May 16, 2007
Minh-An Nguyen named President’s Medalist for four-year students
Minh-An Nguyen, 21, majoring in biochemistry and chemistry, has been named a President’s Medalist — the outstanding four-year student in this year’s senior class on the basis of her overall academic record, including grades.
She has been both a Mary Gates Leadership Scholar and a Mary Gates Research Scholar. She also has been honored as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Intern in 2005-6 and as a recipient of the Hyp Dauben award for the outstanding undergraduate in the H-organic chemistry sequence in 2005. She also was the named the Junior Medalist for achieving the best academic record in the junior class.
One of her favorite experiences at the UW was going on the Honors Rome Program in 2005. “Being able to learn about art history by actually visiting the site is an amazing feeling,” she said. “It pushed me outside my comfort zone and I learned so much about myself.”
Nguyen is Vietnamese but was born in Norway. “I hope to use my Vietnamese skills and my own experiences as an immigrant to help other immigrants in the future,” she said.
She plans to attend dental school. “I feel that growing up as a poor minority enables me to be a dentist who can relate and be open to a diverse population, because in them I see my own family struggling to make it.”
