S2E24: Seattle Colleges Conversations with! International Student Alumni Son Nguyen of Vietnam

In this our twenty-fourth (24th) episode of Season 2, Seattle Colleges host Evan Franulovich interviews international student alumni Son Nguyen of Vietnam about his experience here at Seattle Colleges, his path after community college, and about life in the United States. 

1:19 - Meet Son!

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Transcript

Evan Franulovich  0:05  
Welcome to Seattle Colleges International Programs and our show 'Conversations with!', where we talk to people that help you understand how you too, can be an international student in the United States and why Seattle Colleges should be your first choice. We'll talk to students and staff and agents and government folks, all kinds of people about what you can expect when you're getting ready to apply or travel here, what you'll experience while you're with us, and how it can all lead to an amazing life. Don't forget to check out the Seattle Colleges International Programs website at intl.seattlecolleges.edu where you can find a treasure trove of information about the school, the programs here and best of all, fill out and submit your application. Again, that's intl.seattlecolleges.edu.

Evan Franulovich  1:07  
Hey everybody! Welcome back to Seattle Colleges 'Conversations with!' Coming to you from Crete, Greece. We are going to announce some upcoming dates for one of our regional reps, Johan Francois. So if you'd like to meet Johan, stay tuned at the end of this episode, we're going to be telling you where he is in Vietnam, Mongolia and Taiwan, where you can track him down and learn more about Seattle Colleges. So stay tuned for that after the podcast.

Evan Franulovich  1:36  
Hey everybody! It's Evan Franulovich. Welcome back to 'Conversations with!' I'm really excited about this episode, because for the first time, we've invited an alumni. And that's not totally accurate. Gina went to school. We have a couple staff members that went to Seattle Colleges, but you're the first non staff member who's an alumni. Welcome Son. I just want to make sure I pronounced it correctly. 

Son Nguyen  2:02  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  2:03  
Well, welcome. How are you? 

Son Nguyen  2:04  
I'm great. I'm happy to be here. 

Evan Franulovich  2:06  
Well, thanks for coming in. We really appreciate it. And we were talking before the cameras started rolling. So I know you've got a lot of stuff to share, but we want to kind of walk our audience through your path. We talk about pathways all the time when we talk to students, but you've already walked the path. So we want to inspire our students to show what's possible or what can happen. So let's go all the way back, if you don't mind, and just tell us, you know, where you're from, tell us maybe a little bit about your family maybe, and then how you made the decision as a young person to leave Vietnam. How you decided to leave and come study in the US? 

Son Nguyen  2:49  
Okay, wow. It's gonna be a long story.

Evan Franulovich  2:52  
Get a drink.

Son Nguyen  2:55  
It's kind of interesting. So I'm originally from Vietnam. I left Vietnam when I was 16 to become an exchange student. How I left Vietnam was actually interesting. I actually didn't plan, or my family didn't plan to help me travel study abroad. But like one day, one summer, my best childhood friend called me like, 'Hey, you have to get up and go to thisagency and take an English test.' And I was like, what for? It's like, 'I don't know, but my mom already signed up both of us. You have to come.' So I went, took the test together, and then few days later, we got the results, and we won a scholarship to study abroad in the US as an exchange student. 

Evan Franulovich  3:53  
You didn't even know this was happening?

Son Nguyen  3:55  
No, I did not know that was happening. 

Evan Franulovich  3:57  
That's crazy.

Son Nguyen  3:57  
When I knew was when my parents sat me down three days later after they heard about the results, and they said that, 'You're gonna go study abroad in the US.' And I was like, okay. 

Evan Franulovich  4:10  
No fear, no hesitation? 

Son Nguyen  4:13  
Well, you know, when you're 16, you don't know the answer to that question, you know? I mean, I would like to study abroad. So I considered it as an opportunity. 

Evan Franulovich  4:29  
Great opportunity. 

Son Nguyen  4:30  
Yeah, so fast forward, I traveled to Pelion, South Carolina. 

Evan Franulovich  4:40  
That's where you did your exchange? 

Son Nguyen  4:41  
That's where I did my exchange. Very small town in the US, definitely not the America that you saw on TV. Well, I'm grateful for the time that I spend there. So junior year in high school in South Carolina. Then, I needed to complete my high school degree. I cannot go back to Vietnam, because if I did, I would have to retake 11 grade junior year. So the path forward was either going to a private high school to do the senior year or going to a community college to complete high school completion. Yeah, it's interesting how Washington state is the only state that have community college that allow students who did not graduate from high school to join as a student. So then I ended up at Seattle Central Community College. 

Evan Franulovich  4:41  
How did you hear about it all the way in South Carolina, though? Who told you to go to Washington State? 

Son Nguyen  5:53  
Yeah, it was from a study abroad agency. 

Evan Franulovich  5:57  
Really? 

Son Nguyen  5:57  
Yeah, we didn't know. We just know that we didn't have the money to go to private high school. 

Evan Franulovich  6:03  
Right, that's expensive. 

Son Nguyen  6:04  
We couldn't attend public high school in the US, so that's our only option. 

Evan Franulovich  6:12  
So when you did your exchange, what visa was that? 

Son Nguyen  6:18  
J-1. 

Evan Franulovich  6:19  
Oh, that was a J-1. 

Son Nguyen  6:20  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  6:20  
And a J-1 visa holders can't just attend public school. 

Son Nguyen  6:25  
No, from my understanding, you can only do exchange for a year. 

Evan Franulovich  6:31  
Right. So you got to the end of your year, and then you're like, 'All right, I'm gonna go to Washington State.' 

Son Nguyen  6:37  
Yes, yes. I'm going to Washington State, Seattle.

Evan Franulovich  6:44  
Did you know anybody in Seattle, or you just came here, not knowing anybody? 

Son Nguyen  6:47  
Good questions. No, I did not know anyone. 

Evan Franulovich  6:50  
That's awesome. That's crazy. 

Son Nguyen  6:54  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  6:55  
So do you feel like your time as an exchange student in South Carolina your English really improved a lot? 

Son Nguyen  7:01  
It's so interesting. So just imagine that you know you are foreigner, and you being put in middle of nowhere, and the only language for communication is English. 

Evan Franulovich  7:15  
Sure. 

Son Nguyen  7:16  
So the first three months were difficult. 

Evan Franulovich  7:19  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  7:19  
You experience things like Culture Shock, you can't communicate all of that, but at some point, when it passes the threshold, we start making friends, and I started hanging out with them more. People don't care how bad your English is, you know? They just care that you you communicate. You're at least trying to communicate, and they can guess and they can help you communicate. So, yeah, so it was wonderful. I made great friends in South Carolina. 

Evan Franulovich  7:52  
Nice. Well, you know, Seattle's such an international state. We have a huge Asian community, huge African community, just people from all over the world. South Carolina, I don't think of that as being quite as International. What did you see a lot of people from around the world in your town? Or was it just you?

Son Nguyen  8:11  
I was the only Asian in the school. So I couldn't find a friend who's from Asia. 

Evan Franulovich  8:21  
Right, right. Were there any other exchange students?

Son Nguyen  8:25  
There was one, but he's from Germany. 

Evan Franulovich  8:28  
Okay. Well, that's really cool. 

Son Nguyen  8:31  
So there's two of us. 

Evan Franulovich  8:32  
So were people curious about you and where you were from? 

Son Nguyen  8:35  
Yes, actually, because they don't have a lot of Asian people in that town. 

Evan Franulovich  8:42  
Right. 

Son Nguyen  8:43  
So when they heard about me joining the school, they tried to make friends with me, but my English wasn't good, so it was hard. But later, the students were super friendly. 

Evan Franulovich  8:58  
Sure. 

Son Nguyen  8:59  
I actually played football. 

Evan Franulovich  9:01  
You did? 

Son Nguyen  9:02  
Yeah, in high school. 

Evan Franulovich  9:03  
What was your position? 

Son Nguyen  9:04  
I was a kicker. I was a tiny Asian guy, they couldn't put me out there in the front, but I was a kicker, that plays baseball.

Son Nguyen  9:15  
Wow, that's awesome.

Son Nguyen  9:16  
So I got the American experience there. 

Evan Franulovich  9:19  
That's amazing. So the organization that you did the exchange with, what was the name of that organization? 

Son Nguyen  9:27  
I think it's called, Were Edu in Vietnam. 

Evan Franulovich  9:35  
Okay. Is it still around? Like, if there's a listener in Vietnam and they're like, 'Oh, I want to do an exchange.' 

Son Nguyen  9:41  
I'm not sure. I think they're part of the US. So it's like a English agency. I think it's a partner or something. 

Evan Franulovich  9:54  
All right? Well, I love it. We do have what's called a high school completion program, which is what you mentioned. So our listeners, if you're out there and you're a young person, you haven't graduated from high school yet, or maybe you're going to a private school somewhere, paying a lot of tuition, you can save that money, save your time, and just come here, get started on your university work and earn your diploma from high school and your associate's degree all at the same time. 

Son Nguyen  10:20  
That's right. So after two years, I earned my high school completion degree and associate degree of science.

Evan Franulovich  10:29  
So it was a just a general AAS, or what was your degree in? 

Son Nguyen  10:33  
So back then, Seattle Central was still Community College. They only two either sciences or art. 

Evan Franulovich  10:42  
Okay. 

Son Nguyen  10:42  
Yeah, so I did the science. 

Evan Franulovich  10:46  
Cool. All right, so you're a young guy. You come here, probably you're 17 at that point, starting your university. Where do you live? You don't know anybody. What'd you do for housing? 

Son Nguyen  10:58  
So the agency put me at a host family in Shoreline. It's an hour and a half bus ride, three busses to school every day. 

Evan Franulovich  11:09  
There's no subway at that time. 

Son Nguyen  11:11  
There was no subway that time, just bus. 

Evan Franulovich  11:13  
Yeah, now there's a subway. So that's a lot faster. 

Son Nguyen  11:16  
Yes, a lot faster. Yeah. I didn't know anyone, so I stay with them for a while. When do I start to make friends? 

Evan Franulovich  11:26  
Sure.

Son Nguyen  11:27  
And now I move out to rent an apartment with the friends that I had. 

Evan Franulovich  11:34  
Right. 

Son Nguyen  11:35  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  11:35  
So did your parents come visit you while you were here as a student? Or did they? 

Son Nguyen  11:40  
They did. 

Evan Franulovich  11:41  
Oh, good. 

Son Nguyen  11:41  
Well, once during my time in Seattle. Yeah, once or twice. 

Evan Franulovich  11:46  
Their first time in the US? 

Son Nguyen  11:48  
Not the first time, they have friends in the US. So they travel once in a few years to visit friends. 

Evan Franulovich  11:56  
Cool. 

Son Nguyen  11:57  
But no. 

Evan Franulovich  11:58  
All right, so you arrive at Seattle Colleges to get started. Tell us you'd already experienced culture shock in South Carolina. Did you find that the West Coast of the United States brought on a whole new set of culture shocks? Or did you feel like, 'Oh, yeah, this is just another part of the US.' 

Son Nguyen  12:18  
Good question. It's actually very different, because I grew up in Saigon. It's a big city, so when I was in South Carolina, a small town, there's a few couple gas stations and a couple grocery store everyone knows each other. So it was definitely culture shock, but it's like definitely like America. So when I moved to Seattle, I felt a lot closer, because it's a big, developed city. 

Evan Franulovich  12:46  
Yes. 

Son Nguyen  12:47  
And then when I came Seattle Central, there were a lot of international students. 

Evan Franulovich  12:52  
Right. 

Son Nguyen  12:52  
Especially students from Asia. So I feel less you'll feel more comfortable. 

Evan Franulovich  12:58  
Okay.

Son Nguyen  13:00  
And of course, a lot of students from Vietnam as well. So it's easier to make friends with them, and we join clubs together. We hang out in the weekends, play soccer every week. 

Evan Franulovich  13:13  
Oh, cool. 

Son Nguyen  13:13  
So like that supportive system really helped. 

Evan Franulovich  13:16  
So where'd you play soccer? I get asked a lot when I'm on the road talking to potential students, they ask, 'Do you guys have club teams, or do you have sports teams?' And the answer is, 'No, we don't have a sports team, but we do have club teams around the area.' Did you play on a club team? Or did you just go do pick up games? 

Son Nguyen  13:33  
Seattle Central used to have a soccer club. 

Evan Franulovich  13:36  
Oh, they did? 

Son Nguyen  13:36  
It's just a club that got you we play across the street at Cal artis. 

Evan Franulovich  13:40  
Yeah, it's a nice field. 

Son Nguyen  13:42  
So we meet twice a week, Wednesday and Friday, after school. And, you know, we just start playing soccer.

Evan Franulovich  13:51  
Cool.

Son Nguyen  13:51  
Definitely, not a club team, but a club. 

Evan Franulovich  13:55  
Where people get together, and play. 

Son Nguyen  13:56  
But we did form a team. We didn't represent the school. We formed a team and play at the league. 

Evan Franulovich  14:06  
Well, that's cool. 

Son Nguyen  14:07  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  14:08  
If you want to start a club, not just in sports, but in anything, robotics, or whatever you have an interest, you can start your own club, which is pretty cool. Did you belong to any other clubs? 

Son Nguyen  14:18  
Yes, I belonged to multiple clubs. 

Evan Franulovich  14:21  
Oh, yeah? 

Son Nguyen  14:22  
I was in a soccer club, I was in badminton club, and I was in a ping pong club. Mostly sports clubs. 

Evan Franulovich  14:31  
Yeah, yeah. 

Son Nguyen  14:31  
And let's see what else... maybe I should have been in more academic club, but I like sports a lot more. 

Evan Franulovich  14:40  
Yeah, me too. I'm a big sports guy. 

Son Nguyen  14:42  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  14:43  
Well, that's really cool. Okay, so let's talk about the academics for the two years that you're at Seattle Colleges, or in this case, Seattle Central back in the day. But, how are your classes? How are the professors? Do you feel like you got a lot of attention? The student to teacher ratios? Were there a lot of people in your classes, or were the classes small? Tell us about your experience. 

Son Nguyen  15:07  
Okay, one of the selling points of the community colleges back then is smaller size classes, and we didn't get that at Seattle Central. So besides bigger classes, like astronomy, big class with hundreds of students. Most of my classes were in a smaller classroom with maybe 20 to 30 students.

Evan Franulovich  15:41  
Nice.

Son Nguyen  15:42  
I did get the attention I needed from the professors. They're just an email away or visiting the office hours. I would just come up to them after class.

Evan Franulovich  15:53  
Nice. 

Son Nguyen  15:54  
They very willing to help.

Evan Franulovich  15:57  
When you were applying to transfer, did you have to get letters of reference or anything like that in order to support your applications? 

Son Nguyen  16:04  
Yes, I did. I did need need a couple letter of recommendation. So I got a few from one from Gina, one of my favorite professors he taught history. Yes, the teachers are very helpful. 

Evan Franulovich  16:24  
And you got one from Gina because you worked for her? 

Son Nguyen  16:28  
Yes, I got one from Gina because I used to work in the Student Leadership. 

Evan Franulovich  16:34  
Okay. 

Son Nguyen  16:34  
They had an Outreach Department, and Gina was the advisor for that team, and I worked with her for the whole year. 

Evan Franulovich  16:47  
Right. And you got paid for that? 

Son Nguyen  16:49  
I did get paid. 

Evan Franulovich  16:50  
So great. People always ask about, 'Hey, can I work on campus?' And you definitely did. 

Son Nguyen  16:55  
Yes, Seattle Central had the opportunity for me to work on campus. 

Evan Franulovich  17:03  
How did you find the job?

Son Nguyen  17:05  
Good question. 

Evan Franulovich  17:05  
Did someone mention it? 

Son Nguyen  17:08  
Someone did mention it. I think the first year I came here, I knew people who worked at the Student Leadership. 

Evan Franulovich  17:15  
Oh, okay. 

Son Nguyen  17:16  
So that's why I applied to work for the second year I was here.

Evan Franulovich  17:19  
Money is always a big deal. So you worked on campus to earn some money. But also, did you pursue scholarships while you're here?

Son Nguyen  17:32  
Yes, I did. There are multiple scholarships opportunities for students. 

Evan Franulovich  17:39  
Great. 

Son Nguyen  17:40  
I got one scholarship from Phi Theta Kappa. 

Evan Franulovich  17:44  
This is the second time I've heard that in this week. So that's really interesting. Yeah, up to this point, I'd never even heard of Phi Theta Kappa. So can you tell us a little bit about that? Is it a club? 

Son Nguyen  17:56  
It was a club.

Evan Franulovich  17:58  
Okay. 

Son Nguyen  17:58  
To be honest with you, I wanted to join that club first, because I wanted it to improve my portfolio so I can apply to a university. And because I heard that there's opportunities for scholarships. 

Evan Franulovich  18:20  
Yeah, yeah. That's really cool. Do you have to be invited into Phi Theta Kappa? You need to have a certain grade point average, right? It's kind of an honor society. 

Son Nguyen  18:46  
I believe so. You don't need to be invited, you can just apply with your current transcript or something. 

Evan Franulovich  18:56  
Cool. 

Son Nguyen  18:56  
It's been a while, so I can't remember. 

Evan Franulovich  18:58  
Sure. So if you're coming to Seattle Colleges, or you're already here as a domestic or as a current student. Look into this, because there is money available. I just interviewed Seattle University, and they have a scholarship for Phi Theta Kappa. It's up like the $1,500 so if you're trying to get money together, working, scholarships, that's one of them that can be valuable. 

Son Nguyen  19:26  
That's right. 

Evan Franulovich  19:26  
And it looks good on an application. 

Son Nguyen  19:29  
There's definitely opportunities there to have to look for it. 

Evan Franulovich  19:34  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  19:36  
Network with the students, and especially the students who went to school before they know a lot. 

Evan Franulovich  19:45  
They do know. So don't be shy, talk to those guys. They'll be helpful. All right, when you did a couple years here, did you go through the graduation ceremony? 

Son Nguyen  19:55  
I did. 

Evan Franulovich  19:55  
Down at the field? 

Son Nguyen  19:58  
No. 

Evan Franulovich  19:58  
Where was it? 

Son Nguyen  20:00  
It was in the concert hall in downtown Seattle. The school was still small back then. 

Evan Franulovich  20:06  
Interesting. 

Son Nguyen  20:08  
My dad came and attended my graduation. 

Evan Franulovich  20:12  
That's really great. Yeah, now they have it at Lumen Field, and that's a huge group of people, because it's students from north, south, central all together and all their families. 

Son Nguyen  20:24  
Well, that's wonderful. 

Evan Franulovich  20:25  
It is really wonderful. Yeah, I was surprised how cool it was. All right, so going back just a tiny bit, you get ready to transfer. Since you're an alumni, you had to go somewhere else to do your junior and senior year. At what point did you start preparing to apply, to get ready to go to a second school? And did you talk to a number of schools, or did you go, 'No, I'm only going to this school.' 

Son Nguyen  20:53  
Yeah, good question. So if I recall correctly, most of the universities start accepting applications in the beginning of the year, usually February or March. 

Evan Franulovich  21:08  
Right. 

Son Nguyen  21:09  
When I applied to transfer to different schools, I usually start the application in the fall. You'll get the letter of recommendations, and filing the application themselves could take some time as well. 

Evan Franulovich  21:27  
Right. 

Son Nguyen  21:29  
Yeah, and after the Christmas break in January, that's when you sort of have everything ready to go. I applied to six schools, everyone's different because they cost money to apply as well. So pick the schools that you like the most. 

Evan Franulovich  21:50  
Right. 

Son Nguyen  21:51  
So make an informed decision. So I applied to Udub, Seattle U, Georgia Tech, and University of North Carolina. So six schools in total to transfer. 

Evan Franulovich  22:08  
Right. 

Son Nguyen  22:08  
Yeah, I got accepted to three. 

Evan Franulovich  22:12  
All right, that's great. 

Son Nguyen  22:16  
Then the time came to make a decision which school I should transfer to, I picked Udub because it's in Seattle. 

Evan Franulovich  22:25  
Right down the road. You're talking about the Seattle campus, not Bothell or Tacoma? 

Son Nguyen  22:31  
Yes, University of Washington in Seattle. 

Evan Franulovich  22:34  
Right. Okay, so you start the process fairly early. Did you work with transfer advisors? Or did you go to those campuses and do tours? How much research did you do? 

Son Nguyen  22:47  
Both. For Udub and Seattle U, I went to their campus to get the advising office in UW, but he at the international office in central they helped with the class preparation, like courses that you can take and it's transferable to the university. So they were very helpful. 

Evan Franulovich  23:13  
So when you went to Udub, did everything you took here transfer? 

Son Nguyen  23:17  
Most of them.

Evan Franulovich  23:19  
Most of them? 

Son Nguyen  23:19  
Yeah, about 90% of the courses. 

Evan Franulovich  23:22  
Yeah, so you were a true Junior when you started at Udub. 

Son Nguyen  23:27  
Yes, I was somewhat a true Junior. 

Evan Franulovich  23:31  
Right, right. 

Son Nguyen  23:31  
So when you moved to Udub, did you have to go through another orientation when you got there, did they have a transfer student orientation or international student orientation. They have an international orientations that they put lovely students together. 

Evan Franulovich  23:48  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  23:48  
So fun fact, that's where I met my wife. 

Evan Franulovich  23:51  
Oh, you did? 

Son Nguyen  23:52  
Yeah, at the orientation.

Evan Franulovich  23:55  
So she was an international student?

Son Nguyen  23:58  
She was an international student, who started as a freshman. 

Evan Franulovich  24:01  
Where is she from? 

Son Nguyen  24:02  
She's from Vietnam. 

Evan Franulovich  24:04  
Oh, she's from Vietnam. 

Son Nguyen  24:05  
Yeah, but she went to high school in Hawaii, and then she moved to Seattle. 

Evan Franulovich  24:10  
Oh, man, moving from Hawaii to Seattle, that would be different. 

Son Nguyen  24:16  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  24:16  
Wow, that's really cool. So you did two years, and when you finished your two years at the Udub, what was your degree in? 

Son Nguyen  24:24  
Oh, actually, my time at Udub didn't work out. 

Evan Franulovich  24:28  
Oh, it didn't work out. 

Son Nguyen  24:29  
It didn't work out. So what I wanted to do was to pursue degree in computer science. 

Evan Franulovich  24:35  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  24:37  
I attended Udub, but I did not get into the computer science program. 

Evan Franulovich  24:41  
Yeah, yeah. 

Son Nguyen  24:43  
So my hope was if I continue applying, I might get a chance to get in. So I applied two more times, so like three times in total, I did not get in. 

Evan Franulovich  24:56  
So you're there three quarters. 

Son Nguyen  24:58  
Yes. 

Evan Franulovich  24:59  
So you're taking quite a bit of classes, spending a good amount of money to go to school there, and then you never got into the computer science department. 

Son Nguyen  25:04  
No, I never got into the computer science department. But fortunately, I had a backup plan. 

Evan Franulovich  25:12  
What was your backup plan? 

Son Nguyen  25:14  
My backup plan was transfer again to Georgia Tech. 

Evan Franulovich  25:20  
Georgia Tech on the other side of the country. Wow. 

Son Nguyen  25:23  
Yeah, fortunately the school still accepted my applications. 

Evan Franulovich  25:30  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  25:30  
I was accepted the previous year, so I was able to transfer to Georgia Tech and complete my degree in computer science. 

Evan Franulovich  25:39  
Wow. So did your girlfriend go with you to Georgia Tech, or did she stay here? 

Son Nguyen  25:43  
No, we actually got disconnected when I moved to Atlanta, Georgia. When I finished my degree in Atlanta, I moved back to Seattle for work, and we reconnected.

Evan Franulovich  25:59  
Very cool. You know, Georgia Tech, I don't meet too many people that go to school there. How was your experience? What was it like? 

Son Nguyen  26:07  
Oh, it's a wonderful school, especially for students in STEM, science, technology and math. It's a wonderful school. I love my time there. Big populations of students. 

Evan Franulovich  26:23  
Big school, yeah.

Son Nguyen  26:26  
Joined the club was to play soccer and make friends cool. 

Evan Franulovich  26:32  
Did you get scholarships to go? Did they give you a transfer scholarship or anything like that? 

Son Nguyen  26:37  
No, there wasn't an scholarship at Georgia Tech. They did have financial aid for students with low income family. So that's the only support they have. 

Evan Franulovich  26:50  
Right. So the amount of credits you earned at Udub, so you had the Seattle Colleges credits, and then you'd been three quarters at Udub. Did all of that transfer to Georgia Tech? 

Son Nguyen  27:05  
Not all of them, about like 70% transferred. 

Evan Franulovich  27:11  
Still pretty good. 

Son Nguyen  27:12  
Really good. 

Evan Franulovich  27:13  
Yeah, so that's why I was able to complete my degree at Georgia Tech in two years. 

Son Nguyen  27:18  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  27:19  
So you didn't lose too much time. That's pretty nice. 

Son Nguyen  27:22  
Yeah, maybe two quarters. 

Evan Franulovich  27:25  
Okay, that's not too bad. 

Son Nguyen  27:26  
Yeah, but I got to study computer science. 

Evan Franulovich  27:29  
That's true. 

Son Nguyen  27:29  
And I met my wife at Udub. 

Evan Franulovich  27:31  
Exactly. 

Son Nguyen  27:32  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  27:32  
And then you come back to Seattle. 

Son Nguyen  27:34  
Right. 

Evan Franulovich  27:35  
So you graduate from Georgia Tech, and then you come back to Seattle. And then what happens in Seattle? 

Son Nguyen  27:42  
What happened Seattle? 

Evan Franulovich  27:43  
You came back and got a job, or do you started your own company? What did you do? 

Son Nguyen  27:49  
Yeah, so when I went to Georgia Tech, I got an internship from a company in Seattle. So actually moved back for a summer. 

Evan Franulovich  27:57  
Did they help you get that job? Or did you just find it on your own? 

Son Nguyen  28:01  
At Georgia Tech? 

Evan Franulovich  28:02  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  28:03  
Through the career fair. 

Evan Franulovich  28:05  
That's really cool. 

Son Nguyen  28:06  
Yeah. So I got a job in Seattle and I'm back for the summer, and then moved back to to Georgia Tech to complete the degree and come back and work for them. 

Evan Franulovich  28:15  
So listeners that are overseas that don't really have an understanding of how big the United States is, he's crisscrossing this huge amount of land. It'd be like going from, you know, the western part of China to the eastern part of China and back again a couple times. It's a big place. Well, did you drive, or did you fly? How did you get back and forth? 

Son Nguyen  28:40  
Oh, flying. 

Evan Franulovich  28:41  
Crazy. 

Son Nguyen  28:42  
I just go where the opportunities are. 

Evan Franulovich  28:46  
All right, so then you end up back here and you got married not too long after you got back? 

Son Nguyen  28:55  
Yeah, I got back here in 2014.

Evan Franulovich  28:59  
Okay. 

Son Nguyen  28:59  
We got married in 2018. 

Evan Franulovich  29:01  
Nice. 

Son Nguyen  29:02  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  29:02  
And now you're living the dream. He was just telling me he took this amazing trip four months around the world. 

Son Nguyen  29:10  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  29:11  
Why did you guys decide to do that? Just wanted to do while you were young? What was your thought? 

Son Nguyen  29:17  
Yeah, I have always wanted to travel the world for a whole year actually. 

Evan Franulovich  29:23  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  29:24  
So ever since I started working, I set aside my savings for traveling. 

Evan Franulovich  29:28  
Wow. 

Son Nguyen  29:31  
But when you get a job and start working, you kind of get swallow into life as a worker. 

Evan Franulovich  29:40  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  29:41  
So I kind of forget about it. I still have the savings to travel. When can I use that? 

Evan Franulovich  29:47  
Right. 

Son Nguyen  29:49  
And this year, just on the timing kind of match up, after my 9-10 years of working, I think I'm ready take a break from work, and then my wife also completed her five years at her workplace. 

Evan Franulovich  30:08  
Yeah? 

Son Nguyen  30:06  
So we thought it was a good time for us to take a break and go see the world together. 

Evan Franulovich  30:10  
That's so cool. Do it while you're young, I really highly recommend you travel like you did. 

Son Nguyen  30:11  
Yes. 

Evan Franulovich  30:11  
Yeah, that's really amazing. 

Son Nguyen  30:16  
Definitely do it while you're young because 125 days in total was tiring. 

Evan Franulovich  30:26  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  30:26  
But I couldn't imagine me 10 years or 20 years from now to be able to do the same.

Evan Franulovich  30:32  
That's 125 days is a long time to be out on the road. So to make your dollars stretch, did you stay in youth hostels? Did you camp? Did you stay in hotels? What did you do? 

Son Nguyen  30:44  
Yeah, we did a bit of everything. 

Evan Franulovich  30:47  
Okay. 

Son Nguyen  30:47  
We did camping, business hotels, and Airbnbs. It's actually not as expensive as you might thought, because you live in the US, and it cost a lot of money. 

Evan Franulovich  31:05  
So expensive. 

Son Nguyen  31:06  
So if you go live somewhere else, especially in Asia, then the cost of living is so much cheaper. 

Evan Franulovich  31:13  
So much cheaper. 

Son Nguyen  31:15  
Yeah, it's not that we spending a lot of our savings to go travel. We still got quite a bit to explore the country and the culture and all that.

Evan Franulovich  31:29  
That's really great. I love those kinds of stories. People just drop in what they're doing. My wife and I, we had been working in Alaska, and we decided we'd gotten some bad news. We wanted to spend some time with someone who was struggling with their health, and so we just sold a lot of our stuff, put some of it in storage, and we just went to Europe. So keep your priorities. Do your savings.

Son Nguyen  31:53  
Yeah, we put our house out for rent, and fortunately, we got attendance, and then we didn't have any expenses, we just spent it on traveling. 

Evan Franulovich  32:02  
So cool. Yeah, it's amazing, if you're careful, like I stayed in the youth hostel in Brazil, it included breakfast, and I think it was like 12 bucks a night, it was so cheap. 

Son Nguyen  32:12  
Right. 

Evan Franulovich  32:12  
So if you don't care about five star hotels, and you're willing, you could really make your budget stretch. 

Son Nguyen  32:17  
Yes, definitely. We travel most of the time, so we spend the night at the hotel and hostel just to sleep. So we didn't need that luxury. Our luxury is that we hop on the trains and go visit somewhere we never been before. 

Evan Franulovich  32:34  
So let's kind of go back to when you were in school for a sec. Did you take vacation time while you were in school just to travel around the US? If you go to school three quarters, you're allowed a vacation quarter. So did you do any of that? Did you take advantage of that?

Son Nguyen  32:52  
Yes, of course. For short breaks, we usually did road trips to do the Oregon Coast, we drove down to California. 

Evan Franulovich  33:05  
Yeah, cool. 

Son Nguyen  33:05  
So for short trips, for longer trips, we travel to New York, DC.

Evan Franulovich  33:13  
Did you go to Canada at all? Did you cross the border at North?

Son Nguyen  33:16  
Good question. No, I did not cross the border when I was a student, because I was a little worried that, when you cross the border and you get back in with an I-20 and F-1 visa, it maybe annoying, you know? 

Evan Franulovich  33:32  
Sure, I get it. 

Son Nguyen  33:35  
So we didn't travel across the border, but we traveled around the US. 

Evan Franulovich  33:39  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  33:40  
For bigger breaks, we traveled to Orlando.

Evan Franulovich  33:44  
You went to a lot of places. You've probably seen more of the US than a lot of people. That's cool. 

Son Nguyen  33:51  
Yeah, I love traveling. Every time there's a break, we need to do something. Especially when you're young, you still got the energy to do that. 

Evan Franulovich  34:02  
Well, I'm thinking back over your time as a student, what do you think your biggest mistake was? Something, you thought you had it all together, and then all of a sudden you're like, 'Oh, man, I wish I would have done that differently.' I'm a rock climber, so sometimes I'll read books or articles about people that fell and got injured because you can learn a lot from other people's failures. What happened along the way that you wish you had done different, and maybe our listeners can learn from your experience?

Son Nguyen  34:35  
Oh, that's a tough question. 

Evan Franulovich  34:36  
That is a tough question. 

Son Nguyen  34:37  
So looking back, at the time when I was at Udub, I kept thinking that my biggest mistake was attending Udub. 

Evan Franulovich  34:51  
Oh. 

Son Nguyen  34:52  
Right? Because I couldn't get into computer science. I was miserable at the university. And then 10 years later, life taught me that wasn't a mistake, right? It was just something. So I think that for me, that's a very unfortunate story. But if I had to go back and with the knowledge that I know at the time, I wouldn't choose to attend the University of Washington. 

Evan Franulovich  35:26  
Right. 

Son Nguyen  35:26  
I could have made a more informed decision to attend Georgia Tech, because I knew that I wanted a degree in computer science. 

Evan Franulovich  35:37  
Sure. 

Son Nguyen  35:38  
Why would I attend a school that didn't offer that to me? So that's one of the things that I would consider a mistake at that time. 

Evan Franulovich  35:50  
Sure. 

Son Nguyen  35:50  
I don't consider it a mistake now, because how my life ended up. 

Evan Franulovich  35:55  
Right, right. 

Son Nguyen  35:56  
I met wife there.

Evan Franulovich  35:56  
Yeah, for sure. That's fate, right? Yeah, that's really cool. I mean, we do as much educational planning as we can, but you never know what's going to happen.

Son Nguyen  36:05  
Yeah, definitely. Talk to the advisors, they're really helpful on helping you to make the decisions, if you don't know which school to go to, whether it's a financial decision, or the decision for the program that you wanted, because you want to stay local. Just talk to somebody. I think I kept a lot to myself back then, I didn't share it with anyone, so I didn't get any advice. All the decisions I made were my decisions. 

Evan Franulovich  36:45  
Right, right, right. 

Son Nguyen  36:46  
But going back, if I opened up and talked more to friends and the advisors to get more information.

Evan Franulovich  36:59  
Good answer. Which kind of brings us, because we're at the end of this show. We could probably talk for hours, but I got to wrap it up so it kind of brings us to, what advice would you give to people back in your region, anywhere in Southeast Asia maybe, or any part of the world really, people that are thinking about coming to the United States to study, or maybe they're considering Seattle Colleges. Or maybe they don't necessarily consider Seattle Colleges, but they're just thinking about, what is a community college? Should I even bother with a community college? Or should I just go straight to university? I mean, whatever you want to give advice on, maybe you can share your wisdom now that you've been through it all.

Son Nguyen  37:43  
Yeah, for sure. So let's see, I think one thing as an international students, when you travel to different country or stay abroad, you definitely want to strengthen your English skills because communication is super important. 

Evan Franulovich  39:01  
Right. 

Son Nguyen  38:05  
Yes, you can get away with meeting people from your own country in the US, but you need to start making friends with all the people, all the students in all the countries as well. Join clubs, join organizations to network.

Evan Franulovich  38:34  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  38:35  
Make more friends, build a good supportive system. So you have people who you can you can talk to. You have friends you can hang out with. 

Evan Franulovich  38:47  
Yeah. 

Son Nguyen  38:47  
And you can build a life at the university that you like better. You know, through the network you get more opportunities like jobs. 

Evan Franulovich  39:00  
For sure. 

Son Nguyen  39:02  
Or good advice from students who walked your path before, so that definitely. That's probably the final thing I wanted to touch on is, let's say, if you have a goal to travel or study abroad in the US and you want to stay here, then go visit the career service to learn more about what are the opportunities. What is CPT or OPT, and how you get a working visa and how you get the company to sponsor your green card, things like that. You got some of that information, then you can set goals to work.

Evan Franulovich  39:50  
Right, right. I love that answer. I'm a big believer in goal setting, and I think it just helps make things happen. It's kind of magical.

Son Nguyen  40:00  
Yeah, at the time when I went to school here, I didn't know any of this. So I just speak from experience, because the network of friends who I made at the student leadership, I actually met them during my travel trip. 

Evan Franulovich  40:10  
Oh. 

Son Nguyen  40:11  
So the alumni who went to Seattle Central before we lost contact in years. Then I was able to stay connected with them through Facebook and call them out, and they took me, and travel with me. 

Evan Franulovich  40:31  
Cool. 

Son Nguyen  40:31  
Yeah, one of my friends traveled with me around Thailand. 

Evan Franulovich  40:34  
Wow, that's so great. 

Son Nguyen  40:36  
So it was just wonderful. And yeah for goal setting, I just met my five years up my green card, so I'm about to become a US citizen. 

Evan Franulovich  40:50  
Well, welcome. 

Son Nguyen  40:52  
16 years.

Evan Franulovich  40:54  
So cool. Well, we're glad to have you. We're really glad you're here. So grateful that you came to Seattle Colleges and have that experience. And thanks for sharing your post Seattle College experience at Georgia Tech and University of Washington. Yeah, I just wish you all the luck in the world.

Son Nguyen  41:10  
Yeah, no problem. Yeah, I'm grateful for my time as an exchange student in South Carolina, I'm grateful for my time here at Central and thank you for having me on here.

Evan Franulovich  41:21  
Our pleasure. Thanks so much. That's the end of this show. Thanks for tuning in. Appreciate your time, Son. We'll look forward to talking to you again in the future. 

Son Nguyen  41:29  
All right, thank you, Evan. 

Evan Franulovich  41:30  
Take care. Bye. Bye.

Evan Franulovich  41:30  
Welcome to Seattle Colleges International Programs and our show 'Conversations with!', where we talk to people that help you understand how you too, can be an international student in the United States and why Seattle Colleges should be your first choice. We'll talk to students and staff and agents and government folks, all kinds of people about what you can expect when you're getting ready to apply or travel here, what you'll experience while you're with us, and how it can all lead to an amazing life. Don't forget to check out the Seattle Colleges International Programs website at intl.seattlecolleges.edu where you can find a treasure trove of information about the school, the programs here and best of all, fill out and submit your application. Again, that's intl.seattlecolleges.edu.

Evan Franulovich  42:26  
So if you are in Vietnam and you're in Saigon on Saturday March the 2nd, go to the Rex Hotel from 2pm to 6pm to meet up with Johan to learn all about Seattle Colleges. He'll also be in Hanoi on Sunday March the 3rd at the Melia hotel, from 9am until 12pm and then in Da Nang on Tuesday March the 5th at the Hilton from 5pm to 8pm. Of course, you can also catch up with Johan to learn about Seattle Colleges in Taiwan, Taipei, Saturday and Sunday the 16th and 17th at the Taipei World Trade Center on floor one hall number one from 12pm to 6pm, or if you can't catch him in Taipei, you can see him in Kaohsiung on Monday the 18th at the Marriott Hotel from 3pm to 8pm or in Taichung on Tuesday the 19th at the Evergreen Laurel hotel from 3pm to 8pm. Lastly, if you're a student in Mongolia, you can find Johan in your city, especially at the educational advising and resource center located at the Student Street, building mkm 24 on Thursday, March 21 from 5pm to 6pm. Guys, if you want to talk to Johan in-person, he's going to be in these locations, go on out there. Give him your love. Learn a little bit about Seattle Colleges. We are happy to meet you on the road. Take care.