The Vicky Nguyen Story: from Piner High School Student to Emmy Award-Winning Journalist

Entertainment Prep Sports 49ers Politics Dining Towns Family Blogs Search Nearby > > Windsor | Rohnert Park More Towns Rain 63°/52° The Vicky Nguyen Story: From Piner High School Tweet 0 student to Emmy Award-Winning Journalist Monday, March 3rd, 2014 | Posted by jessica | no responses By JESSICA ZIMMER / Santa Rosa Correspondent Vicky Nguyen, a 36-year-old investigative reporter with NBC Bay Area, has won two Emmy awards for her work on news stories from San Jose to Petaluma. She is currently reporting on how Sysco, one of the world’s largest food distributors, was caught storing food in outdoor unrefrigerated sheds around Northern California. Every week, her high-level research and storytelling draw in thousands of viewers around the Bay Area. Vicky Nguyen (Photo provided by KNTV) Yet few people know Nguyen’s story or her Santa Rosa roots. When Nguyen was 1 1/2, her family left Vietnam and, after a few years in San Jose, moved to Santa Rosa. “I went to Piner Olivet Elementary School, then Mark West Elementary School, then Comstock Junior High School and finally Piner High School,” said Nguyen. At Piner High School she developed many of the skills that she now uses as a professional TV journalist. “I never had any role models (in journalism). When I was in high school, I thought I was going to become either a vet or a physical therapist,” said Nguyen. “I was in C-TEC (Piner High School’s program for science, named after the school’s Center for Technology, Education and Communication). I didn’t like having to work in groups. C-TEC really put an emphasis on group learning and project learning. That’s what the real world is about. “It really prepared me well for the challenges I would endure as an adult.” Brigette Mansell, who now teaches 10th and 11th grade English and Speech and Debate at Maria Carrillo High School, was Nguyen’s sophomore and junior teacher. “She was always motivated and really gifted in terms of her skills as a writer and a thinker,” said Mansell. “She had an amazing commitment to making meaning.” Mansell remembers that Nguyen excelled in speeches of all kinds, “informational speeches, persuasive speeches, speeches on the spot, speeches to interpret the language of others. “Every Friday we’d draw cards and have to come up with a speech. We did a lot of current events. She definitely got experience,” she said. Mansell recalls one presentation about a Dr. Seuss story called “Yertle the Turtle.” http://santarosa.towns.pressdemocrat.com/2014/03/news/vicky-nguyen-story-piner-high-school-student-emmy-award... 1 “She presented that as a humorous interpretation. She pretended to have all these different voices. It was so funny. Yertle is the top turtle. He’s stacked on top of all these other turtles. You…realize there’s so many people below you (supporting you). “It was just kind of suggestive for her. I think she always had a recognition of (who) was underneath her. I think her parents really mean a lot to her,” said Mansell. Nguyen agrees. “To my parents’ credit, they’ve always been extra supportive,” said Nguyen. “That’s not true for my Asian American peers. A lot of them have had to overcome some backlash from their families.” It wasn’t easy to reach her current position, which is based in San Jose. She enrolled at the University of San Francisco on an academic scholarship, majoring in biology. She didn’t start thinking about journalism until her sophomore year. Then one day she had a talk with her friend Toan Lam, who also has become a news reporter. Nguyen’s work is edited by the TV crew (Photo provided by KNTV) “Toan started talking about the internships he was doing. That sparked my interest,” said Nguyen. “If (he) can do it and he’s having so much fun, I should give it a shot.” Soon afterwards, she scored her first news internship at CNN’s San Francisco bureau. “I was a terrible intern. I was so green, I had no idea what I was doing. I sat at the phone and received news tips,” said Nguyen. She also struggled with trying to manage schoolwork and the internship. “I was still taking organic chemistry at the time. I still had one foot in biology. I don’t think I showed very much promise.” At her next position, she found her voice. Vicky Nguyen reports on Sysco’s unrefrigerated food lockers (Photo provided by KNTV) “I worked for KPIX (the CBS local affiliate) with Manny Ramos and Roz Slater. Roz allowed me to go on shoots with them and watch them as they put their stories together,” said Nguyen. After graduating, Nguyen won a Kaiser Family Foundation fellowship in health reporting. “I worked with John Fowler, who was and still is the health and science editor at KTVU. I got to learn about health reporting, consumer reporting and general news reporting.” Then reality hit. Nguyen’s first job offer was from a TV station in Sioux City, Iowa, and paid $18,500 a year, less than minimum wage. Finally, she got a better offer from Central Florida News 13 in Orlando, Fla. “It paid $26,000 with a $1,500 moving bonus. I thought I had made it,” she said. Nguyen worked as a “one-man band” in Florida, writing, shooting and editing stories by herself. http://santarosa.towns.pressdemocrat.com/2014/03/news/vicky-nguyen-story-piner-high-school-student-emmy-award... 2 “I remember one story I did about the homecoming of a young girl who had been in a terrible car accident. I went back to the newsroom and (realized) my video light (had gone) blue. I had not properly light-balanced the camera. We had to spend a lot of time correcting it. When I finally got my story…on the reel, it was two hours after everyone else had.” Nguyen also worked at TV stations in Phoenix and Reno before returning to the Bay Area. When she started work at KNTV, she said, “my family was relieved (that) I came back.” Vicky Nguyen on-air (Photo provided by KNTV) In 2011 and again in 2012, Nguyen garnered four Emmy nominations. In 2011, she won in the category of “Feature News Report – Serious,” and in 2012, she won in the category of “On-Camera Talent – Reporting.” Nguyen still visits Sonoma County, partly because her husband’s family lives in Santa Rosa. She also comes up to the area to cover stories. On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, she profiled a blind gentleman who survived the terrorist attack by going down 79 flights of stairs at the World Trade Center with his guide dog. “I was last in Santa Rosa in 2013 doing interviews with Canine Companions for Independence. The story was about people who have pretended their pets are service animals,” said Nguyen. She has comes up to speak with Mansell’s students. “My career advice is, believe in yourself. I know that if you work really hard, there will be a place for you,” she said. In journalism and in life, Nguyen said, she has worked hard to set herself apart. “You are the only person who can be you. You have to believe that putting in the hard work will make the difference.” Some of her best advice comes from one of her mentors, photographer and editor Sean Drummond. “He said that when it comes to the people you interview, there’s no way you’re going to be able to remember all of them. But they’re going to remember you. It was basically his way of saying, ‘Be nice to people.’” Nguyen said his words stay with her as she tries to expose wrongdoing and create change. “I’ve always tried to be really compassionate, as a human being and a reporter,” she said. “You see people at some of the most difficult moments in their life. You have to remember to be a human being first and a reporter second.” Related Posts 1. Editor of Santa Rosa High School newspaper named outstanding journalist 2. Want to host an international high school student? The forecast for 95401 by Wordpress Weather Weather forecast by WP Wunderground & Denver Snow Service http://santarosa.towns.pressdemocrat.com/2014/03/news/vicky-nguyen-story-piner-high-school-student-emmy-award... 3.

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