Uyen Phuong Nguyen was born in the village of Hamtri in Vietnam and now lives in College Park, Maryland. She speaks Vietnamese and English. She was a student at MC in 2018. She was a technical staff member at Vietnamese American Television in Arlington, Virginia and was a teaching assistant in the computer science department at the University of Maryland at College Park. She graduated Cum Laude from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Computer Science with upper level concentration in Mathematics in May 2023. She is now an incoming Associate Professional Staff I at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, which she describes as her dream job. In her spare time, she enjoys a regular meditation practice and taking long walks in nature.
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Uyen can be reached at:
LinkedIn: Uyen Phuong Nguyen
Email: upnguyen@terpmail.umd.edu
To learn more about the topics discussed in this interview:
- US ‘Concerned’ at Conviction of Vietnamese Activist
- Vietnam: Drop Charges for Leafleting
- Vietnam 2013 Human Rights Report
- Internet Freedom Status in Vietnam
My friend Trang and I were riding rented segways in the downtown of Phan Thiet just a few days before I left Vietnam for the U.S. 
I was trying to play violin for the first time. 
My last out-of-town trip with family to Ly Son Island. 
I was picking wild flowers on the way to the Mui Ke Ga beach, not too far away from my house. 
My 8th birthday party at my house. 
A farewell meeting with my friends in Saigon. 
My childhood friend Kieu and I were buying rambutans at a fruit garden in Binh Thuan Province. 
My roommates and me in Saigon. 
I was teaching my mother to pose for a photo. 
After a meditation session at the Khanh Long Temple, Vinh Long Province. 
I was playing ukulele at Song Quao Lake, approximately 2 km from my house. The lake provides water for agriculture in our village. Although the lake looked calm, it can look menacing during the flood seasons. 
I was enjoying the natural beauty of the Ly Son Island on my last trip with my family. 
I was learning how to play guitar while my brother was sitting nearby. 
I enjoyed the sunset on a coastal embankment in Phan Thiet. 
The entrance to the Khanh Long Temple in Vinh Long Province. I came here to learn meditation. 
I was taking meditation lessons from Zen Master Minh Tam at the Khanh Long Temple. I thanked him for teaching me the methods of Vipassana Meditation. 
I was taking meditation lessons from Zen Master Minh Tam at the Khanh Long Temple. I thanked him for teaching me the methods of Vipassana Meditation. 
I was cleaning up the Khanh Long Temple after meditation. 
My friend’s sister and I were posing for a photo at her pig barn, behind the house. 
I was kissing a fresh mango that was still hanging from a tree. 
My trip to Phu Quoc Island. 
I was playing with the exercise equipment which was placed along the riverbank of Saigon. 
A photo of me reading the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. 
My friends and I often went to Song Quao Lake to snap photos together. 
I came to my friend’s room to cook dinner. 
Me in the morning on a wild isle in my hometown. 
I like to have photos taken with flowers. 
I was looking for dried twigs and branches for making a fire on the wild isle. 
I was in my third year in college in Saigon, a few months before I was arrested by the Vietnamese government for my human rights activism. 
A souvenir photo with my 12th grade classmates. We had to go to a photo studio for this picture. 
My mom and I began our ride to the Phan Thiet downtown. 
I was helping my mother prepare for lunch. 
My parents and their guests were sitting on the steps in front of my house. 
My brother and I, possibly on his birthday. 
My mother wanted a photo with her children. 
My father loves to play guitar. I was playing music with him. 
I was trying to enjoy the surrounding quietude in a temple. 
I was displaying my support for the two Cuban activists who were assassinated. 
My mother and I were behind our house during Tet season. 
I was helping my mother to prepare lunch for family and guests. I often wore T-shirts with a human rights logo as seen in this photo. 
On my trip to visit historic monuments in Hue City. 
I release the captured fish to a pond in front of the Vinh Long Temple. 
Another scenic view of the wild isle in my hometown. 
I stood in front of the sea wall on the wild isle. 
My brother and I were sitting on the beach of Phan Thiet. 
I was raking grass in farmland. 
I was playing with green-tea leaves on a trip to Da Lat with my childhood friends. 
Limestones carved out by underground water in my village. 
I climbed the steps from the foothill to the top to visit the Yen Tu Pagoda in Quang Ninh Province. 
I climbed the steps from the foothill to the top to visit the Yen Tu Pagoda in Quang Ninh Province. 
I climbed the steps from the foothill to the top to visit the Yen Tu Pagoda in Quang Ninh Province. 
Two human right activists and I were in a Hue monument. 
My fellow human rights activists and I were together on the day I was released from the prison. They were among the supporters who fought for my freedom. 
My friends and I were attending Hackathon Technica 2023 at the Hotel of University of Maryland, College Park. 
I was helping a fundraising event organized by the Vietnamese-American Television (VATV). 
After school at Takoma Park, I occasionally went to Rock Creek Park to study and enjoyed nature. 
I went to see cherry blossoms in the U.S. National Arboretum 
On the stage with another Vietnamese human right activist for a fundraiser in Falls Church, V.A. 
Taking a walk in a neighborhood near my apartment. 
Various scenes in Hawaii. 
Various scenes in Hawaii. 
History in the Making 