Four Home Schooled Siblings Together Again at UC San Diego

Ioana Patringenaru | Oct. 6, 2008

Kim Nguyen is used to going to school with her siblings—all five of them—but not in a regular classroom. The Nguyen brothers and sisters were all home schooled for many years. Now, Kim and three of her siblings are back together again, this time on the same campus at UC San Diego.

Four of the six siblings in the Nguyen family are now attending UCSD. From left: Nguyen, 20, Kim, 24, Dan, 22 and Van, 18.

Kim was the first to come here as a transfer student. She graduated this summer, but is back to earn a master’s in bioengineering. Her brother Dan, 22, is a senior. Her brother Nguyen, 20, is a junior and a transfer student. Her sister Van, 18, is a freshman.

 “I didn’t think all four of us would be here,” Kim said. “It’s exciting.”

Kim's two youngest siblings are now going to high school and might come to UCSD later on too. All still live at home with their parents, a mechanical engineer and a homemaker, in Mira Mesa. All also say they feel like their success validates their parents’ decision to home school them. “A lot of people doubted our parents,” Kim said.

She also said she believes her parents decided to keep her and her siblings at home so they could study at their own pace. Her brother Nguyen remembers using college-level textbooks. “I think community college was easy, compared to home school,” Dan, the UCSD senior, said half-jokingly. Kim said her parents also wanted to shape their children’s curriculum. For the Nguyens, that meant a lot of math lessons. “Our parents think math is a big foundation for everything,” Kim said.

		Nam mechanical engineer	Anhthu homemaker and home-school teacher
Kim 24, graduate student in bioengineering at UCSD	Dan 22, senior at UCSD, biology major, pre-med	Nguyen 20, junior at UCSD, biochemistry major, pre-med	Van 18, freshman at UCSD	Xanh 16, high school student	Dong 15, high school student

Today, all four college-age Nguyen children say they’re interested in science. Dan and Nguyen are pre-med students and Van says she wants to major in chemistry. Kim said she’d like to work in the medical field, possibly in industry, after she earns her master’s in bioengineering. “I would like to improve human health,” she said.

For this academic year, she and her siblings plan to carpool—class schedules permitting. Van, the youngest, will always get a ride, her siblings promised. And everyone will get together for dinner at home.

When they were younger, the Nguyens often were together all day. The day might start with their father assigning homework before heading to work. Their mother taught them the basics and their father advanced topics when he came home from work. Kim remembers that their schedules were fairly flexible. “We didn’t have to wake up early,” she said. The day’s schedule varied depending on their workload, said Nguyen.

The Nguyen family celebrates the graduation of Kim, the oldest daughter, from Revelle College last summer. Kim's boyfriend (far left) also attended.

When they unwind, the three sisters go shopping together; the three brothers play video games. Nguyen plays football and basketball. Weekends are for catching up with friends. The family also takes part in service activities, which Dan credits for helping hone their social skills. They sometimes perform together at events in the Vietnamese community. Kim plays the flute, Van the violin and Dan the guitar.

Kim and Dan were home schooled until they enrolled in community college. Kim recalled being afraid the first day of classes and asking her father to stay with her. Being in a real classroom with other students was unsettling. “I was really scared,” she said. Transferring to UCSD posed a big challenge too. Nguyen remembers that his sister put in long hours on campus. “She was like a ghost when she started UCSD,” he said.  

As years went by, Nguyen went to a public high school, Van started public school in seventh grade, and younger siblings Xanh and Dong in sixth and fifth grade. They may choose to go to UCSD too, their brothers and sisters say.

The sibling’s parents, Anhthu and Nam Nguyen, escaped from Vietnam in the early 1980s. They met on the boat that took them away from the war-torn country. After arriving in the United States, Nam moved in with his sister in Nebraska, and Anhthu with relatives in Texas. But they kept in touch and were married two years later. Kim and Dan were born in Nebraska. Then the family moved to San Diego, where the other four siblings were born and raised. Last year, the whole family came to RIMAC Field to celebrate Kim’s graduation from Revelle College.

“Our parents did a lot for us,” Kim said.