More than Just A Good Student by Doan Ninh

Miki (left) and Doan (right) in traditional dress at Homecoming.

Growing up with being a good student as my goal, upholding tradition has always been a big part of my life. What I mean is that everything I did was approved by discipline. When somebody talked about me, most of the time the first thing he or she would say was: “Ah, I know Doan, she is a good student”. And that was perfectly fine to me until one day that compliment bored me. I realized that I wanted to be remembered by other abilities in addition to “being a good student”. Therefore, I decided to go out there to get involved in activities with clubs and my friends, develop and challenge my leadership, participate in campus-wide events, and be an active cultural ambassador who share and learn among different cultures. Although I loved getting involved in school activities, the context in High school did not allow me to have as many opportunities as here in Maryville College.
One of the early achievements I have made was that some of my friends here currently understand more about Vietnamese customs, and they recognize when people talk about Asia, it is not necessary that they talk about China. One other thing that made me happy was that one friend of mine actually did a short interview with me as the International Senator in SGA for her project in class. It is still the beginning of my process to try to get out of the box of being just a good student, but I am grateful for the experiences I have been gaining in Maryville College to become a better version of myself.