As I was sitting at lunch in the middle of Kentucky, I overheard a member tell a sister: “I met a Pi Phi in Vietnam this summer!” When I hear something like that, I knew I had to meet Kentucky Gamma Vyvian Nguyen.
This was Vyvian’s first time in Vietnam to visit her family in Ho Chi Minh City, commonly known as Saigon. One weekend, she went to the market with her grandfather. Vyvian saw a young woman wearing a Pi Phi shirt, approached her to say hello and took a photo together with her sister from Florida. How amazing to witness that our sisterhood spans worldwide!
Vyvian spent three weeks in Vietnam with her extended family. She had heard people visited Vietnam for their honeymoons or on vacations, but the reality of the country was a very different than she had imagined. She admits she experienced culture shock: the mannerisms, the extreme poverty and the torturous heat.
“It was beautiful, but I felt bad for my family because of their different living situation,” she said. Where her grandfather lives, there is no electricity or running water. The cost inflation is four times the United States for some items and the average person makes about $1 per day. Many of the people have no access to health care or daily necessities.
These facts inspired her to make a change. Vyvian is studying biology/pre-med with hopes of attending dental school in the future. She initially became interested with teeth because she felt beautiful and confident when she was proud of her own smile. She wants others to have the same positivity. The experiences this past summer changed her motivation a bit as she now hopes to go back to Vietnam to set up a practice that provides free dental care.
Additionally it is especially important to her to help children and adults learn about gum cancer. Vyvian explains to me that it is a practice in western cultures to screen ourselves to prevent cancer and also find ways to make families and patients feel better after being diagnosed. In Vietnam, people know about cancer, but do not take it seriously. People pass away without warning, and do not know ways to prevent the disease or help themselves live with it.
Vyvian will not wait until after dental school to go back to visit Vietnam. Vyvian has plans to go back next summer to spend more time her family and learn more about how she can help the country in the future. I know she will make an impact on many lives through her work.