Gary & Eleanor Shumaker Scholarship

Karen Nguyen 

Karen Nguyen is a Vietnamese American undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in History and Master of Education in Secondary Education at George Mason University. History has always been her favorite subject in school which is why she chose to pursue it as a major in college. This spring, she will be graduating with her BA in History. She currently works as an English as a Second Language (ESL) tutor at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC). She enjoys learning about other cultures and narratives. After transferring to George Mason University from Northern Virginia Community College, she developed an interest in African history thanks to taking a course in colonialization in Africa and another course on South Africa’s Apartheid. She has always learned about history from a Eurocentric perspective and learning the counter narratives (from the African Perspectives) is fascinating. After going on the Eritrea study abroad trip in 2019, she learned quite a bit about how history and narrative impacts people and a country. After graduating with her BA in History, she will be pursuing a master's in secondary education in social studies and hopes to return and visit Eritrea (and maybe other countries in Africa).