BY JEORGIA JAHUMPA
The Nguyen family wandered the cold, unfamiliar streets of Boston. A three-year-old Huong Bao Minh Nguyen clings to her teddy bear as they try to navigate their new home.
They arrived in America not too long ago from a war-torn Vietnam. Years of conflict between the northern and southern parts of the country led to the Vietnam War. North Vietnam was aided by the Communist Party, while South Vietnam was aided by the United States. However, once the U.S. armed forces fled the country in 1973, North Vietnam quickly captured Saigon in 1975. Once the country was unified, the communist government established re-education camps to “re-habilitate” those who served the South Vietnamese government and armed forces. Huong’s father was jailed for three years at a re-education camp as punishment for serving as a Southern Vietnamese soldier and fighting against North Vietnam. He, along with a million Vietnamese people faced harsh labor, political indoctrination, and forced confessions. When he was released, not only did he lose the right to receive an education in Vietnam, but so did his children.
The parents knew that they and their children would suffer if they stayed. They were determined to find a better life elsewhere. For themselves and their children. After two failed escape attempts, the family fled with a young Huong and her 10-month-old brother. After waiting for six months at a Malaysian refugee camp, they finally arrived in Boston, Massachusetts with the clothes on their backs, $20 in their pockets, and an empty apartment with a lone foam mattress to their name.
Huong sat in the chair of the principal’s office, her teacher and the principal berating her with questions.
“Why did you take William’s scissors?” she would recall them asking.
The first grader wanted to tell them that the boy tried cutting her hair with the scissors. But she couldn’t. Unlike William who told the teachers that she snatched his scissors, Huong couldn’t speak English. She waited for her mother to explain to the teachers what really happened.
Huong dreaded the first day of school. Each year, she cringed as teachers would mispronounce her name. A name that wasn’t entirely her own as it had to be changed to Minhhuong Bao Nguyen when she first immigrated to the U.S. Despite this, teachers and students still butchered her name time and time again.
When she moved from Boston to Malden, then from Malden to Wilmington, it didn’t get much better. While she learned English over time, she was still an outsider. She was the only Asian student amongst her peers in middle school and high school, and while she did become friends with her peers, it didn’t stop the questions of why she acted a certain way or why her meals smelled fishy during lunch. The meals were leftovers from dinner consisting of fish or meat with a side of rice. When she noticed her kids weren’t eating their lunches, Huong’s mother made peanut butter and tuna fish sandwiches instead. Regardless, the smell of fish was inescapable.
As she made her way to college, She thought this would change. After she moved into her dorm at Tufts University, more people called her “Teddi” as she still had the same teddy bear from her childhood in her dorm room. Meeting so many different black, brown, and Asian students on campus, she thought she found where she belonged. But people didn’t fully accept her because she lived in a predominantly white neighborhood. She was considered a twinkie by her peers. Yellow on the outside and white on the inside. Except she wasn’t accepted by either group.
In 2008, Teddi moved into a quaint, yet spacious home tucked away in the suburbs of Stoughton. A large tree cascades over the backyard, which has a pool, hot tub, and playground set where her kids played while they were young. She even changed her name to Teddi once she married her husband as it stuck with her over time. She became an elementary school teacher for Boston Public Schools and worked as a volunteer religious teacher for St. Ambrose Parish. However, she wanted to work elsewhere so she could spend more time with her children.
Then she saw the administrative position for the Office of Intercultural Affairs at Stonehill College. Teddi drove past the small campus often when dropping the kids off or to run a few errands. The thought of working at a college campus never crossed her mind. Her eyes lit up when she read the job description: “Supporting underrepresented student populations so that they can succeed.”
Teddi thought back to her school days. There was no Office of Intercultural Affairs at the schools she attended. No one to check up on the students who were falling behind. No one for students of color or first-generation students who did not speak English to turn to. She had to figure everything out on her own.
I need to work here.
After working as an administrator for two years, she started working as the Assistant Director for Mentoring and Advising. Instead of simply booking rooms or granting access to a purchasing card, P-card, so students can buy the supplies they need for events, now she is helping students lead dialogue groups for students of different backgrounds and identities. She meets with students one-on-one to check in on how they are doing academically and personally. She promotes workshops, discussions, and social events for underrepresented groups in the Stonehill community. She hosts mentoring programs where students are trained to mentor incoming first-year students and help guide them on their journey through college.
Now Teddi sits at her desk in the Office of Intercultural Affairs. Students fill the office, sitting at the desks doing their homework, or sharing laughs on the big green couches over a game of cards or Operation. Despite the booming laughter, she keeps the door to her workspace open. On her bulletin board alongside schedules and calendars are photos of her family. One shows her husband and children posing in Halloween costumes, another features her children smiling together. Next to those photos is a photo of both her children and a former student along with a group of students smiling together in her workspace. When she joins the other students chatting and laughing together, she laughs with them.
This is where I am. This is where I want to be.
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