Nhi Thi Tuyet Nguyen, or Tea, a 19-year-old senior at Mary Baldwin is the President of one of the largest club presences on campus, SOULS (Students Out Understanding and Loving Students). Born in Saigon, Vietnam, Tea endured a brutal childhood stricken with loss. After moving to suburban California at a young age, she dedicated herself to academics and helping others. With a plan to enter the army this coming May, this Chemistry major is hopeful that in the future she will become a neurosurgeon.
As an extremely involved and well-known – yet mysterious and sometimes intimidating – figure on campus, Tea is the topic of discussion during casual conversations across the College.
Her Campus (HC): How do you feel about famous people or celebrities?
Tea: I don’t like celebrities because I feel like they should be allowed to live as normal human beings. People put them on this pedestal and expect so much out of them. People look forward to seeing celebrities fail in life and that is sickening in society.
HC: Is that why you dislike being sort of a ‘celebrity’ on campus?
Tea: Yes. Yeah it’s really annoying. That’s my problem with this campus. I don’t understand why people can’t go on about their lives. Personally, I don’t pay attention to anyone. You do your thing, I do my thing, and you go back to bed and I go back to bed. It’s the speculation that gets me into the wrong situation. People just speculate. That’s why if I was in a relationship I wouldn’t tell anyone. So many of my relationships have failed because people speculate. It’s none of their business, they don’t know what’s going on, but they get involved in my relationships.
HC: So what is your relationship status, assuming you would tell us?
Tea: I am currently…taken.
HC: Can you tell us more about that?
Tea: Okay, well I guess I should say… when I say taken… I am not taken. (Laughs) I say taken because I’m trying to avoid the majority of the humans on the campus that pounce on me every time I’m single. But I don’t tell anyone when I’m actually taken. Somehow people know. They assume every girl I’m with I’m either f*cking or in a relationship with or whatever. In reality, it’s an all female campus. I’m allowed to be around girls who are just my friends.
HC: Do you have a particular person you look up to?
Tea: Honestly, role models are all around me each and every single day. I look to faculty, professors, teachers back to middle school and high school. Who I am right now is modeled after everyone who has touched my life in one-way or another. I’m not after any one certain person.
HC: Can you name anyone?
Tea: The one person I would say that makes the most difference in who I am would be my mother. Strangely enough I don’t know her. She passed away when I was one. I strive to model myself after what I’ve learned about her.
HC: Can you tell us more about your family?
Tea: There aren’t many people in my family that I’m close with. I have my sister but that’s about it. As of right now there are only three people I keep in touch with.
HC: Do you mind telling us why that is?
Tea: Okay. My mother passed away when I was one along with three of my siblings. Four people passed away in my family in a fire that day. It left myself, my eldest sister, who was sixteen at the time, and my father. After the fire happened my father went psychologically unstable, naturally, because he lost his wife and his children. He gave me up to my aunt and uncle and I grew up thinking they were my biological parents. Word on the street was that everyone was going to keep it a secret from me. I only found out what had happened literally the day before I had to fly to America. I was really young at the time (six or seven) and didn’t have time to process anything. I felt like I was being abandoned again. How I look at things is everyone in my family just passed me off. There were secrets and multiple things that happened in my family that make me feel very disconnected. That’s why I’m a really detached person.
HC: What happened once you moved to America?
Tea: I lived with my sister and her husband in California. She got married and brought me over to America. I didn’t know she existed for however long I was alive. It was like ‘Hey, this is your sister. You are going to go live with her until you’re on your own.’ It’s an intense situation. I focused on studying and learning English. I blocked out the rest of the world and just threw myself into academics.
HC: Has that hurt you in any way socially?
Tea: Well, my biggest fear is abandonment. I had friends in school growing up but I really kept to myself. It took me two or three years to learn English but once I got that down I breezed through the next few years. I haven’t had a lot of people that I am close to because they go and leave. It hasn’t made me less compassionate or loving or caring or kind.
HC: What has been your biggest accomplishment in life so far?
Tea: I’m a student leader. Within VWIL (Virginia Women Institution of Leadership) – ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps), whatever – I’m a leader. I live to serve. It’s weird because as a leader you’re supposed to be leading and others are supposed to be following but I’m serving those I lead.
HC: You’re a leader as the President of SOULS, too. Can you tell us more about the purpose of SOULS?
Tea: SOULS stands for… It’s essentially a club/organization that provides a support base for LGBTQ+ community. We try to provide programs and meetings to help everyone in that spectrum to come and mix and mingle and get to know each other.
HC: How did you become involved?
Tea: I joined SOULS when I was a freshman. Last year, my junior year, I got ushered into being a treasurer because the executives were missing one and needed help. I stepped up and somehow took reign of the whole club.
HC: Does SOULS mean anything special to you?
Tea: My biggest goal in life is to pay it forward. With SOULS, that’s closer and dearer to my heart. I identify as a lesbian and I want to be able to create a safe space for everyone. We have been working on that since I became president.
HC: What would you say to SOULS members or students on campus who find you intimidating?
Tea: I’m a very open person. It seems like I’m unapproachable but that’s not true at all. I’m an open book; people just need to ask the right questions. I’m straight. Well – I’m not straight, just straightforward.