Mrs. Nguyen is the College and Career Counselor at Aliso Niguel High School and Futureology counselor. Through her counseling, she guides students to success for their college entrance.
Mrs. Nguyen attended college at University of California Irvine as an English major. In high school, she enjoyed the classes AP Literature and AP Language and Composition. In these classes, the same teacher taught her and further inspired her to pursue english in college.
Mrs. Nguyen’s goal in college was to pursue a career in literary journalism. However, after doing some self-exploration and the help of a UCI career counselor, her interest in journalism was not to write, but to pursue her desire to connect with other people and to understand their stories. Her positive experience with her counselor at UCI and her love of working with students helped solidify that counseling was the right choice for her.
As a college and career counselor, Mrs. Nguyen’s favorite part is working with students and their family. The most challenging part about being a college and career counselor is that there is never enough time to do everything she would like to do since it is a very busy and fulfilling job to have.
“I could be having the most stressful day at work,” explains Mrs. Nguyen, “but the moment I’m with students, I remember exactly why I do what I do. I have so much hope for this generation, and I firmly believe anyone can change the world.”
Mrs. Nguyen’s biggest piece of advice for rising seniors is to make sure that their college list is balanced. Having a balanced college list means that there is a good variety of reach, target and likely schools on the list. She believes that students should keep in mind most about what they want out of a college and make sure that the schools they are selecting will match all of their needs academically, socially and financially.
As a Futureology counselor, Mrs. Nguyen provides students and parents several opportunities for further education about college through Zoom meetings or College & Career events. She helps hold CUSD Financial Aid Support Nights, College & Career Orientations for ninth and tenth grade students and Webinars on specific college pathways such as community college, college abroad and even gap years.
Outside of work, Mrs. Nguyen’s core activities consist of martial arts and climbing. According to her, she trains in Muay Thai, Kali, Silat and Jeet Kune Do. In terms of climbing, Mrs. Nguyen boulders and sport climbs indoors as well as outdoors.
Kusuma Vasireddy (11) speaks about her experience with Mrs. Nguyen’s college and career counseling: “As an upcoming senior, Mrs. Nguyen has helped me so much with my planning for college. Without Mrs. Nguyen, I would be totally lost with where to start for my college plans and applications and I’m sure many of my peers feel the same way.”
