Dr. H. A. Nguyen
Dr. Nguyen is the embodiment of the American Dream. As a nine-year old child, his father taught him to swim in preparation for a dangerous escape by boat from Vietnam. They were successful on their second attempt. When Dr. Nguyen fled Vietnam, he did not realize that it would be ten years before he would see his mother and siblings again.
After spending six months in a refugee camp in the Philippines, he and his father arrived in Northern Virginia with only $10 dollars. Knowing only a few words of English, Dr. Nguyen entered fifth grade at Mount Vernon Elementary School, and just twelve years later, he graduated from the University of Virginia Medical School. The story of his journey from refugee to becoming a leading physician at Kaiser Permanente is awe-inspiring and humbling for all of us.
Dr. Nguyen blazed quite a trail at TC Williams High School, coming in first place at the Science Fair, and was a semi-finalist in the National Westinghouse Science Talent Search. He fondly remembers his T.C. teachers including Dr. Rorscher, Patrick Welsh, and Lou Kokonis. He was a standout in the T.C. Class of 1989.
Dr. Nguyen attended the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar and received a degree in Biochemistry, he went on to receive his M.D. from the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Dr. Nguyen now serves as the lead physician at Kaiser Permanente’s Ashburn Medical Center Dr. Nguyen is married to fellow T.C. Williams alumnus Dr. Valerie Ngo, with whom he has four children. His passion when not at work is Scouting. He is now the Scoutmaster of the same Boy Scout troop in Arlington that he once helped lead in high school.
About his scholarship, he said, “It gave me the opportunity to pursue my dream. You can dream, but if you don’t have the means, you won’t achieve your dream.”
