Betty Nguyen From CNN

Last Spring, reporter Betty Nguyen from CNN came to the University of Memphis campus for the 26th annual Freedom of Information Congress. Nguyen is the first Vietnamese-American national news anchor. She was born in Saigon, Vietnam, but fled the country for America in 1975 as a child with her family onboard an American cargo plane as the area fell to the rise of Communistic beliefs of North Vietnam and U.S. pulled out of the war. She explained, “It was stepping into the unknown. Nothing was guaranteed except that turning back was not an option.” Refugees like Nguyen and her family knew they would not see their kin for a long time, if ever again, but they also knew that life in America would give them new opportunities they would never or could ever have dreamed of in Vietnam.

Betty Nguyen grew up in the U.S. like any other American girl and like many Americans, by the time college rolled around, Nguyen wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her life. She explained how she changed her major a couple of times, specifically from Pre-Law (which wasn’t her passion, although it paid well) to Journalism. She loved to write about people and tell their stories so journalism seemed like the perfect fit. Her parents weren’t happy with the decision but they trusted their daughter and it’s good they did. After graduating, she began her career as a morning news anchor and reporter in Waco, Texas before she moved to Dallas, TX to work at their CBS affilate. While there, she covered a variety of major news stories like the 2001 World Trade Center attacks and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster of 2003. In 2004, she joined the CNN network which transformed the local news star into a nationally recognized face on television.

During her visit, Nguyen explained how her job as a broadcast journalist works and talked about the environment at CNN. She also showed University of Memphis students and faculty a few videos on the type of topics she has been able to cover around the world such as the Sierra Leone diamond conflict in Africa, Hurricane Katrina in the U.S., and the disasterous monsoon season of Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon), which affects the people in that area annually. When she addressed Ho Chi Minh, you could sense her connection to her homeland . She is very proud of her Vietnamese heritage and as the cofounder of Help The Hungry, an organization whose mission is to distribute food, clothing, medicine and other basic essentials directly to needy children and their families around the world, Nguyen goes back to Vietnam every year during the monsoon season to help the locals get back on their feet.

Overall, the program was very enjoyable and although broadcasting journalism is not a field of study I am currently looking into, I found that concentration interesting. I must admit, I was forced to go for my Public Relations class, well, that’s not entirely true. I went because 20 points extra credit was offered, but I didn’t regret the time I spent there. She was an excellent speaker and had a warm and welcoming personality as well as a great sense of humor.