Anh Nguyen Austen

My father's what we call kind of white hands, you know, had not done a hard labor life before.

So really my mother kind of took the reins and my father had attempted to build businesses like we bought a gas station and they worked 24-7 and couldn't see the kids.

And so my mother said, you know, I'm not going to do this.

Let's do an upholstery shop.

And he turned to her and he said, you don't know enough English.

He said...

And my mother's like, no, I'm going to do this.

And they did.

So they just had a lot to go for in that kind of refugee entrepreneurship kind of way because you've got nothing to lose and therefore you've got everything to build.

I mean, my mother had four kids under the age of nine in her early 30s.

So there was a lot to work for.

I didn't really think about college.

I didn't even know that it was coming and I ticked off the boxes and I even called it Brian Mayer, I think.

And so I ended up, you know, just arriving at the school and, you know, it's like a castle, Blue Stone Castle castle.

So most of my life has been kind of plunged into not really knowing what it is I'm in.

But it's a very good upbringing at Bryn Mawr.

It's a women's college.

You know, Katharine Hepburn had gone there.

We'd given men some access to education after the GI Bill and things like that.

But for the most part, you were driven by your own vision.