2022 Senior Series: KieuLy Nguyen

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“I’m grateful for the variety of people that come to UMass and make it home. I’m grateful for the opportunities that exist among such a large population.

I’ve said yes to a lot of things. I eagerly welcomed things into my life that I didn’t think I was a perfect fit for or that I didn’t deserve. I’ve been able to travel to Mumbai and backpack through Vietnam. I got involved in rock climbing and now feel a strong connection to the people I met at the gym. I’m so over the moon grateful for the people at UMass Magazine who took a chance on a girl without a journalistic background!

If I had to summarize my time here at UMass in three words it would be challenging, growth, and silly. Freshman year I came into college without any idea of what I wanted to do. Arguably, I still have no idea of what I want to do but I have taken it in stride. My NSO [New Student Orientation] mentor recommended I take a freshman seminar in BDIC [Bachelor's Degree with Individual Concentration]. At the end of that course, professor Brashear Alejandro said something that has stuck with me all these years. He said, 'Challenge yourself and what is possible.'

Since I’m in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, there’s a language requirement for students. I found it really difficult to retain a language in a traditional classroom. Because I'd spent some time in Mumbai, I decided to pursue an independent study in Hindi through the Five College Consortium. It is intensive but the one-on-one mentorship format and shifting focus onto speaking really suited my style of learning. There are a lot of English courses I’ve taken and professors I’ve admired, but I’ve never formed as close of a connection as I have with my Hindi tutor/mentor Karla Carruth.

There are honestly too many memories of my time here at UMass that have made me smile or laugh. I think living off campus the majority of my time at UMass, I’ve met a lot of UMass students outside of the classroom and facilities. It makes me smile thinking about how I met one of my housemates in a class freshman year and then coincidentally shared a friend group and still didn’t get to know each other until we moved in together. Or how I’ve known of my current partner since sophomore year, but we didn’t date or really talk until years later. I marvel at how easy it is to get lost in the crowd at UMass. It’s a blessing and a curse.

In regard to next steps, it’s open-ended right now. I always tell people that I’m interested in technical writing or marketing. But I spent some time as a rock-climbing coach. It’s cliché for an English major to enjoy teaching because everyone expects that of you but I did enjoy it. And I never knew I would or could until the opportunity was in front of me. So I’m not sure what’s next. I’m nervous and excited and optimistic that, no matter what, everything will work out."

KieuLy Nguyen '22 is an English major with a minor in Information Technology. She has worked as an editorial assistant for UMass Magazine, marketing assistant at UMass Store, marketing communications intern at BioPrep Solutions, LLC, research assistant for Pompeii Artistic Landscape Project, speech editor at TEDx Amherst, and at the UMass Amherst edition of the Hult Prize — the world’s largest student competition that awards start-up funding to a team of students that develops the most innovative, disruptive, and progressive idea to solve one of our world’s toughest social challenges.