After escaping from Vietnam in 1987, Chau and Son Tran traveled overseas to Kualalumpur, Malaysia where they had their first child, Nghi Tran. The family of three then traveled to the Philippines, where they stayed for seven months before coming to America in 1990. The family struggled to assimilate to the American culture while living in the Old Colony projects of South Boston. Nghi and her family eventually moved to Dorchester where she is now living with her mother, stepfather, and younger brother.
Now in her senior year at Boston Latin School Nghi is looking forward to attending Drexel University, Syracuse, or NYU. Her interests in writing and the arts has led her to taking AP Writing in her junior year and Honors and AP art in her junior and senior year. After school, Nghi is a dedicated athlete. The upcoming spring of 2007 will be her fourth year as a rower on the girls crew team at BLS. Nghi is also a member of the Spoken Word club where she puts her writing skills to use writing poetry. <br>In her years at Latin, Nghi has always been interested in helping the community and serving the public. Her interest in children led her to becoming a Saturday School tutor where she tutors underclassmen in English and History. But it wasn’t until she became a Ward Fellow in the summer of 2006 that she really started to take an interest in public service. The Ward Fellowship not only sparked her interest in public service but it gave her a new outlook on her career and what she wanted to dedicate her life to.
Through the program, Nghi was able to meet a number of inspiring people such as City Councilor Mike Ross, Corporation Counsel Bill Sinnott, Nick Littlefield, and Judge Roanne Sragow. Being able to meet public servants and seeing how they help the public has encouraged Nghi to follow in their footsteps and do the same. She is unsure of what public servant route she’ll take but she knows that it will involve working with children. Being able to visit places like the Child Advocacy Center and a Cambodian Youth Camp during the summer has made her determined to dedicate a portion of her life to helping children. Nghi has a deep interest and passion in helping children and hopes to do some humanitarian work with children in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
Her sponsor is Attorney General Thomas Reilly.