is to see all their labor is paying off,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen was only six months old when his father, a member of the South Vietnamese army, fled Vietnam to come to the United States. Nguyen said a number of his extended family members were thrown in prison for having ties to the South Vietnamese government.

“The government would come in the middle of the night and wake our family up,” Nguyen said. “(My family members) were forced to hear about their ‘sins’ against the North.”

Nguyen remembers that when he was 5 years old, the government forced him and his family out of their home. Nguyen, his mother, brother, five aunts and grandmother then lived together in a one-bedroom home.

His mother finally decided that was enough, and packed the children up to be reunited with their father.

The family lived in San Jose, Calif., where his dad worked as a laborer at an electronics assembly plant and his mother worked minimum-wage jobs.

Nguyen finished high school, worked typical teenage jobs (McDonald’s, Hollywood Video, a retirement home, the morning shift at UPS) and attended San Jose State University. After his freshman year of college, he took a year off and joined the Army Reserve. He respected his father’s military service, and needed time to “decide what I wanted to do with my life.” He completed basic training and advanced individual training and was assigned to the 14th Psychological Operations Battalion in California. He returned to San Jose State, earned a bachelor’s in accounting in 2000, got married and began working for Arthur Andersen.

Nguyen worked as a financial auditor for Arthur Andersen and became a certified public accountant. He had achieved a good measure of success in life, but he wasn’t happy with his career. His brother, who had gone to medical school, suggested he look at the health professions. Nguyen began taking courses on nights and weekends. He loved them. He dived into fulfilling all the prerequisites for medical school — cramming the majority of the coursework into one year of study.

He was accepted to the School of Medicine in 2004. “Getting into medical school was tough for me. I am thankful that Creighton gave me an opportunity,” Nguyen said. “I obtained a very good education here.”

Nguyen is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honor society, and, as a medical student, conducted grant-funded research in the area of cancer genetics. He will complete his residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, after which he is excited about a career in research and teaching.

It’s been a long journey for Nguyen, and it hasn’t been easy. One of the toughest parts of medical school was not regularly seeing his two children, ages 6 and 5, who remained in San Jose. “I know how hard it is growing up without a father figure, but this was the best option for our family,” Nguyen said. “Sometimes you have to sacrifice to make your dreams come true.”