Cindy Nguyen has packed her senior year at Meadowdale High School with advanced-placement and music classes.
The 18-year-old is preparing to study environmental science at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, starting this fall. Issues that interest her include climate change and access to safe drinking water.
Music is an important part of Cindy’s life. A violin player since third grade, she picked up the viola a few months ago. She also sings in Meadowdale’s vocal jazz group.
When not studying, she enjoys cycling, gardening and visiting thrift shops.
Question: Why did you decide to study environmental science?
Answer: When I was in eighth grade, I read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan. It talked about the food industry and the agricultural industry. When you’re sitting down, figuring out what you want to do in life, you analyze what you’re passionate about. I think one of the most pressing issues is the lack of environmental ethics and sustainability in our society.
Q: What kind of environmental science interests you?
A: A huge portion of the world doesn’t have access to clean water. If I were to be more of a science person, then I’d definitely go into water conservation or something like that. Or if I wanted to be more rooted in the humanities and liberal arts, I might be a policy maker and work with an NGO.
Q: How many music classes are you taking?
A: Three: Chamber Orchestra, Impressions (Meadowdale’s vocal jazz group) and Symphonic Strings (orchestra).
Q: Do you listen to classical music?
A: I don’t listen to classical music as often as I should. I mostly listen to jazz. Mostly vocal jazz artists, like Sara Gazarek.
Q: What nonmusic classes are you taking?
A: Four advanced-placement classes: AP Calc, AP Lit, AP Gov and AP Environmental Science.
Q: Which class is your favorite?
A: Contentwise, Environmental Science, because it’s what I want to study. The most fun is probably AP Calc. It’s a huge class. It’s my teacher’s last year and everybody wanted to take it. It gets rowdy at times. Our teacher is so funny. We work hard and joke around a lot, too.
Q: Your schedule sounds intense. Do you get any sleep?
A: It’s a lot of time management. Sometimes you just have to sacrifice sleep — that’s another thing I learned.
Q: What are some of the biggest influences in your life?
A: For sure my parents, for literally giving me life. My teachers have always been inspirations for me. I am a Catholic, so that does play into a lot of my beliefs.
Q: What teachers would you like to recognize?
A: I like all of my teachers, but the teacher I’ve spent the most time with is Jeff Horenstein. He’s my choir teacher. I’ve known him since eighth grade. I started taking his class freshman year. Myrnie Van Kempen was my middle school orchestra teacher. She showed me that music is an important part of the world. I guess that’s why I’m such a music kid now. Jeff added to that.
Q: How has your family influenced you?
A: My parents are both immigrants from Vietnam, so that’s been a huge factor in my life. They left in the early 1990s, so their childhood was during the war. When I was applying for schools, I kept thinking that is what they came here for: a better life, an education.
Q: What do your parents do for a living?
A: My dad is a metal worker. My mom is a manicurist.
Q: Do you have siblings?
A: A younger sister. Her name is Amy. She’s a junior, a cheerleader. Our activities are opposite — I’m a music kid, a drama kid — but we have pretty similar personalities.
Q: Are other people in your family musically inclined?
A: No, just me. Which is kind of cool because I don’t have any expectation to live up to, I guess.
Q: Who do you admire from popular culture?
A: Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler’s character from the NBC comedy series “Parks and Recreation”). What’s there not to like? The fact that she can get so much done and cares so much, when everybody else cares so little.
Q: What advice would you give other high school students?
A: It’s all hard work. Literally everything in life is hard work and everything you want is hard work. That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned. A lot of my friends who are younger come up to me and ask, “How do I do this? Or how did you do this?” You just have to sit down and think about your life a lot and prioritize what’s important to you and what you’re willing to work for.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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