Andover state Rep. Tram T. Nguyen planned to become a doctor at Tufts University School of Medicine – until she learned that seeing blood made her dizzy. She eventually found an internship at Greater Boston Legal Services that made her decide to pursue a career in law and politics.
Nguyen told the story of how she became the state representative for the 18th District that includes Andover, at a recent event at the North Andover Historical Society. She is the first Vietnamese-American woman in the Massachusetts Legislature.
During her legal-services internship, Nguyen said she helped a woman and her two children get out of a domestic abuse situation. Years later, the woman told Nguyen that one of her children enrolled in Harvard University and she thanked Nguyen for helping her to build a new life.
“When you give people an opportunity to live their best lives, great things can happen,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen said representing the Andover area “has been such an incredible learning experience, but also an opportunity to really get to know this community.”
This story was published as part of a collaboration between Andover News and the Department of Journalism in Boston University’s College of Communication. The student journalist is a member of Professor Meghan E. Irons’s Reporting in Depth class.
Nguyen was appointed as chairwoman of the House Committee on Climate Action and Sustainability on Feb. 28, becoming the first Asian American female House committee chair in Massachusetts.
“We know that people in Andover care a lot about climate action,’’ she said during the speech, adding that her goal on the committee is to collaborate with other state committees on key issues such as agriculture, housing and transportation.
“Every single bill has a climate action or sustainability component to it, and our job is to work with the committee so that they keep those things in the forefront, so that we can remain a leader in climate action,’’ she said.
Since she was elected in 2018, Nguyen has advocated for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and has served as an advocate on the House Asian Caucus.
She pushed for expanding language access on state unemployment websites during the pandemic, she shared in an interview.
Nguyen also has criticized the federal government’s crackdown on DEI initiatives as “a mistake”.
“It is not about putting people into spots where they don’t belong,” she said. “It is about opening up opportunities for anyone who’s interested in certain positions.”
She said her team will continue promoting diversity, as they believe it drives innovation and ensures Massachusetts remains a successful state.
“Our priorities are not going to change,” Nguyen said.
Bella Yee, Nguyen’s committee researcher, said she enjoys working on a team that cares about her as a person and not just as a worker.
“We bring our humanity,” she said. “That’s why we are able to get excellent work done for the Commonwealth.”
Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam, as the oldest of two children. Her military father worked alongside American soldiers in the Vietnam War. But the family fled their war-torn homeland as political refugees in 1992 without a warm coat. They ended up in Lawrence when Nguyen was five.
She said the experience was “jarring,” but the community of neighbors, churches and local advocates helped Nguyen’s family adapt to the new environment in America.
The family lived in public housing in Lawrence behind the public library, where the librarians became their unofficial “babysitters.”
“Every day the librarian would put books aside because I would stay there until my parents could pick me up from work,” Nguyen said.
Neighbors also helped Nguyen’s parents enroll in Northern Essex Community College to learn English. One neighbor helped her father to get the family’s first car.
Nguyen’s parents worked multiple jobs, including pizza delivery, woodworking, and food catering. Watching them earn minimum wage with little job security, she was inspired to pursue a profession where she could help others.
“The community has helped my family so much,” she said.
Now Nguyen believes she is giving back to the district that supported her family. During her speech, Nguyen recalled a time when local representatives ignored her emails and phone calls when she was assisting vulnerable people as an intern at the Greater Boston Legal Services.
“To be a representative,’’ she said. “You need to listen to the people, whether or not you agree or disagree with them.”
Joanna Collantine Kerr, the executive director of the North Andover historical society, said she believes Nguyen “is always ready to meet people and find out their challenges and how she can address them.”