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Senior Spotlight: Ivan Nguyen
Ivan Nguyen loves to draw.
He started with graph paper and a pencil as an eighth grader at Allen Middle. He needed the paper’s blue lines to keep anything he drew symmetrical, and the first thing he drew was a landscape he found on his binder.
He went from there.
By his sophomore year at the Academy at Smith, Ivan noticed that his drawings looked dirty because of the lead shading from his pencil. So, Ivan asked his parents for an iPad. His parents obliged.
Ivan now carries his iPad everywhere. He mainly draws Anime characters, particularly characters from the TV show, “Dragon Ball,” and when he shows his work to his friends, they’re impressed.
“Man,” they tell him, “That’s so cool!”
Ivan likes that. And he likes what drawing does for him.
“It’s really freeing,” he says. “It’s like flying in the air above the clouds.”
Ivan’s talent has gotten him a job painting a mural this summer at a café in Greensboro. On Friday, after he graduates from the Academy at Smith, Ivan’s talent will take him to UNC-Greensboro where he will major in digital arts.
“I get to be more creative,” Ivan says of going to UNC-Greensboro. “I don’t know if this is the right word or not, but it’ll make me more mature, more responsible.”
Ivan’s talent got him there. His support system made it happen.
Overcoming Adversity
School has often been a struggle for Ivan.
He’s been a student in the Academy’s special needs program. He says he’s easily distracted, and he often had a hard time understanding questions teachers posed in class. His shyness only made it worse. Rather than speaking up, he stayed silent.
But teachers helped. Like Andre McCrea, his Exceptional Children teacher.
Ivan didn’t know the words McCrea used or the concepts he talked about. McCrea would stop and help Ivan understand. Slowly, Ivan gained confidence.
He began asking questions and approached McCrea and other teachers for help. It backed up what McCrea has on his website. It’s his own words: “The power to make a difference is in your hands.”
There’s also Quincy Tanner and Alexander Castro.
Castro teaches world history, and Ivan says Castro has a “chill class.” Everyone relaxes, and Ivan finds it easy to learn. Tanner teaches business education, and he’d ask Ivan and his other students, “How can I make this class fun?” Tanner did.
“Before I’d go to his class, I’d be in a lazy way,” Ivan says. “But Mr. Tanner talks to me, and I get comfortable with him. He talks to everybody.”
Ivan’s friends helped, too. Like Lennox. Lennox assisted Ivan with his assignments. Ivan did the same thing for him. Ivan became more confident with his schoolwork and more confident with himself.
He and Lennox looked out for one another, and Lennox wasn’t afraid to stop Ivan and ask, “You OK?”
Ivan was. Except for a Tuesday in October.
‘I’ll Always Love You’
Ivan was participating in an online class at a friend’s house when his 18-year-old brother, Elvis, called. When Elvis told him the news, Ivan hustled home. He walked into the house and straight to the hospital bed to see his dad.
Since Ivan's sophomore year, his dad had been in and out of the hospital at least four times battling lung cancer. Ivan was the youngest, one of four, the youngest of three boys. As his dad got sicker, he talked to Ivan and his two other sons, Elvis and Kevin, about his future and his thoughts.
“If I’m dead, work hard and take care of your mom.”
“Stay in school and don’t get into trouble.”
“I will never give up on you guys.”
“I will always love you.”
As Ivan stood beside his dad’s hospital bed that Tuesday in October, the news Elvis told him hit him hard. His dad was gone. Mi Nguyen was 59.
That night, Ivan couldn’t sleep. He was crying too hard. His life with his father began replaying in his mind like scenes from a movie. Ivan knew he had to hold onto them. After his dad’s death, Ivan knew that’s all he had.
Father and Son
Ivan’s dad was intense, a stern disciplinarian. He moved to Greensboro from Vietnam –– Ivan doesn’t know when –– and he and his wife raised a family of four and started a life.
Ivan thought about all that the day of his dad’s death. He also thought about all the things he had done with his dad. They fished together at Hester Park, and they hung out together at the neon sign shop where his dad worked before he got sick.
Ivan started going to his dad’s shop when he was 7. He cleaned the floors and organized the glass tubes his dad used for work. But mainly, Ivan wanted to hang close to his dad. Even when his dad yelled at him over something he did or didn’t do, Ivan took it in stride.
He was with his dad, and to him, that’s what mattered.
As Ivan grew older, he became more of a helper. He assisted his dad with sending text messages because his dad had a hard time spelling a few words. He also acted as his interpreter when someone told him something in English he didn’t understand.
Last summer, Ivan and his dad built a chicken house in their backyard. So, that night in October as he lay in bed, Ivan knew he’d think of his dad every time he saw it and the family’s 10 chickens.
Scene after scene unfolded in Ivan’s mind as he lay in bed the first night after his dad’s death. Soon, he began a conversation with his dad. He repeated the same thing over and over.
“No matter how hard you yelled at me, I’ll always love you.”
Something to Prove
Today, there’s a Buddhist shrine in Ivan’s house.
It’s right next to the living room and contains one photo of his dad. Every several weeks, Ivan will stand in front of the photo. He'll clasp his hands, bow three times and say four words: “Stay in peace, Dad.”
“He had been suffering a lot when he died,” says Ivan on the reasoning behind those four words. “I want him to have a good rest.”
There are so many things he’d like to tell his dad.
Like his high school graduation. He made it.
Or his new side job. He’ll paint an anime mural this summer at the Moshi Moshi Boba Café on Spring Garden Street. His older brother, Kevin, the 22-year-old Marine, helped put that together.
Or his enrollment at UNC-Greensboro. Ivan will be the first-generation in his immediate family to go to a four-year college.
“His death made me focus on school and be a good son,” Ivan says. “I want to prove something to him and my older brothers. I want to prove that I’m doing a good job at life. I want to have a good life. I want to make my family proud.”
The Talented ‘Baby Boy’
Ivan’s brother Kevin convinced him to apply to UNC-Greensboro. Kevin noticed Ivan’s talent as an eighth grader, and he told them about the art classes he could take at UNC-Greensboro and live at home.
Ivan never forgot his brother’s advice. Meanwhile, his brother couldn’t help but notice how Ivan’s talent had blossomed.
“That’s pretty cool,” Kevin would tell Ivan. “You’re getting better at your drawings.”
His dad noticed, too.
“He knew I was improving,” Ivan says. “He supported that.”
Ivan’s mom, Hong, is more effusive. She works at a local nail salon, and when she looks at her son’s drawings, she gushes.
“My baby boy, you’re so talented,” she’ll say to him. “I am so happy. You’re growing up. You’re becoming an adult.”
When Ivan hears that, he blushes. Yet, when he hears complements from Kevin, his mom and everyone else, he knows he’s getting better. He also knows he’s doing something right.
He’s making his family proud.