At seventeen, Tiffany Nguyen stood in the hallways of Maria Carrillo High School, surrounded by the fast-spoken English of her American classmates, understanding fragments but missing the jokes, the slang, the cultural references that bound them together. Earlier that year, her mother had made a life-altering decision: she left Vietnam and brought her daughters to the United States, hoping to give them opportunities she never had.
Tiffany made it her mission to adapt and succeed in the new country, spending a lot of her time watching videos to perfect her English pronunciation, taking notes on what she couldn't understand in class, and pushing herself to speak up. She came from one of the top three high schools in Ho Chi Minh City, but here, her stellar Vietnamese GPA translated to mere Bs—a humbling shift that only fueled her determination.
After graduating from Maria Carillo High School in 2023, Tiffany enrolled in summer classes at Santa Rosa Junior College without taking a break, intending to finish the requirements for an associate’s degree in precisely two years. She developed a carefully crafted spreadsheet outlining her education plan. While other students eased into college life, in the fall of her first full academic year, she enrolled in an ambitious 22-unit course load including Statistics, Math, Biology, Marketing, English, and Economics. Tiffany felt she was racing against expectations, and she wanted to prove herself worthy of respect in her adopted country.
The math lab in the Kunde Hall became her sanctuary, and she also found her first college friends there. She worked as a Peer Assisted Learning Specialist (PALS), helping fellow students with calculus. This experience strengthened her own mastery of the subject and reflected her commitment to lifting others up as she advanced. She also received the Doyle Scholarship to help with her tuition. She was already involved in clubs like Rotaract and Phi Theta Kappa when a friend who was running for Student Government Assembly President asked her to join his slate. Tiffany hesitated. “Politics” felt intimidating for someone still navigating language barriers. Still, she knew she wanted to gain marketing experience, help students discover resources available on campuses, and she also needed to enhance her resume to gain admission to the school of her dreams - UC Berkeley's prestigious Haas School of Business. She was elected Vice President of Marketing for the Student Government and learned to navigate the politics of her new role while maintaining nearly perfect grades.
In spring 2025, Tiffany had achieved what seemed impossible: four associate degrees in business, economics, mathematics, and social and behavioral sciences, acceptance to multiple UCs, and most importantly, admission to Haas School of Business, the top-ranked program that represented everything she'd worked toward. Her dream is to open her fashion store and develop a successful business, applying everything she learned during her college journey.