Name: Vivan Nguyen Age: 22 Year: fifth-year senior Major: double major in physics and music with a concentration in piano Hometown: Sarasota, FL
Her Campus: What is your position on campus? Vivan Nguyen: “Vice President of the Student Body.”
HC: How did you get involved in Student Government? VN: “When I first came to campus, I didn’t really know how to get involved myself, and I was kind of afraid. I actually applied to some positions in SG and didn’t get it… That kind of stopped my desire to get involved in SG and I was like, ‘Well I’ll find another place to get involved.’ I was heavily involved in the Honors Program; from there, I started volunteering with the Center for Leadership and Service. After that experience, I wanted to try SG again, and I ended up as Housing Affairs cabinet director… I got very involved in the election process here; I was the president of Swamp Party last Fall. I had the opportunity to run for vice president, and it was something I couldn’t pass up.”
HC: What’s your favorite part about being vice president? VN: “It has to be the student leaders I work with… The student leaders here are by far just so much more professional, and they’re just on top of their game. Our SG here is very, very special and unique. The student leaders I work with — it’s really fun to see how they start out and how they end, how much they grow and how much they learn.”
HC: And the biggest challenge? VN: “Currently I am the only female on the (executive) board… This year a big challenge is — and I’ve talked about this with female leaders at other schools — being able to command the sort of respect as a woman. People always talk about that sometimes if a woman comes off too strongly, people don’t like that. So it’s finding a balance between being authoritative when you need to be respected, but then also not shying away from a challenge. The more you think that it’s a problem, it becomes one. I’m very lucky; I have an amazing executive board, and I’ve never run into any problems with them before. We work really well together, but it’s the challenge that I think all females face when they’re in a position like that.”
HC: What other things are you involved in on campus? VN: “Right now my main focus is SG, but I still play piano and do things with the music school, still in ensembles there and doing my physics major.”
HC: Where do you see yourself in 10 years? VN: “I have no idea, actually, and I wasn’t okay with that for a while, but I’m okay with it now. I’m probably going to be taking a gap year after this, and actually I can say that if there’s anything I did learn from SG, it’s to take risks and take chances. I’m not the type that would ever want to travel somewhere far and go to a different country, but right now I’m looking into different programs that I can go into abroad — different physics programs I can do with the Department of Energy. I do plan on continuing with physics, so getting a physics Ph.D., but what I do with that I’m not sure: academia, research, industry.”
HC: What is your dream job? VN: “Work at SpaceX or NASA. Those are kind of the dream jobs.”
HC: What are your hobbies? VN: “Music. Music is always playing somewhere. If I’m at work or I’m studying, and actually after a long day of work, if I have time, I’ll come home and the first thing I’ll do is pick up my guitar and just sing to myself and play music.”
HC: Do you have any hidden talents? VN: “I can Scottish Highland dance! Sarasota was founded by Scottish people, so Riverview High School actually follows that tradition with their band. Everyone in the band wears kilts. We have dancers; we have a color guard; and the dancers did jazz, hip-hop, pep rallies and stuff. But on the field we would always have a song that was our Scottish dance… We actually performed in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin, Ireland when I was a junior.”
HC: Who is your role model? VN: “My parents. When they came here, they were teenagers. They came from Vietnam and didn’t speak any English at all. They came to UF, and now my brother, me and my sister all ended up here at UF. I know people have a lot of the same ‘my parents were immigrants’ stories, but I think that does shape how the children of those immigrants see things.”
HC: What is your advice to new students? VN: “Apply to everything, and get involved with everything. That’s still something I’m trying to do now. You want to try Salsa Club because you’ve always wanted to learn it? Go! It’s free, and students welcome you with open arms. If there’s something on campus you’ve always wanted to try, don’t be afraid because I think that’s something that even held me back, and now I’m just realizing, ‘Wow, when I was a freshman, I had way more time to do things than I do now. I should’ve used that time.’ Take advantage of classes at RecSports. Whatever it is, apply to everything. I didn’t get some things and that discouraged me, and that’s still something I tell myself now.”
HC: What is your favorite memory at UF so far? VN: “I think, for me, it’s not a moment. It’s the entire experience. When I was younger, I was a (Gators) fan fanatic; I was crazy about Gator football, and I would show up to school decked out in orange and blue with pom poms in my hair whenever we’d win a game, so coming here was already so exciting, and every time I walk into that stadium I’m still in awe when you see all those people. I think that image-wise, that’s probably the best memory — when you walk into the stadium, and it’s just filled with people. Then being able to become vice president and representing all of those people. Sometimes I’m so busy, I don’t get to sit down and think about what that means… It’s really the whole experience for me, and I’m very sad I’m going to be leaving in a year!”