More News

‘‘I do most of the things parents are supposed to do,” Nguyen said. ‘‘It’s not easy to have the responsibility of an adult when you’re actually a kid. I believe I’m mature, but I still feel like a kid.”

Nguyen was honored by the Children’s Defense Fund in November as one of five students in the Washington, D.C., area to win a $10,000 ‘‘Beat the Odds” scholarship from the nonprofit children’s advocacy group. He will soon become the first member of his family to graduate from high school and attend college.

‘‘Tuan has the will,” said Jon Rybka, program coordinator for the scholarship. ‘‘He says, ‘I have to succeed.’”

Nguyen takes on his responsibilities out of both necessity and love for his parents. He has a similar attitude when talking about the future.

‘‘I feel like my family is somewhat my obligation to help out,” he said. ‘‘I believe the reason I’m going to school and achieving is to help my parents. They’ve helped me a lot, working and supporting me.”

The Nguyens immigrated from Vietnam in 1994 through an American aid program. His father, Tu, 65, was imprisoned for six years in the 1980s for being an officer in the South Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War. ‘‘He was considered an enemy,” said his mom, Xe, 60, a professional seamstress in her homeland.

The Nguyens, along with their oldest son, Han, 22, came to Silver Spring through family connections. Tu, lacking formal education, bounced around factory jobs until he found his current one, at a T-shirt factory in Jessup, more than a decade ago. Xe stayed home to look after the boys, doing clothing alterations and repairs for family and friends on the side.

Tuan enrolled at nearby Broad Acres Elementary School, not knowing any English. He cried on the first day of school, refusing to leave his mother’s side, but quickly adjusted. By third grade he was fluent in English, and soon he volunteered at Broad Acres with Linkages to Learning, a program that supports at-risk children and their families.

Catherine Cleiman, an assistant in Nguyen’s second-grade class, became his mentor in fifth grade. ‘‘I always said he’d be fine and go places,” she said.

But Nguyen remained modest and focused, she added, worrying about his SAT scores while still in middle school.

Nguyen’s determination is driven by the belief he must support his parents as soon as he is capable. His dad has hepatitis B and was in the hospital earlier this summer with liver problems; his mom needs knee replacement surgery and walks with a limp.

Nguyen initially said he wanted to attend Montgomery College to get a degree in two years and still be close to help his parents. But Rybka has been encouraging Nguyen to attend a local, four-year school, arguing Nguyen will benefit more in the long-term.

‘‘I want him to expand his horizons; he wants an expedient path to get a job,” Rybka said. ‘‘It’s an obligation he’s placed on himself and a path he has to follow.”

The path has been a difficult one at times for Nguyen, who by nature is quiet but can be engaging, introspective and animated in conversation. Outside of school, he has a few close friends and enjoys playing soccer.

Joanne Engel, who has taught Nguyen at Springbrook and has worked closely with him for four years, called him the ‘‘quintessential workaholic,” motivated and driven. ‘‘Tuan doesn’t have fun,” she said. ‘‘He has the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

But she is not worried about Nguyen because of his maturity and because his drive is partially a reflection of his Vietnamese heritage. In Nguyen’s family, for example, Engel said, men marry when they are older, so his focus on schoolwork now is not unusual to him.

‘‘He does not think he is a deviation from the norm,” she said.

Nguyen’s mother agreed as she spoke through her son in the front room of their Silver Spring townhouse one recent afternoon. Her sewing machine sat in the corner by the front window, near a radio playing a Vietnamese newscast. Vietnamese newspapers sat on a coffee table.

Nguyen may take his mother to an Asian supermarket once a week and deal with bill collectors on the phone, but he still allowed his mother to straighten and flatten his button-down shirt before they posed for a photograph.

‘‘He’s a hardworking and excellent student,” Tuan said, looking down humbly as he translated his mother’s answer. ‘‘We’re very proud and honored.”

Ten years from now, Xe Nguyen said she hopes her son will ‘‘have a job, have a house, live a better life, have a family.”

Nguyen sees his future in computers, an interest piqued in elementary school when Cleiman gave him a CD with free Internet access. He currently interns as webmaster at Hepatitis Foundation International in Silver Spring, and wants to get a master’s degree in computer science so he can make a ‘‘decent salary to support my parents,” he said.

Engel said Nguyen is also on his way to earning certification in computer hardware maintenance, repair and computer networking before he starts college.

‘‘He loses no opportunity to study,” she said.

Nguyen is now thinking about applying to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a four-year school. No matter where he is next year, however, he knows he has the support of his parents even as he aims to support them. ‘‘They work so I can have a future,” he said. ‘‘Right now, I’m living my life toward a better future for me and my family.”